Introduction to the EAN13/EAN8/UPCA/UPCE Barcode Font family
For most people, their earliest experience with barcodes was seeing the retail supermarket's cashier scanning the price of their groceries. Originally called the UPC barcode (Universal Product Code), this barcode is successfully used in North America and is adopted internationally. The new international standard is now called the EAN (European Article Numbering) barcode.The UPC and EAN barcode has several variations described below. These barcodes can also be expanded by an EXT2 (Extension 2) or EXT5 (Extension 5) barcode. The EXT2 is used to identify the issue number of the magazine. For example, a magazine is tagged with an EAN barcode to identify the magazine and an EXT2 barcode to identify the issue number. The EXT5 is used to mark the pricing in dollars and cents.
All the UPC, EAN, and EXT barcodes can only encode numbers, and they share a common set of bar and space representations. Thus, ConnectCode uses a common font to represent these different barcodes.
Members of this Barcode Font family
- UPCA - 12-digit Universal Product Code. This barcode is used to identify each product with a unique code. It consists of a 1-digit Numbering System, 5-digit Manufacturer's code, 5-digit Product Code, and 1 Check Digit.
- UPCE - A 6-digit condensed version of UPCA. This barcode is typically used on items where space is a constraint.
- EAN13 - 13-digit European Article Numbering barcode. This barcode is used to identify each product with a unique code internationally. It consists of a 2-digit Country Code, 5-digit Manufacturer's code, 5-digit Product Code, and 1 Check Digit. The ISBN(International Standard Book Number) barcode and ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) barcode uses EAN13 as the underlying barcode. For ISBN, the 13-digit begins with 978 (or 979. Sunrise 2005 Compliance), while for ISSN, it begins with 977.
- EAN8 - 8-digit European Article Numbering barcode. It consists of 2-digit Country Code, 5-digit Product Code and 1 Check Digit.
- EXT2 - Extension 2 barcode. To indicate the issue number of magazines.
- EXT5 - Extension 5 barcode. To indicate the suggested retail price of books and magazines and typically used with ISBN (International Standard Book Number).
Barcode Font Names and Sizes
ConnectCode supports the EAN13, EAN8, UPCA, UPCE, EXT2, and EXT5 barcodes in both Standard and Extended Style (Embedded Human Readable Text) formats.
The Extended Style barcode fonts come with human-readable text with either Serif (first barcode below) or Sans-Serif (second barcode below) typeface. Extended Style barcode fonts without human-readable text (third barcode below) are also available. This enables graphic designers to use a custom font for the human-readable text. If you do not have a requirement on the typeface of the human-readable text, you can safely choose the fonts with Serif, which is the default.
Standard Style - without Human Readable Text
EAN13
EAN8
UPCA
UPCE
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEAN_S1
- CCodeUPCEAN_S2
- CCodeUPCEAN_S3
- CCodeUPCEAN_S4
- CCodeUPCEAN_S5
- CCodeUPCEAN_S6
- CCodeUPCEAN_S7
Extended Style - Serif Typeface
With Text at the Bottom of the barcode
EAN13
EAN8
UPCA
UPCE
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS1
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS2
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS3
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS4
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS5
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS6
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRBS7
EXT5
EXT2
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRTS1
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRTS2
- CCodeUPCEAN_HRTS3
Extended Style - Sans-Serif Typeface
Fonts that do not use Serifs (Sans-Serif) for the human readable text, as shown in the second barcode below, are also available in the package.
With Text at the Bottom of the barcode
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS1
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS2
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS3
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS4
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS5
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS6
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRBS7
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRTS1
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRTS2
- CCodeUPCEANA_HRTS3
Extended Style - without Embedded Human Readable Text
Extended Style Barcode Fonts without any human readable text, as shown in the third barcode below, are also available. This enables the use of a custom font for the human readable text in a graphics application.
With "Blank Text" at the Bottom of the barcode
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS1
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS2
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS3
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS4
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS5
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS6
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRBS7
Fonts
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRTS1
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRTS2
- CCodeUPCEANB_HRTS3
Character Mappings
UPC/EAN barcodes support only numeric characters. However the data characters do not have a direct mapping as in other barcodes. The mapping of the characters depends on a Parity Map table. The mechanism is complex and thus it is recommended to use the Encoder or Macros provided in ConnectCode to generate these barcodes.Control Characters
| Data Character | Barcode Font Character |
| EAN13/EAN8/UPCA Start Character | '[' |
| EAN13/EAN8/UPCA Stop Character | ']' |
| EAN13/UPCA Center Guard Bar Character | '-' |
| UPCE Start Character | '{' |
| UPCE Stop Character | '}' |
| EXT2/EXT5 Start Character | '<' |
| EXT2/EXT5 Separator Character | '+' |
Text Only Characters without barcode bars and spaces (This is only avaliable in the fonts with Human Text)
| Data Character | Barcode Font Character |
| '0' | '!' |
| '1' | '"' |
| '2' | '#' |
| '3' | '$' |
| '4' | '%' |
| '5' | '&' |
| '6' | ''' |
| '7' | '(' |
| '8' | ')' |
| '9' | '*' |
Left Odd Parity
| Data Character | Barcode Font Character |
| '0' | '0' |
| '1' | '1' |
| '2' | '2' |
| '3' | '3' |
| '4' | '4' |
| '5' | '5' |
| '6' | '6' |
| '7' | '7' |
| '8' | '8' |
| '9' | '9' |
Left Even Parity
| Data Character | Barcode Font Character |
| '0' | 'o' |
| '1' | 'p' |
| '2' | 'q' |
| '3' | 'r' |
| '4' | 's' |
| '5' | 't' |
| '6' | 'u' |
| '7' | 'v' |
| '8' | 'w' |
| '9' | 'x' |
Right Parity
| Data Character | Barcode Font Character |
| '0' | 'a' |
| '1' | 'b' |
| '2' | 'c' |
| '3' | 'd' |
| '4' | 'e' |
| '5' | 'f' |
| '6' | 'g' |
| '7' | 'h' |
| '8' | 'i' |
| '9' | 'j' |