mcxle and mce barcode reading... · have someone in your company responsible for barcodes, have...
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MCxLE and MCe barcode reading
Best tips and tricks: Have someone in your company responsible for barcodes, have them read this document entirely.
Print your barcodes as big as practical. (Test at different sizes to find your sweet spot) For 1D barcodes
(traditional barcodes) the width of the barcode spaces and black lines is more important than height.
This is a general document on barcode reading. For specific features of a specific version of MCe/MCxLE
please see the product documentation (much is available on info buttons inside the product.)
Print your barcodes black on white (avoid colours).
Pick a barcode that has check digits, either because the standard has it built in or because you use one
with a standard check.
Test your devices (phones/tablets) before buying a lot of them
- The ability to close focus & quality of cameras vary greatly. Since we rely on the video camera, up to
a point, higher quality gives better results. You can get away with poorer quality hardware by
printing bigger barcodes! Bonus: Bigger barcodes are easier to keep clean enough to read.
- You’ll get the best performance from windows tablets, laptops and Android phone (See our
Whitepaper on different devices, in the Appendix on why iOS devices are not the best currently
Appendix: Why are iOS devices not the best? for more details).
QR (2D) codes do not have to have an URL in them! They can encode any text information, like part
numbers, asset numbers etc.., and they have better redundancy/check digits when compared to the
best of the 1D barcodes.
There are several factors in determining whether you will get a good barcode read quickly. In order of
importance:
1. The size of the barcode. Quite simply, the wider the black and white lines, the better/faster the
results typically.
2. The quality of the barcode. Crisp and Clear. Black and white. Not dirty/smudged/blurry.
Damaged, curled, washed out, covered in dirt, missing pieces make them un-readable or hard to
read.
3. The placement. Flat, with no or minimal light reflections is best. Curved along the width can
make them unreadable.
4. Operator experience. As you use them, you will learn with ‘your’ equipment how to get readings
as fast as possible.
Go with EAN-8 (up to 6 numbers) if you can, EAN13 (up to 11 numbers), Code128 if you need alphabetic
or more than 12 numbers. If you’ve heard about the high license costs of using U.P.C./EAN – there are
trillions of ‘unlicensed’ numbers you can use – the U.P.C./EAN standards left them free. And … as long as
you aren’t selling the products you are putting labels on – you can use all of the EAN codes – even ones
assigned to products.
Executive Summary: Hardware and software barcode readers each have benefits over the other. We have supported
hardware barcode readers in products like TH and MCe for 25 years. But we added another option in
late 2014, and enhanced since, what we call ‘software’ barcode reading.
Which barcode format? When possible EAN-13 if you just need the numbers 0-9, EAN reserved millions for you to use internally.
If you need longer codes go to EAN13, if you still need more, you need alpha characters use Code128 or
QR (coming soon). These formats have fewer false positives. Your choice of barcode standard(s) can
have a huge impact on your success rate.
If you print your barcodes –coat with thin, matte clear coats so that they don’t smudge when washed.
Ideally use black ink on matte paper. Test size, positioning etc.., before you print 1000’s!
If you are using barcodes from one of your suppliers and they aren’t EAN/UPC, look at the barcodes we
support (all the popular ones). If you need one we don’t currently support, talk to us.
Most retail products sold today have EAN codes. Most people still call them ‘UPC codes’. (There are
trademark issues and legal details – but for most of our customers this is irrelevant) There are EAN
codes reserved that you can use for ‘internal purposes’ with no paperwork and no fees. So the most
common reason for not using EAN/UPC is irrelevant for most of our customers – therefore you should
use EAN if you can.
Apply labels flat, on a clean surface. Wrinkled, smudged, curled barcodes are hard or impossible to read.
What device should I use? For hardware barcode readers you need to look at what is available for your preferred device.
For software readers, choose an Android or Win10 phone for best results. We will recommend iPhones
when iOS implements the necessary HTML5 standards. (See our Whitepaper on different devices, in the
Appendix on why iOS devices are not the best currently for more details)See Appendix: Why are iOS
devices not the best? for more details.
Other If you decide to use barcodes in your company – at least one person familiar with our products should
read this whole manual to decide what needs to be looked at corporately.
We’ve all seen grocery stores trying to scan a code over and over, finally giving up and typing it. We
allow you to type too, but we give you tips and tricks in this document so that you don’t have to often.
You need a camera on your device and a browser able to access the camera to do software barcode
reading. So while we call it software, what we really mean is ‘no specialized bar code hardware.’
