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Code 128 is a very high-density barcode symbology, used extensively world wide in shipping and packaging industries. GS1-128 (formerly known as UCC/EAN-128) is one of its variants. It is used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. It can encode all 128 characters of ASCII and is also capable of encoding two numbers into one character width, called double density. This feature is evidence of it being designed to reduce the amount of space the bar code occupies, to address the ever-increasing needs of item catalogs. Each printed character can have one of three different meanings, depending on which of three different character sets are employed. Code 128 is the major component of the labeling standard for GS1-128 (formerly known as UCC/EAN-128), used as product identification for container and pallet levels of retail markets.
Specification
A Code 128 barcode will have five sections:
- Quiet Zone
- Start Character
- Encoded Data
- Check Character
- Stop Character
- Subtypes
- 128A - 0-9, A-Z, ASCII control codes, special characters
- 128B - 0-9, A-Z, a-z, special characters
- 128C - 00-99 (double density encoding of numeric only data)
History
Code 128 was developed in the early 1980s to address the increasing capacity of electronics and tracking needs for inventory. It has since been widely adopted by industry, and several barcode topologies have been based on it.
External links
- Learn more by reading The Barcode FAQ — Contains links to other Barcode related white papers.
- Free font and encoder.
- Tutorial with examples on Code 128 generation.
- Code 128 specification at OpenBarcode.org
- Online Code 128 Generator
- GNU Barcode Free (libre) software capable of generating most varieties of barcode.
- GS1 (formerly EAN & UCC) Overview of GS1 organisation and the Code 128 applications it supports.
- Code 128 Barcode FAQ & Tutorial
"Code 128"