Using barcode fonts to create and print barcode

by: Humphrey Appleby

What are barcode fonts? Essentially, they are that - plain fonts. But instead of representing numbers and letters they contain bars and spaces that make up a barcode symbology. They are installed in your Fonts folder or directory and will appear in the list of fonts in your application as "Courier" or "Arial".

"That sounds good! So basically, I just take a couple of numbers in Word, add start stop characters, change the font and have a UPC barcode Nice." Tell you.

Not quite. You see, this approach only works for simple bar code, such as Code 39, where each group of bars and spaces (also called a symbol) is directly mapped to the encoded character.

Some conversion necessary

However, more complex symbologies such as UPC or EAN require one more step to perform before the code can actually be displayed. The number to be encoded should be "converted" to be usable with a given font. This is usually done with a software tool that comes with some fonts. In addition, a checksum or check digit must be calculated.

The use of such a conversion tool is acceptable if you feel that a handful of codes. But what if you need to print tens of UPC codes? I hope you're not supposed to manually convert all those numbers! Fortunately, most conversion tools provide a batch conversion numbers. Many vendors also provide macros, DLLs and sample code snippets to use, for example, in Visual Basic, which manage the conversion.

Now that we have learned the basics of bar code fonts, what are their advantages and disadvantages?

Advantages of Barcode Font

1. Bar code fonts work in virtually any application that works with the text: word processing, spreadsheets, databases, image editing, desktop publishing, most programming environments, etc.

2. Depending on the type of bar code involved, it is sufficient to simply enter the number and change the font.

3. fonts and barcode printing scale very well because, unlike images or bitmaps, they are not pixel based.

4. Barcode fonts are available for virtually all platforms: Linux, Mac, Windows.

5. Barcode Fonts are generally less expensive bar code software available. If you only need the UPC code, you just buy a UPC code font (many providers will actually provide a collection of fonts for the reasons detailed below). It usually costs no more than 30 USD to 50 USD.

Disadvantages of Barcode Font

1. Some symbologies require a conversion before formatting.

2. Scaling a font scale in all directions. For example, it is generally not possible to make the bar code while keeping unchanged upper width. In general, the fonts are not very flexible. Most vendors therefore provide fonts with different sizes and ratios.

3. Same goes for the text human readable bar code. What if you need the UPC code above without text? You can either cover the text with another object or in the hope that the seller provides police with the bars only.

4. Barcode Fonts are essentially an add-on to another software. That means you're stuck with the software's capabilities in question when it comes, for example, printing of labels.

Visit WinBarcode for a detailed overview of Barcode Software.

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Visit WinBarcode for a detailed overview of Barcode Software.