This whitepaper has details with lots of very practical ‘real world’ tips, the author first programmed
software with barcodes in the 1980’s. There are details like: WHICH are the 1.2Trillion EAN/UPC codes
that I can use for my company? Details like: why some barcode standards have a higher ‘false positive1’
rate than others, how to scan/read difficult cases, tips and tricks for producing your own barcodes.
1 False Positive: the barcode hardware or software says ‘I got one’ when really it didn’t. False Negative: the reader
says ‘I don’t see any barcode here’ when there really is one there. Most of the time in the grocery store, people are
frustrated with the false negatives. Our software shows you the images that we are trying to find a barcode in. This
gives you better feedback to adjust your technique – you can usually see the problem.
Contents Best tips and tricks: ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Executive Summary: ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Which barcode format? ............................................................................................................................ 2
What device should I use? ........................................................................................................................ 2
Other ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Opening Notes ............................................................................................................................................ 65
General discussion .................................................................................................................................. 65
Different types of Barcodes .................................................................................................................... 75
EAN/UPC family: ................................................................................................................................. 75
QR Codes ........................................................................................................................................... 107
Codes we RECOMMEND ....................................................................................................................... 108
Supported with conditional recommendations .................................................................................. 1311
Codes we SUPPORT but do not recommend: The main reason(s) we don’t recommend them are given
beside each code. ............................................................................................................................... 1311
1D: ................................................................................................................................................... 1311
Is the checksum human readable? Do I type it in? ............................................................................. 1715
Printing barcodes ................................................................................................................................ 1815
Use black and white on non-shiny labels ........................................................................................ 1815
As big as possible lines and spaces ................................................................................................. 1916
Don’t use ‘invisible’ barcodes ......................................................................................................... 1916
Don’t lose your barcodes to washing/weather: ............................................................................. 2017
1D barcodes vs QR: ......................................................................................................................... 2017
Don’t get cute: ................................................................................................................................ 2017
Quality – test that the labels you buy are going to stick! ............................................................... 2118
And just for fun ............................................................................................................................... 2118
Installing barcodes .............................................................................................................................. 2218
Good reads, bad reads: ....................................................................................................................... 2521
Hardware vs Software barcode readers ............................................................................................. 3026
Continuous hardware readers vs our software reader:.................................................................. 3127
Hardware wands (can be attached to your cell phone) vs our Software ....................................... 3328
Hardware handheld scanners (can be attached to your cell phone) vs our Software ................... 3328
Cellphone add-ons vs our software ................................................................................................ 3429
Barcode readers in grocery stores. ................................................................................................. 3429
Dedicated Smart devices ................................................................................................................. 3530
Win10 phone, Win8 phone, iPhone, Android – which to choose? ..................................................... 3631
Chrome/Firefox: .................................................................................................................................. 3631
Appendix 1, Fun facts: ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.35
Appendix 2, Big numbers – Millions and Billions ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.36
Appendix 3, What’s our planned timetable? .......................................................................................... 4437
Appendix 4, Desktop Maintenance Connection (DMC/MRO) Barcodes ................................................ 4639
Appendix 5, But my barcode value isn’t right (Regex’s)… ...................................................................... 4841
Remove leading zero’s ........................................................................................................................ 4841
Take 1st 4, skip 3, take next 3 .............................................................................................................. 4841
Take last 3 THEN 1st 4 .......................................................................................................................... 4841
Add fixed string to the beginning: ...................................................................................................... 4842
Of course you could combine this with one of the above, for example: ........................................ 4942
Opening Notes
General discussion First it is important to understand that a barcode is ‘just a string’. It may be a string of numbers, or
numbers and characters, but it up to the software reading the barcode to determine what that string of
information means.
In grocery stores a lot of customers assume that the barcode includes the price – but really all it
includes is the product key (essentially country of origin, manufacturer and product), it is then
used to lookup the product name, price and other information from a database. (Cash registers
are specialized computers these days, knows as POS – Point Of Sale devices.)
This makes barcodes powerful is that you to use them to identify many things such as assets, inventory,
purchase orders, work orders, people (laborID).
Assets: Many companies put a barcode on every asset they own to make it easy to scan and find out
which asset it is. This is NOT the barcode that it came shipped with, that barcode is used by the
manufacturer for EVERY item. For example, right now every box of smarties I can find has the barcode
598603. But if you were keeping track of every monitor, you wouldn’t use the EAN-13 or UPC-A barcode
that the monitor came in, you would either use a second barcode that contains the serial number or you
would have printed up your own barcodes and you would assign one to each asset you purchase.
Parts: These are more likely to be done like the smarties example. Every widget of type A has the same
barcode or the barcode is printed on the bin that you grab the type A widget from.
Labor: If you print a barcode on their ID badge, you can use that to identify the person.
Items like Work orders or Purchase orders would print out their actual values.
