Barcodes

What it's for

Make a barcode to print on a label, a ticket or a product, or read one from a photo. Each kind suits a job:

• Code 128 holds any text you can type on a keyboard and is the usual choice for shipping, asset and inventory labels.
• EAN-13 (Europe and most of the world) and UPC-A (North America) are the numbers on retail products; EAN-8 is the short form for small packets.
• Code 39 holds capital letters, digits and a few symbols, and is still used for ID badges and older systems.

For example, to label the kit in a cupboard, type each asset number as Code 128 and download the SVGs to print.

How to use it

Choose the Kind and type the text; the barcode is drawn as you type. For EAN and UPC, type the number without its last digit and the check digit is worked out and added, or type it all and it’s checked. Code 39 changes letters to capitals. Bar width sets the narrowest bar in pixels (2 prints well at most sizes), and the text can be printed under the bars or left off. Download SVG keeps the barcode sharp at any size; Download PNG gives a picture. The settings are remembered in the browser, and Copy a link to this input keeps the kind and text.

Read a barcode finds every barcode and QR code in a picture you choose, drop or paste, and shows each one’s kind and contents.

Example

Choose Try an example, which makes the EAN-13 for 590123412345. The check digit is 7, so the message says it’s encoded as 5901234123457, and the barcode is the 95 modules of a standard EAN-13.

Good to know

Reading barcodes uses the browser’s own detector, which Chrome and Edge have on Android, macOS and ChromeOS but Safari, Firefox and Chrome on Windows don’t; QR Code reads QR codes in every browser. Real EAN and UPC numbers are issued by GS1, so made-up ones won’t scan as real products. Code 128 here uses printable ASCII only, without control characters or GS1-128 application identifiers. EAN and UPC add-on codes (2 or 5 extra digits) aren’t made.