Barcode 101

Barcode is an optical machine readable format that provides business with the advantage of encoding textual information into a label for farther reading by means of an electronic barcode scanner that translates the information fast and accurately at a very affordable price if we compare this method with other storage systems.

Barcodes are often used with Point of Sales software to track inventory and check out process, but they can also serve for any other purposes. A barcode is made of lines or bars (widths) intercalating with blank spaces to obtain patterns that is also known as symbology. Most bar codes have uni-dimensional patterns (lines and spaces) but several others have two-dimensional matrix codes or patterns including modules, hexagons, and squares, etc.

With barcodes, data can be collected and encoded faster than with other methods or capture technologies. Data is printed as a linear symbol that a barcode scanner converts back in information that is sent to a screen attached to the reader, to another storage media, or printed in human-readable format by another machine.

Barcode scanners use light which refraction through lenses that convert the barcode image into electric impulses similarly to Morse codes. Although the encoded information can be read in any direction without altering its content, some barcode scanners can only read line by line while others have omni-directional reading capability.

All barcodes have also similar structure with a leading and trailing quiet that comprises in the middle the symbology and other stop characters depending on the type of pattern used to produce the barcode, although two-dimensional barcodes are usually square and their symbology is not always linear.

However, the intricate design of two-dimensional barcodes provides the information with extra security features that are commonly used in banking solutions, tracking, and tracing applications and anti-counterfeit measures. This type of barcodes are closer to other barcode technologies such as Auto ID Data Capture (AIDC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which require of special RFID tags instead of the average barcode label, as they also need special barcode scanners capable to read the encoded information.

Symbologies for the standard barcode technology are aimed to satisfy the needs of each business, whether industries, commerce, small businesses, etc., so every business owner need to make clear what of those patterns better match their own data encoding requirements as retailers, service providers or manufacturers.

Barcodes were first used as a part of the supermarkets automation integrating barcode scanners into grocery checkout systems in the early 1980s. Later barcodes began to be used as identifiers for inventory control, tracking and tracing deliveries, and other check out processes, as well for the postal service automation sorting correspondence for fast delivery.

The first barcode software programs were mostly add-ons modules or application tools embedded with word processors, database managers, and point of sales programs processing the information according with the chosen symbology to produce an image that later is decoded by an optical reader. Such information resides in a central database from which pricing and details can be updated easily without expending in tag labels to match those changes.