In MCe 5.x (2014) we introduced barcode reading in the ‘most obvious’ locations. In MCe/MCxLE 8.02 we
added the ability to scan barcodes basically anywhere it could possibly make sense. So you could be
writing a labor report addition saying “When I put the <scan part barcode> in, it did not help, so I
removed it and found that putting <scan another part barcode> in it solved the problem” Or for part
costs, or to pick/identify an asset, or to put in the labor id, or in any of our search filters. Basically, any
place you might want to scan a barcode or find something based on a barcode in MCe/MCxLE you can.
QR codes often have a URL in them, but that is just because QR codes are a ‘favorite’ barcode to use for
URL’s –because they are the only popular barcodes that can have a URL in them, not because you have
to have a URL in them, you don’t you can have any string data in them.
So, while a lot of people think about QR codes as being URL’s – they are used for encoding all sorts of
information from as simple as an Asset ID, to product information. The more information stored, in
general the larger they need to be to get a good read.
Barcode entry simple means that you can use hardware or software to read that string into a field (or
fields). It really is up to the software what to do with it. Indeed, if you’ve watched when you shop,
2 There were no 6.x or 7.x versions of MCe/MCxLE, we skipped straight from 5.x which had 4 MAJOR versions, to 8.0 because 8.0 is our MRO 8.0 compatible version of MCe/MCxLE and 6.x or 7.x would have caused confusion.
sometimes the clerk types the barcode in when it can’t be scanned, this is because all they are doing is
treating the barcode reader like a keyboard – it types in the string if it finds a barcode.
Many people think that barcodes at grocery stores store all sorts of info like price, name of product etc..,
But the reality is, all they store is a very short, up to 13 digit number (See EAN/UPC family: below) then
the computer attached to the till looks up in a database the rest of the information.
So, now that the ‘magic’ is gone …
Different types of Barcodes There are many different types of barcodes. Here is a discussion that will be relevant if you are looking
at creating your own codes for your assets etc..,
Aside: Maintenance Connection Canada is proudly international in everything we do. But for the
discussion below, I am using the Canadian/US words for Billion and Trillion.
Unfortunately, British use of these words are often different, and translators from Chinese and
Hindi often use these words incorrectly in their translation because there is no ‘exact’ word due
to the differing numbering
systems. So Million can mean
106 or 105. And Billion can
mean 109 to 1012
If you are not
familiar/comfortable with the Canadian/US words for Billion and Trillion and you are working
with more than 10,000 unique barcodes, please see Error! Reference source not
found.Appendix 2, Big numbers – Millions and Billions.
Any way you think of the words billion and trillion, when talking a Million or more, there are a
lot of barcodes for your use.
EAN/UPC family: If you are creating your own codes and you only need numbers – we recommend this family of codes as
the best to use. If you want the details read on, if not, skip to the next section.
HOW TO QUICKLY TELL AN EAN-13 FROM A
UPC-A
Count the human numbers. If there are 13 it is EAN (12 plus a check digit), Often displayed as 1-6-6 or
1-6-5-1. If there are a total of 12 it is probably a UPC. Often displayed as 1-5-5-1 or 1-5-6. .
UPC is the one most people are familiar with, it was first used in 1974 and quickly become
ubiquitous in Canada/US. Currently in Canada/US most codes that we call UPC are actually EAN3-
13, EAN-8 or UPC-E, but a few are still the old UPC-A. To a human, EAN look very similar to UPC.
EAN-13 is basically UPC-A with 1 extra character as the 1st character. Every UPC-A ‘XXX XXX XXX
XXX’ can be expressed as an EAN-13: ‘0 XXX XXX XXX XXX’. Any EAN-13 codes that have a 1..9 as
the first digit do not have a UPC-A equivalent.
For your own codes, UPC-A, you have 200 billion at your disposal without conflicting with
officially assigned codes. For UPC-E you have 2 million at your disposal.
If the 1st digit is a 2, it is for local use for items sold by variable weight. You can use any
of these for your own codes without conflicting with any barcodes you receive from other
sources.
If the 1st digit is a 4, it is for local use for any purpose. You can use/create any of these
for your own codes without conflicting with any barcodes you receive from other sources.
For your own codes, With EAN-8 you have 12 million at your disposal without conflicting with
officially assigned codes. If that isn’t enough, with EAN-13, you have at 1.2 trillion! codes that
your company can define without conflicting with officially assigned codes.
3 According to several sources, Europeans hate anything that the US sets as a standard (and think that we Canadians just give in the Americans,) so a superset known as EAN was created so they could have a ‘non-US standard’ barcode. Fortunately they did it in an upwardly compatible way, and fortunately the US and Canada agreed to go along with the change under the argument that it gave trillions more codes to work with.
