Types of Barcodes

European Article Numbers (EAN barcodes) comprise 13 digits. They are used worldwide on all retail products except books and magazines. They are the most widely used barcodes globally, except in the USA and Canada, where UPC-A barcodes are more common. In India and most of the world, the EAN-13 is the barcode you need to stock your products at a retail store.

Each EAN-13 is product-specific and encoded into a barcode image. When the barcode is scanned into store systems, price and inventory data related to your product is recorded by the retailer. A different EAN-13 number is required for each unique product variation.

12-digit UPC Barcodes are used predominantly in the USA and Canada on all retail products, except for books and magazines. UPC barcodes predate EAN-13 codes and started appearing in US stores in the 1970s.

If you are primarily selling your products in the US or Canadian markets, you will likely want to use a UPC-A code rather than an EAN-13 code.

A smaller, globally unique barcode intended exclusively for VERY SMALL products. Because EAN-8 barcodes are only 8 digits long, there is a severely limited global supply. Consequently, the GS1 organisation guards them carefully.

To obtain an EAN-8, you cannot simply buy one. You must submit physical proof to GS1 that your product packaging is too small for a standard barcode and wait for their official approval.

ITF-14 Carton Codes are mathematically generated from your existing EAN-13 or UPC-A retail barcodes.

They are only used in warehouses on the outer shipping cartons containing a specific quantity of your product. These codes are NEVER used on products that are sold individually at a retail checkout. For example, if you ship a box containing 12 individual bottles of wine to a supermarket, the outer box gets the ITF-14 code, and each individual bottle inside gets an EAN-13 code.

International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) are unique numbers assigned specifically to books. ISBNs always start with 978 or 979 and are distributed by the designated ISBN agency in each country.

ISBN Barcode images are generated based on that specific ISBN number. Because every book format (hardcover, paperback, etc.) requires a unique ISBN, no two ISBN barcodes are exactly the same, allowing bookstores to easily track inventory.

Magazine barcodes are called ISSN barcodes. They are based on a unique 8-digit ISSN number that each magazine or periodical is officially assigned.

If you intend to publish a magazine, you must obtain an ISSN number from the ISSN International Center. Once you have that number, a barcode company can convert it into a 13-digit retail barcode, often adding a 2-digit supplement at the end to track specific issue numbers.

Code 39 barcodes are used for internal unique numbering. This makes them appropriate for asset labelling, membership cards, library books, or any other internal item that needs to be tracked. Nobody regulates the uniqueness of these barcodes (unlike retail barcodes), so they cannot be used outside of your own closed system.

Code 39 barcodes have a low data density, meaning each character takes up many bars and spaces. Therefore, they are not suited to encoding very long strings of characters.

Code 128 barcodes are very similar to Code 39 in that they are completely unregulated codes suited for internal use.

The primary difference is that Code 128 has a much higher data density (more characters can be encoded in a smaller physical space) and can contain any ASCII character, rather than just alphanumerics and basic symbols.

Code 11 barcodes are relatively simple, with a limited range of encodable digits. They are high density, which means each character does not take up much physical space on a label.

Telecom companies most often use Code 11 barcodes to identify complex equipment and track other important business assets.

The Code 93 barcode is essentially an updated version of Code 39. It features more efficient encoding, more reliable scanning, and a greater variety of characters. The uses are identical to Code 39, though organizations like Canada Post heavily rely on Code 93 for internal routing.

The GS1-128 is a highly regulated subset of the Code 128 barcode. However, these specific GS1 barcodes include only numbers.

They are incredibly powerful for logistics, as they can encode various critical product details into a single scan, such as the exact expiry date, packaging date, batch number, and net weight of a shipment.

Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSCC) are highly specific shipping codes that communicate which company a massive container, pallet, or outer logistics carton has come from.

These are very different from ITF-14 container codes. An SSCC covers a mixed shipment with several different products inside it. These codes iterate by one for each order, allowing a massive retailer's inwards goods department to know exactly what mixed pallet they are receiving.

The Codabar is a somewhat outdated barcode still found in legacy internal inventory systems, particularly in libraries and blood banks. These specific codes are designed to scan reliably even when printed on very low-quality paper or created with mechanical equipment like a typewriter.

QR Codes have become an essential feature of modern marketing, advertising, and retail. They bridge the gap between physical objects and digital information.

These 2D barcodes can store vastly more data than traditional 1D linear codes and are specifically designed to be easily read by any standard consumer smartphone camera.