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  • What are different types of Barcodes and details about them.


    curious about the types of bar codes? Want to know all the details of bar codes like how they are designed, their types, advantages, disadvantages etc. quench your curiosity by scrolling through the responses form ISC experts here.

    When we go to malls or supermarkets, we have seen that the billing counter just scans the 'Barcode' on the product and they get the details of the product along with its price, discount if any, etc. We all are familiar with 'Barcodes' and 'QR' codes. I would like our expert panel to provide more details about the subject as in:
    a) What are the different types of Barcodes and their use?
    b) How is a Barcode made for any product, its size, shape, etc?
    c) Who makes or designs the Barcodes for a product or their product?
    d) Are barcode foolproof or can be tampered and if yes/no, how?
    e) What are the advantage and disadvantages of using barcodes for a product?
    f) Any other details?
  • Answers

    2 Answers found.
  • A barcode is an image having the information about the product. This code will be displayed in black and white lines. The width of the lines will vary and the information stored in this can be easily read by a machine.

    The barcodes will be designed based on the information required. Generally, this barcode will have information about the manufacturing company, batch number, rate per unit.

    What information is to be given in the bar code will be decided by the manufacturer or retailer or the statutory authorities. There are many companies in India that will manufacture explosives. If these explosives are traced with any unauthorized person, the concerned authorities want to know the details about that product. They are interested to know who manufactured, what is the serial number and to whom it was sold. So the concerned authorities instructed all the manufacturers to get the barcode for all the products and what information it should contain is also decided by them. Based on that manufacturers contacted the software people who will design these barcodes and implemented them.


    These barcodes will be of two types.

    1. One dimensional barcode: It is also known as linear barcodes. This barcode can store information horizontally from left to right. These can be read by any barcode scanner rapidly. The space available in these codes is less and the information you can store is less. These Linear barcodes can be used to store 8-25 characters.

    2. Two-dimensional barcodes: These are more complex. They will give more scope for users to accumulate more information and they can incorporate up to 2,000 characters. These barcodes will encrypt data horizontally and vertically. In addition to the information mentioned in one dimensional bar code, this two-dimensional bar code will have other information like inventory tracking, sale history, supply details, and logistics, etc. To read the information in this code ordinary barcode readers can't be used. An image scanner is to be used.


    QR Code is also a type of a 2D matrix barcode only. These codes can store up to a hundred times more data. QR codes can be scanned from all directions and at any angle.

    drrao
    always confident

  • Barcodes are the digital representation of an item of a company in a small paper strip and all the details of the item will be mapped in that barcode and the bar code reader will read it through a laser reading mechanism. There are a number of lines in the bar code and by varying the width of the lines the information is encoded in them. Whatever way the information is coded same way it will be retrieved by the bar code reader. It is not only the merchandise store that barcodes are used. They are frequently used at many other places also like airport for luggage identification etc. The point wise details against the query are as below -

    a) Bar codes are generally printed on a small strip of paper and same can be pasted on an item to which it belongs. They are very useful for quickly finding out the details through a bar code reader and can be fed in a computer for inventory control and price retrieval for billing. These bar codes are available in two forms - one is the linear one and other is the two dimensional. The reader will accordingly read the information in them by scanning the width of the lines or the 2D pattern as often seen in a QR code.

    b) Every item will have a unique code and this will be coded in the various lines and their width in a bar code. Using the width of the lines and their permutation and combination the details of the product will be encoded in the bar code and once retrieved will give the same information back in computer connected to the barcode reader.

    c) Barcode is coordinated and generated by the Uniform Code Council or their representative for a specific company as per the type of the product, price and other details. Bar code can be created in specific ways in a particular manner for a particular company. The varying width of different lines on a barcode is actually based on some formula and becomes a code for a particular product of a particular company. It contains all the information about the item in the bar code itself.

    d) Barcode can not be tempered but anyone who has a knowledge of bar codes and a bar code generation machine can print another barcode and replace the earlier barcode with it altering the information about the item. This requires a higher level knowledge of barcode and their mechanism and no ordinary person can do such a thing.

    e) The barcode is a very advantageous system as it keeps a good control on the recognition of the item and inventory control of items in a merchandise store. It has become much common now and is very useful in the big stores where thousands of items are available for sale and it is difficult to maintain the inventory manually. What it requires is a barcode reader and some software program in the payment counter computer to link it with the barcode reader. There is some additional cost in managing and maintaining the bar code system but it provides a lot of convenience also.

    Knowledge is power.


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