Codabar

Codabar example

The Codabar encoding provides a limited alphanumeric character set . It is recommended to use GTIN or Code128 instead of Codabar , nowadays it is only used in libraries and laboratories in the healthcare sector

History and background

Codabar was developed by Pitney Bowes in 1972 and designed to be accurately read even when printing on dot matrix and impingement printers. While Pitney Bowes published the original standard for Codabar, there are now other standards that vary slightly, such as the ANSI / AIM-BC3-1995 Uniform Symbology Specification for Codabar Standard, which was published in 1995.

The original Pitney Bowes standard provided for the encoding of numeric digits and the letters A, B, C and D for start and stop characters. Later standards added six symbols (minus sign, colon, period, dollar sign, slash, and plus sign) and four additional start and stop characters. Different characters must be used for start and stop which must not appear in the data part of the barcode. A common convention when using Codabar is to use different pairs of start / stop characters to identify different applications (e.g. libraries use A / B, FedEx use C / D).

Codabar can be of variable length, the only limitation being the width available for printing. The data in the barcode is represented linearly by this black and white (bar / space) pattern, with each character consisting of 4 black bars and three spaces. Characters cannot begin with a space, but must begin with a vertical line.

Character set

Codabar is encoded using 4 vertical bars and 3 spaces for a total of 7 characters. The ratio narrow to wide is between 1: 2.25 and 1: 3. The following rules also apply:

• The 12 basic symbols (digits 0–9, hyphen and $) are coded with all possible combinations of a wide bar and a wide space.
• Another 4 symbols (: / +.) Are coded with 3 wide bars and without large spaces.
• 4 start and stop symbols (ABCD or in some specifications EN * T) are coded with a wide bar and two wide spaces.

Basic symbols

Spaces	Strokes
	0001		0010		0100		1000
001	0	lll l	1	ll l l	4th	l l l l	5	l ll l
010	2	ll l l	-	ll l l	$	l l ll	9	l l ll
100	6th	l ll l	7th	ll l l	8th	l l ll	3	l lll

Start and stop symbols

Spaces	Strokes
	0001		0010		0100		1000
011	C or *	ll l l	D or E	ll l l	A or T	l l ll	(reverse B / N)
110	B or N	lll l	(reverse A / T)		(reverse D / E)		(reverse C / *)

Extension symbols

Spaces	Strokes
	1110		1101		1011		0111
000	.	lll l	/	ll l l	:	l l ll	+	l lll

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} What is Codabar? Retrieved May 28, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Codabar 1D barcode. Retrieved May 28, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Codabar ANSI. Retrieved May 28, 2019 .