What is a Bar Code?

A bar code (often seen as a single word, barcode) is the small image of lines (bars) and spaces that is affixed to retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to identify a particular product number, person, or location. The code uses a sequence of vertical bars and spaces to represent numbers and other symbols. A bar code symbol typically consists of five parts: a quiet zone, a start character, data characters (including an optional check character), a stop character, and another quiet zone.


An early use of one type of barcode in an industrial context was sponsored by the Association of American Railroads in the late 1960s. Developed by General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) and called KarTrak ACI (Automatic Car Identification), this scheme involved placing colored stripes in various combinations on steel plates which were affixed to the sides of railroad rolling stock. Two plates were used per car, one on each side, with the arrangement of the colored stripes encoding information such as ownership, type of equipment, and identification number.[1] The plates were read by a trackside scanner, located for instance, at the entrance to a classification yard, while the car was moving past.[2] The project was abandoned after about ten years because the system proved unreliable after long-term use.


Barcodes became commercially successful when they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task for which they have become almost universal. Their use has spread to many other tasks that are generically referred to as automatic identification and data capture (AIDC). The very first scanning of the now ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode was on a pack of Wrigley Company chewing gum in June 1974.

澳大利亚邮政4客户条形码 - AusPost 4 State Customer Code
阿兹特克条形码 - Aztec Code
阿兹特克符文条形码 - Aztec Runes
BC412条形码
信道编码条形码 - Channel Code
库德巴条形码 - Codabar
Codablock F条形码
编码11条形码 - Code 11
编码128条形码 - Code 128
编码16K条形码 - Code 16K
编码25条形码 - Code 25
编码39条形码 - Code 39
编码39扩展条形码 - Code 39 Extended
编码49条形码 - Code 49
编码93条形码- Code 93
编码93扩展条形码 - Code 93 Extended
一码条形码 - Code One
紧凑阿兹特克条形码 Compact Aztec Code
紧凑PDF417条形码 - Compact PDF417
COOP 2 of 5条形码
自定义1D符号条形码 - Custom 1D symbology
自定义4状态符号条形码 - Custom 4 state symbology
数据矩阵条形码 - Data Matrix
Datalogic 2 of 5条形码
德国邮政Identcode条形码 - Deutsche Post Identcode
德国邮政Leitcode条形码 - Deutsche Post Leitcode
物品条形码 - EAN-13
EAN 综合13条形码 - EAN-13 Composite
EAN 加上数字2条形码 - EAN-2 (2 digit addon)
EAN 加上数字5条形码 - EAN-5 (5 digit addon)
EAN 8条形码 - EAN-8
EAN 综合8条形码 - EAN-8 Composite
Flattermarken条形码 - Flattermarken
GS1复合2D组件条形码 - GS1 Composite 2D Component
GS1数据矩阵条形码 - GS1 Data Matrix
GS1 Databar扩展条形码 - GS1 DataBar Expanded
GS1 DataBar扩展复合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Expanded Composite
GS1 DataBar扩大堆积条形码 - GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked
GS1 DataBar扩展堆叠复合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Composite
GS1 DataBar有限公司条形码 - GS1 DataBar Limited
GS1 DataBar复合材料条形码 - GS1 DataBar Limited Composite
GS1 DataBar全方位条形码 - GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional
GS1 DataBar全方位综合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional Composite
GS1 DataBar堆积 - GS1 DataBar条形码 Stacked
GS1 DataBar堆积复合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Stacked Composite
GS1 DataBar堆积全方位条形码 - GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional
GS1 DataBar堆积全方位综合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional Composite
GS1 DataBar截断条形码 - GS1 DataBar Truncated
GS1 DataBar截断复合条形码 - GS1 DataBar Truncated Composite
GS1 二维码 - GS1 QR Code
GS1-128条形码 - GS1-128
复合GS1-128条形码 - GS1-128 Composite
GS1-14条形码 - GS1-14
HIBC Codablock F条形码
HIBC代码128条形码 - HIBC Code 128
HIBC代码39条形码 - HIBC Code 39
HIBC数据矩阵条形码 - HIBC Data Matrix
HIBC MicroPDF417条形码
HIBC PDF417条形码
HIBC 二维码
国际航空条形码 - IATA 2 of 5
工业条形码 - Industrial 2 of 5
工业条形码(ITF) - Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF)
国际标准书号条形码 - ISBN
国际标准乐谱号条形码 - ISMN
国际标准期刊编号条形码 - ISSN
意大利制药条形码 - Italian Pharmacode
交叉二五条码 - ITF-14
日本邮政4客户条形码 - Japan Post 4 State Customer Code
矩阵25码 - Matrix 2 of 5
矩阵式二维条形码 -MaxiCode
微型二维码 - Micro QR Code
微型PDF417 - MicroPDF417
其他符号条形码 - Miscellaneous symbols
微星修饰普莱西条形码 - MSI Modified Plessey
PDF417条形码 - PDF417
药物二进制条形码 - Pharmaceutical Binary Code
制药Zentral条形码 - Pharmazentralnummer (PZN)
普莱西英国条形码 - Plessey UK
邮政编码 - PosiCode
二维码 - QR Code
荷兰皇家TPG邮政KIX条形码 - Royal Dutch TPG Post KIX
皇家邮政4状态客户条形码 - Royal Mail 4 State Customer Code
序列集装箱条形码 18 - SSCC-18
ASCII字符条形码 - Telepen
ASCII数字条形码 - Telepen Numeric
双轨制药业条形码 - Two-track Pharmacode
UPC-A商品条形码 - UPC-A
UPC-A复合商品条形码 - UPC-A Composite
UPC-E商品条形码 - UPC-E
UPC-E复合商品条形码 - UPC-E Composite
邮政智能邮件条形码 - USPS Intelligent Mail
全球邮政 - USPS PLANET
USPS邮政网 - USPS POSTNET

Generally speaking, the larger the BarCode, the easier it is for it to be scanned, however most BarCode reading devices are able to scan images that are small enough to fit on a business card for example. This of course assumes that the quality of image is good.

You can use the following file formats when creating a BarCode::
PNG file
JPG file
PDF file
PNG files work particularly well as they can be resized very easily, meaning that you can easily scale the QR Code depending on where you want to put it.