Re: scripting barcodes
Re: scripting barcodes
- Subject: Re: scripting barcodes
- From: "Gary (Lists)" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:23:38 -0400
"Kennedy, Colin" wrote:
> barcodes are just fonts.
I think what you mean is barcodes are just graphics. There are fonts which
produce barcode graphics, but this is not the only means to produce such
graphics.
> Buy a font and when you change the text from "blah" in times to "blah" in
> barcode it will look right. the thing to be concerned about is not as much the
> font as what the reader needs to demark the beginning and end of the
> information on the barcode.
This is the rub. The graphic display of a barcode (or other graphic code)
must be rigidly constructed against standards, so that scanners and other
input devices can properly read them.
Some commercial and freeware "fonts" that purport to produce barcodes do not
produce barcodes that are readable -- the specifications of spacing and size
are off and therefore not usable.
Also, it is not true that the thing to be concerned about is "demarking" the
beginning and end of the information. The spacing between symbols and the
overall scaling factors are the _key_ issues when producing graphics for
barcode scanning. Fault-tolerance is low.
The OP wants to produce European Article Numbering, EAN-13 code, which is an
international UPC set -- specifically, EAN-13 is UPC-A (JAN is the Japanese
equivalent) and is also ISBN. [The EAN code and a supplemental 5 digit code
are used to convert between the European Article Numbering code and ISBN --
Bookland EAN -- numbers.]
UPC (and therefore EAN) is one of the harder barcodes to produce on desktop
equipment, because the code requires precise measuring and scaling. There
are codes for desktop production, however, but it just takes good output.
The best place to start is to review the specification for EAN-13. This
will tell you whether your equipment can reliably produce the code -- an
inkjet printer will not do, for example. Laser-quality output at a nominal
600-dpi will produce useful reproduction quality codes, if the paper is
high-quality (limited visible fibers, 'bright white' or cast-coated paper,
or other non-Office Depot/OfficeMax/Staples junk paper).
Depending on your further uses, you will need to consider the scaling
issues.
Some information on UPC-A/ISBN/EAN-13:
==
Nominal X dimension is 13 mils. A magnification factor of 0.8 to 2.0 is
allowed and, as a result, makes a printable range of X dimension values of
10.4 to 24 mils. In other words, the nominal size of a UPC symbol is 1.469"
wide x 1.02" high. The minimum recommended size is 80% of the nominal size
or 1.175" wide x .816" high. The maximum recommended size is 200% of the
nominal size or 2.938" wide x 2.04" high. Larger UPC's scan better. Smaller
UPC's do not scan as well or not at all.
==
EAN-13 is the European version of UPC-A. The difference between EAN-13 and
UPC-A is that EAN-13 encodes a 13th digit into the parity pattern of the
left six digits of a UPC-A symbol. This 13th digit, combined with the 12th
digit, usually represent a country code.
==
Retailers are increasingly charging distributors for ill-produced UPC codes,
and so if you are involved in a commercial venture, you may wish to take
care in producing and verifying codes. There are small scanners which test a
range of codes.
==
EAN bar code numbers are assigned to specific products and manufacturers by
an organization called ICOF located in Brussels, Belgium. Tel:
011-32-2218-7674
==
EAN-13 has been adopted as the standard in the publishing industry for
encoding ISBN numbers on books. An ISBN or BookLand bar code is simply an
EAN-13 symbol consisting of the first 9 digits of the ISBN number preceded
by the digits 978. The supplemental in an ISBN bar code is the retail price
of the book preceded by the digit 5. For example, if your ISBN number is
1-56276-008-4 and the price of the book is $29.95 then you would enter
978156276008 as the bar code message and 52995 for the supplemental.
> I have been searching for a scriptable application for making print-
> ready (postscript) barcodes, but cannot find any.
I have only recently started playing with Python, and so I know nothing of
this tool first-hand, but there is a free Python tool that will create
Bookland ISBN (EAN) codes. It is called 'bookland.py' and it may be a model
template or a usable resource. <http://www.cgpp.com/bookland/isbn.html>
I am guessing that it plots the lines rather than uses a typeface, but I
could be wrong.
> I just want to.......:
> tell app "barcode app"
> set f to (make new code with properties {type: "EAN-13" value:
> 1234567890123, colour: black, size: 80%})
> save f at somefile as eps
> end
>
> Does this app exist? Anyone got some recommendations?
The reply that you got first is a good place to start -- look for available
typefaces and font packs. In the $50 to $150 range you will find a number
of useful typographic methods for producing graphic barcodes for
UPC/EAN/ISBN.
To make EPS images of those codes, of course, could be done with Illustrator
or other similar graphic editing software, of even from a word-processor or
any application if you have a PS output method.
However, you can also use any graphics-generating tools to create the code.
If you start from the specification, you can see that it is only a matter of
drawing dots or lines, and so you could plot the barcode according to the
specifications -- line thickness, mils between lines and units, width and
height and scaling parameters.
A useful resource for anything related to EAN/ISBN is
<http://www.isbn.org/>.
If you are making just one code (probably not, if you want to script it)
then you can do this online for $10.00 or less.
<http://www.createbarcodes.com/>
I hope that helps get you started with some ideas,
--
Gary
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