This page is a "crash course" in the traditional UPC / EAN barcode formats.
Each digit of a barcode consists of two bars and two spaces, taking a total
width of seven times the width of the thinnest possible bar or space. There
are three
different possible representations for each digit, used depending on
what side of a two-sided barcode the digit is used on, and to encode
checksum or other information in some cases. The three forms are
related. Taking as the "base" form the pattern as seen on the right-hand
side of a UPC-A barcode, the other forms are the inverse of the base
(that is, bar becomes space and vice versa) and the mirror image of the
base. Still confused? Here's a complete table, where 0 means
space and 1 means bar:
Left-A Left-B Right ------- ------- ------- 0 0001101 0100111 1110010 1 0011001 0110011 1100110 2 0010011 0011011 1101100 3 0111101 0100001 1000010 4 0100011 0011101 1011100 5 0110001 0111001 1001110 6 0101111 0000101 1010000 7 0111011 0010001 1000100 8 0110111 0001001 1001000 9 0001011 0010111 1110100
A UPC-A barcode consists of six patterns from Left-A on the left-hand side,
six patterns from Right on the right-hand side, a guard pattern of
01010 in the middle, and a guard pattern of 101 on
each end. The 12th digit
checksum is calculated as follows: Take the 1st, 3rd, … 11th digits,
sum them and multiplying by 3, and add that to the sum of the other digits.
Subtract the final digit from 10, and that is the checksum digit. (If
the last digit of the sum is 0, then the check digit is 0.
An EAN-13 barcode is just like a UPC-A barcode, except that the characters on the left-hand side have a pattern of Left-A and Left-B that encodes an extra first digit. Note that an EAN-13 barcode with the first digit of 0 is exactly the same as the UPC-A barcode of the rightmost 12 digits. The patterns to encode the first digit are as follows:
Left-Hand Digit Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 - - - - - - 0 a a a a a a 1 a a b a b b 2 a a b b a b 3 a a b b b a 4 a b a a b b 5 a b b a a b 6 a b b b a a 7 a b a b a b 8 a b a b b a 9 a b b a b a
The checksum for EAN-13 is just like UPC-A, except the 2nd, 4th, … 12th digits are multiplied by 3 instead of the other way around.
An EAN-8 barcode is just like a UPC-A barcode, except there are only 4 digits in each half. Unlike EAN-13, there's no nonsense about different left-hand side patterns, either.
A UPC-E barcode contains 6 explicit characters between a guard of
101 on the left and 010101 on the right. The
explicit characters are the middle six characters of the code. The first and
last characters are encoded in the parity pattern of the six characters. There
are two sets of parity patterns, one to use if the first digit of the number
is 0, and another if it is 1. (UPC-E barcodes may only start with a 0
or 1.) The patterns are as follows:
First digit 0 First digit 1 Explicit Digit Explicit Digit Position Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 b b b a a a a a a b b b 1 b b a b a a a a b a b b 2 b b a a b a a a b b a b 3 b b a a a b a a b b b a 4 b a b b a a a b a a b b 5 b a a b b a a b b a a b 6 b a a a b b a b b b a a 7 b a b a b a a b a b a b 8 b a b a a b a b a b b a 9 b a a b a b a b b a b a
(Note that the two sets are the complements of each other. Also note that the first digit 1 patterns are mostly the same as the EAN-13 first digit patterns.) The UPC-E check digit (the final digit encoded in the parity pattern) is the same as the UPC-A check digit for the expanded form of the UPC-E number. The expanstion is as follows, based on the last explicit digit (the second to last digit) in the encoded number:
Corresponding
UPC-E form UPC-A form
---------- -------------
XABCDE0Y XAB00000CDEY
XABCDE1Y XAB10000CDEY
XABCDE2Y XAB20000CDEY
XABCDE3Y XABC00000DEY
XABCDE4Y XABCD00000EY
XABCDE5Y XABCDE00005Y
XABCDE6Y XABCDE00006Y
XABCDE7Y XABCDE00007Y
XABCDE8Y XABCDE00008Y
XABCDE9Y XABCDE00009Y
All UPC/EAN barcodes may have an additional two- or five-digit supplemental
code just to the right of the main barcode. The supplement starts about
one digit-length (that is about seven times the width of the thinnest bar)
to the right of the main code, beginning with the guard pattern
1011. After that comes each digit, with a guard pattern of
01 between each, but not at the end. The digits are encoded using
the left A and B characters to encode a parity pattern.
For two-digit supplements, the parity pattern is determined by the lower two bits of the numeric value of the code (e.g., 42 would use pattern 2):
Lower 2 bits Parity Pattern ------------ -------------- 0 (bin 00) a a 1 (bin 01) a b 2 (bin 10) b a 3 (bin 11) b b
For five-digit supplements, the parity pattern is calculated in a similar manner to check digit calculation: The first, third, and fifth digits are summed and multiplied by 3; the second and fourth digits are summed and multiplied by nine; the parity digit is the sum of those two numbers, modulo 10. The parity pattern is then the last five patterns from the UPC-E final digit 0 table for the corresponding digit.
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