Getting started with EAN Barcodes 1

[GPM4663]

Hi Everyone,
Our company has been asked by a customer to include EAN barcoding on the labels of the products that we make for them. I've been trying to find out how we get started just from a code generation point of view and not even the actual printing. Do we have to register our company to get a code to include in the barcode? Are there different types of EAN code? I really looking for the basics here and am hoping someone and talk me through it gently! many thanks in advance for anyones help!

GPM

 

[stussy]

Hi GPM

For some reason the e-centre site is redirecting here:

http://www.gs1uk.biz/

You can get a lot of info from the site, in essence yes you need a licence, this will give you 'your' identifier (the digits at the beginning, which can then be used globally to ID your products.

Most labelling software will generate checkdigits etc - the standard most of our suppliers use is that they break the barcode down to:

1234567890123

1234567 (their id) 89012 (their internal product code) 3 (auto-calced checkdigit) giving you an EAN 13 barcode.

HTH

Mike

Feel free to come back with more q's...

 

[stussy]

Should have added - yes there are two different types of EAN - EAN 8 and EAN 13, referring to the number of digits. If you look at most sweets / drinks etc they will be EAN 8 (especially big suppliers like cadbury schweppes / coke), most other products will be EAN 13. I couldn't tell you why! You will most likely go for an EAN 13 licence, which I think grants you up to 100,000 barcodes...

 

[GPM4663]

Hi Stussy,
Thanks for that, exactly what I needed to get me started! Really appreciate it!

Thanks Again,

GPM