Which type of barcode? Using ZPLII

[LeighW]

I am implementing Barcode Printing/Scanning into my MS Access Application, we have some Zebra printers so am printing the barcodes using ZPLII. The barcode will consist of a 10 digit ID number (Formated as a Double), but I am unsure which type of barcode to use?

It seems there are so many options to use with ZPLII but the programming guide doesn't seem to give any advice as to which type of barcode to use?

We have both 1D and 2D scanners but it seems 1D will be suffient.

It seems there are:

Code 11
Interleaved 2 0f 5
Code 39
Code 49
Planet Code
PDF 417
EAN-8
UPC-E
Code 93
Code 128
EAN-13
Industrial 2 of 5
Standard 2 of 5
ANSI Codabar
LOGMARS
MSI
Plessey

I have tested a few options the best result seems to be using a "Code 128" barcode:

^FO445,25^BY2,3^BCR,60,N,N,N
^FD1234567890^FS

Am I using the best barcode format for this type of number?

Many Thanks

Leigh

 

[James529]

If it were me, I'd go with 128 if certain all the scanners that will be used to scan the label are capable of reading 128. Code 128 is pretty efficient for numeric only bar codes (density, but with only 10 char this isn't a big deal) and can handle all ASCII characters if you have a need to expand to alpha data down the road.

 

[nsitech]

Remember that it does not matter which barcode you use as long as your scanner can read it. The one thing to keep in mind is the barcode length. Some tend to be very long, so experiment.

To test the code to ensure it works, either open notepad and scan the label (allows you to see what is read), or just scan the label and see if scanner 'beeps'.

Experimentation is the key to see what fits your application.

 

[DougP]

nistech is right Code 128 is the most common today since it can use make a barcode out of any the 128 keyboard characters (hence it's name)
"IF" you need a very small barcode that contains just numbers like your example "1234567890" then a Interleaved 2 0f 5 will be best.It actually interleaves every pair of numbers to make a very tiny barcode (length wise anyway).
It can only be numbers though.
Just a thought


DougP, MCP, A+