Barcode Introduction

Barcode is one of the most frequently used personalizations on plastic card products. From this article,you can learn more about all the common barcode that can be done on your plastic card.

39 Barcode, Code 3 of 9 (C-39, Code 39)

Code 3 of 9 is widely used among many industries and is the standard for many government barcode specifications, including the U.S. Department of Defense. Code 3 of 9 is defined in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard MH10.8M-1983, and is also known as USD-3 and Code 3 of 9. The Code 3 of 9 character set includes the digits 0-9, the letters A-Z (upper case only), and the following symbols: space, minus (-), plus (+), period (.), dollar sign ($), slash (/), and percent (%). A special start/stop character (*) MUST placed at the beginning and end of each barcode. The barcode may be of any length, but codes longer than 12 characters may be too wide or dense to scan properly. To avoid a potential conflict with EAN or UPC barcodes, when creating Code 3 of 9 barcodes you should avoid barcodes that are 6, 8, 10, or 12 digits long. To do this, use at least one letter or make the barcodes 1-5, 7, 9, or 11 digits long if they are all numbers. On cards this barcode is used primarily for variable data, each card is printed with a unique (different barcode) according to a list supplied by the customer. Numbers can be printed bellow, above, aligned to the right or left, different sizes or omitted.

128 Barcode, Code 128 (C-128)
The Code 128 barcode is used extensively in shipping and packaging industries. It is used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. This type of barcode is capable of encoding all 128 ASCII characters and can encode two numbers into one character width. Code 128 is a major component of the labeling standard for GS1- 128 (formerly known as UCC/EAS-128). On cards this barcode is used primarily for variable data, each card is printed with a unique (different barcode) according to a list supplied by the customer. Numbers can be printed bellow, above, aligned to the right or left, different sizes or omitted.

EAN-13
EAN-13 is used worldwide for marking retail goods. The symbol encodes 13 characters. The first two or three are a country code, which identifies the country in which the manufacturer is registered (not necessarily where the product is actually made). The country code is followed by 9 or 10 data digits (depending on the length of the country code) and a single-digit checksum. 2-digit and 5-digit supplemental barcodes may be added for a total of 14 or 17 data digits. The U.S. has begun the process of moving to the EAN-13 symbol, which will be known as the UPC-13 symbol in the U.S. On cards this barcode is used primarily for static information, it will be the same on each card. Variable barcodes of this type are possible.

QR Code, 2D Barcode
QR Code (or Quick Response Code) is a two-dimensional bar code that contains data that can be read by a phone camera. Free software is available to download onto your smartphone which will allow a user to successfully scan or read a QR code. Our customers are using them mostly for directing their customers to a web site url, or coupon/discount coding, but did you know that you can also trigger different applications with a QR Code? That means that you could include something like a powerpoint presentation about your hottest selling item ... all in a square shaped box. There are many free QR code generators online.