Since their invention in the early 1950s bar codes have accelerated the flow of products and information throughout the global business community. Coupled with the improvements in data accuracy that accompanies the adoption of bar code technology over keyboard data entry, bar code systems are critical elements in conducting business in today’s global economy.

Bar code technology encompasses the symbologies that encode data to be optically read, the printing technologies that produce machine-readable symbols, the scanners and decoders that capture visual images of the symbologies and convert them to computer-compatible digital data, and the verifiers that validate symbol quality.

There are many different bar code symbologies, or languages. Each symbology has its own rules for character (e.g. letter, number, punctuation) encodation, printing and decoding requirements, error checking, and other features.

The various bar code symbologies differ both in the way they represent data and in the type of data they can encode: some only encode numbers; others encode numbers, letters, and a few punctuation characters; still others offer encodation of the 128-character, and even 256-character, ASCII sets. The newest symbologies include options to encode multiple character set.

Industry Vs Application analysis

Bar Code Symbologies

A symbology is a language in Bar Code Technology. When a symbology is used to print a message, we call that message a Bar Code label. Information in a Bar Code label is read through the eyes of a scanner, but the scanner and the label have to communicate through the same symbology rules or the message will not be understood.

There are a number of Bar Code symbologies, some primitive and some quite sophisticated.

More than 300 different Bar Code symbologies exist today, but less than 20 have popular applications. Different uses demand different symbologies, sometimes determined by the industry using the code, sometimes by the application and sometimes by the product size. The Bar Code symbol is a pattern of bars and spaces following specific standards, that when read by a scanner, interpret the bars and spaces as characters and numbers. Sometimes the characters and numbers have specific meanings, but more and more often, they are similar to our car license plates, that when called up in a computer, provide a range of information, depending on the application, the industry and the code. Today there are linear or one-dimensional codes, two-dimensional (2D) codes, and two new symbology families from the Uniform Code Council: the Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) and the Composite Code. One dimensional codes contain the same information throughout the height of the code, making them vertically redundant. This allows some acceptance of voids and specks in the printing process.

Two-dimensional codes can be used as license plates or to carry large amounts of data. They come in several flavors, including stacked and matrix. The former is a series of one-dimensional codes horizontally stacked on each other. Matrix codes, meanwhile, have black spots (often square or rectangular shaped) in different positions within a matrix. The position of that spot or element is what encodes the data. The scalable matrix code usually offers higher data densities than the stacked code. The new UCC symbology families stack or combine different codes, including linear and 2D codes, into one symbol.

EAN/UPC

• Are specified for retail Point-of-Sale (POS) because they are designed for the high volume scanning environment
• Used at POS and in logistics must be printed larger than the "target" size to accommodate logistics scanning
• Limited to carrying GS1 Keys and special identifiers for restricted applications like variable measure trade items and internal numbering

GS1 DataBar

• A family of symbols that can be scanned at retail point-of-sale (POS), are smaller than EAN/UPC and can carry additional information such as serial numbers, lot numbers of expiry dates.
• A subset of GS1 DataBar bar codes designed for use at POS are being considered by a GS1 Board Task Force for future adoption because GS1 DataBar can carry all GS1 Keys and attributes and do so in a smaller space than EAN/UPC
• GS1 DataBar symbols are already approved for global use on healthcare items that do not cross POS

GS1-128 (previously referred to as UCC/EAN-128 or EAN-128)

• GS1-128 (UCC/EAN-128) bar codes can carry all GS1 Keys and attibutes but cannot be used to identify items crossing POS

ITF-14

• ITF-14 bar codes can only carry GTINs, can be printed directly on corrugated cartons, but cannot be used to identify items crossing POS

GS1 DataMatrix

• GS1 DataMatrix is the only "2D Matrix" symbol specified for use by GS1 and is becoming increasingly the symbol of choice for many in healthcare
• Because GS1 DataMatrix requires camera based scanners it is currently specified for healthcare items not crossing POS and direct part marking

Composite Component

• Composite Component is the only "2D linear" symbol specified by GS1
• It is called a component because it is only used with a linear bar code like GS1-128 or RSS

EAN/UPC
	UPC-A Version 12 Numeric GTIN-12 and Select Applications Omnidirectional (for Point-of-Sale)
	EAN-13 Version 13 Numeric GTIN-13 and Select Applications Omnidirectional (for Point-of-Sale)
	UPC-E Version 12 Numeric, zeros suppress according to rules GTIN-12 with lead "0" and Select Applications Omnidirectional (for Point-of-Sale)
	EAN-8 Version 8 Numeric GTIN-8 and Select Applications Omnidirectional (for Point-of-Sale)
GS1 DataBar
	GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional 14 Numeric GTIN - 8,12, 13, 14 Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional 14 Numeric GTIN - 8,12,13,14 Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Expanded Maximum 74 Numeric/ 41 Alphanumeric All GS1 keys and Application Identifiers Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Maximum 74 Numeric/ 41 Alphanumeric All GS1 keys and Application Identifiers Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Limited 14 Numeric GTIN - 8, -12, -13, and -14 Lead digit 0 or 1 Not Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Truncated 14 Numeric GTIN - 8,12,13,14 Not Omnidirectional
	GS1 DataBar Stacked 14 Numeric GTIN - 8,12,13,14 Not Omnidirectional
GS1-128
	GS1-128 48 Alphanumeric capacity Carries Application Identifiers Unique GS1 Identifier Not Omnidirectional
ITF-14
	ITF-14 Interleaved 2 of 5 14 Numeric GTIN - 12,v -13, -14 Not Omnidirectional
GS1 DataMatrix
	GS1 DataMatrix (version ECC 200) 3116 Numeric capacity 2335 Alphanumerics capacity Carries Application Identifiers Unique GS1 Identifier Camer-based (imaging) scanners only
Composite Component