Codabar - Intermec 700 Series User Manual

APPENDIX C Bar Codes
UPC
The UPC (Universal Product Code) is the symbology used throughout the grocery
and retail industries. This bar code symbology contains two pieces of numerical
information encoded on the bar code, producer identification, and product identi-
fication information.
The UPC symbol is 12 characters long. The first character of the UPC symbol is
a number system character, such as "0" for grocery items and "3" for drug- and
health-related items.
The UPC symbology is for retail environments such as grocery stores, conve-
nience stores, and general merchandise stores.
Some retail items are so small that a standard UPC bar code cannot fit on the
packaging. When this occurs there is a permitted shorter version of the UPC
symbology, referred to as UPC-E. UPC-E is six characters long (eight including
number system and check digit), approximately half the size of a standard UPC
bar code.
EAN
EAN (European Article Numbering) symbology is similar to UPC symbology, ex-
cept that it contains 13 characters and uses the first two to identify countries.
The EAN symbology is used throughout most of Europe in the retail environ-
ment. Although similar to UPC symbology, the two are not interchangeable.

Codabar

Codabar was for retail price-labeling systems. Today it is widely accepted by li-
braries, medical industries, and photo finishing services.
Codabar is a discrete, self-checking code with each character represented by a
stand-alone group of four bars and three intervening spaces.
Four different start or stop characters get defined and designated "a", "b", "c",
and "d". These start and stop characters are constructed using one wide bar and
two wide spaces. A complete Codabar symbol begins with one of the start or stop
characters followed by some number of data characters and ending in one of the
start or stop characters.
Any of the start or stop characters may be used on either end of the symbol. It is
possible to use the 16 unique start or stop combinations to identify label type or
other information.
Since Codabar is variable-length, discrete, and self-checking, it is a versatile
symbology. The width of space between characters is not critical and may vary
significantly within the same symbol. The character set consists of "0" through
"9", "--", "$", ":", "/", ".", and "+".
The specific dimensions for bars and spaces in Codabar optimize performance of
certain early printing and reading equipment. Codabar has 18 different dimen-
sions for bar and space widths. So many different dimensions often result in la-
bels printed out of specification and cause Codabar printing equipment to be
more expensive.
700 Series Color Mobile Computer User's Manual C-3