User's Manual

Bar CodesAppendix —C
362 700 Series Color Mobile Computer User’s Manual
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 identifica-
tion, and product identification 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, con-
venience stores, a nd 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 symbol-
ogy, except that it contains 13 characters and uses the first two to identify
countries.
The EAN symbology is used in the retail environment throughout most of
Europe. Though similar to UPC symbology, these are not interchangeable.
Codabar
Codabar was for retail price-labeling systems. Today it is widely accepted
by libraries, 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 char-
acters 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 sym-
bol. It is possible to use the 16 unique start or stop combinations to identi-
fy 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 s ame symbol. The character set consists of “0”
through “9”, “-”, “$”, “:”, “/”, “.”, and “+”.
The specific dimensions for bars and spaces in Codabar optimize perfor-
mance of certain early printing and reading equipment. Codabar has 18
different dimensions for bar and space widths. So many different dimen-
sions often result in labels printed out of specification and cause Codabar
printing equipment to be more expensive.