Barcodes have evolved into an indispensable business tool since their creation more than 70 years ago, allowing companies to improve inventory management and sales operations while also tracking products as they move through the supply chain. Though it’s crucial to many businesses, few companies consider how they may get the most value out of the modest barcode.
What Does a Barcode Mean?
If you break it down to its most basic components, you’ll find that Barcode Printing online are squares or rectangles with a combination of thick and thin vertical black lines, white space, and numerical identifiers. Data can be retrieved from these codes if scanners are attached to computers, which can interpret these codes.
Barcodes are now seen on everything from permits and rental cars to checked luggage and hospital bracelets, making them a vital part of our daily lives. A product or person is identified, and crucial information is encoded, in each instance.
An Introduction to Barcodes
A scanner, either handheld or incorporated into a checkout station, can read barcodes instead of an employee having to manually enter product information. This saves both time and money.
Both one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) barcodes can be found in everyday items like food packaging or shampoo bottles. A QR code, for example, can take you to a website of a company’s choosing. For the time being, most scanners can only decipher 1D (or linear) barcodes; more on 1D vs. 2D codes later.
The Universal Product Code (UPC) and the European Article Number (EAN) are two of the most common linear barcode types in the United States and Europe, respectively. You can buy barcodes at the given link to know more about the codes and get them easily.
Barcodes Explained
In most cases, the number 0 or 1 is represented by the black bars’ width, while the number between 0 and 9 is represented by their sequence. If the scanner is connected to a computer, it has all the information necessary to identify the correct goods based on the unique combination of bars and spaces on the screen.
Using a barcode in a warehouse allows a corporation to swiftly fulfill orders or undertake physical inventory counts because it encodes the item’s size, color, and other qualities, as well as its location. If you’re working in a retail store, this could include the product name and price that an employee needs to complete a transaction. Barcodes can be used by businesses to keep track of commodities at every stage of their lifecycle, from production to distribution to purchase to maintenance and repair.
Components of a barcode
- When a barcode has a “quiet zone” around its edges, the scanner must be able to read the label.
- A product’s category is indicated by the first digit of its UPC code. Starting with zero or one, retail merchandise, medications and coupons are all examples of this.
- In most cases, the first group of characters after the first number usually identifies the manufacturer. UPCs are governed by GS1, a global standards body that issues a unique code to each manufacturer.
- The next set of characters, called a “product code,” is generated by the company that makes the item in question.
- This barcode’s check digit verifies the data it contains and alerts the user to any inaccuracies.