If the 1st two digits are 02, it is for local use for items sold by variable weight. You can
use any of these for your own codes without conflicting with any barcodes you receive
from other sources.
If the 1st two digits are 04, it is for local use for any purpose. You can use/create any of
these for your own codes without conflicting with any barcodes you receive from other
sources.
If the 1st 2 digits are 20..29, it is for local use for any purpose. You can use/create any of
these for your own codes without conflicting with any barcodes you receive from other
sources.
Here is a link to the official spec that tells you which codes you can use:
http://www.gs1.org/company-prefix
EAN/UPC notes:
EAN so Aa superset of UPC – so most product codes you see in most stores.
Officially, UPC is not supposed to be used in retail after 2019 and indeed was supposed
to be mostly gone after 2010. But as one author puts it: this rule was written by
Europeans, and it is North Americans that invented UPC, so Canada and the US will
switch to EAN whenever they feel like it. As of 2017.06 a casual sampling of barcodes
from several stores showed that, other than books, 100% of products still used UPC-A
and UPC-E. This was not a formal study, but checking in several major chain stores it
showed that UPC is still very much in use in retail.
International Standard ISO/IEC 15420, 12 data characters, all digits 0-9.
Requires a ‘quiet zone’ before and after the barcode.
Like UPC-A, it uses guard bars at beginning and end.
Because they encode so few characters (yet you have 2 trillion that you can define for
your own needs) and have a fixed length, these are one of the easiest, fastest and most
accurate – which makes them ideal for high volume scanning.
If you are creating your own and you only need numbers, this is an excellent choice.
UPC-A with a 0 in front are exactly the
same as EAN-13
UPC-E (using the official rules) following
a complex set of rules ALWAYS are a UPC-A
compatible value.
Most UPC-A’s cannot be converted into
UPC-E’s
EAN-8 are completely different
numbers from EAN-13. (While EVERY UPC-E
can be turned into a UPC-A, NO EAN-8’s can
be turned into EAN-13’s)
So while UPC-A’s are basically
compatible with EAN-13’s (0+UPC = EAN-
13) There is NO compatibility between UPC-E’s and EAN-8’s
When people say UPC they either mean UPC-A or they mean the EAN and UPC family of
barcodes. To be fair, most people just mean ‘those barcodes on products’.
HOW TO QUICKLY TELL AN EAN-8 FROM A UPC-E
These are more difficult, because a lot of UPC-E display an extra 0 on the left making them appear casually to be a EAN-8. If you see these patterns: 1-6-1 and the 1st digit is not 0, it is an EAN-8 , otherwise it could be either. 4-4 with 2 thin lines extending down between the 2 sets of 4, it is almost certainly EAN, 6-1 or 7 then is very likely a UPC-E <4-4> it is almost certainly EAN-8.
There are 3 UPC code standards that are ‘obsolete’ as of 2010, but may still be found on a few
older products. We do not support these, though some older hardware barcode readers might.
UPC-B is a 12-digit version of UPC with no check digit, developed for the National Drug Code (US).
UPC-C is a 12-digit code with a check digit. UPC-D is a variable length code (12 digits or more) with the 12th digit being the check
digit. These versions are not in common use.
And there are 2 UPC extensions. Basically these are added to be a second bar code beside UPC-A or EAN-13. We do not support these.
UPC-2/EAN 2 is a 2-digit supplement to the UPC used to indicate the edition of a magazine or periodical.
UPC-5/EAN 5 is a 5-digit supplement to the UPC used to indicate suggested retail price for books.
QR Codes Most people think of these as being those square barcodes that you can scan with your cell phone and it
will take you to a web site.
But a QR Code is ‘just’ a string of any length. The common understanding is because there are cell phone
apps that, when they find a URL in a QR code, take you to that URL.
There are essentially no restrictions on what you can put into a QR code as long as you can describe it as
a string. The more you put in them, the bigger they need to be to be read properly.
We plan on implementing QR code reading in 2016.
Codes we RECOMMEND There are technical reasons for the codes we CAN support (documented lower). If you are creating or
have a choice which bar code system to use, here are the ones we recommend, in the order we
recommend them:
EAN-8, a shorter version of EAN. 12 million codes you can define for your company, plus many
products sold around the world.
EAN-13 aka GS1 a UPC-A superset, 1.2 trillion codes you can define for your company, plus
most products sold around the world. (or 200 billion UPC-A codes)
UPC-E, a physically smaller, and fewer digits code based on UPC-A
QR (2 dimensional, Alphanumeric)
Code128 aka UCC/EAN/GS1-128 (A popular Alphanumeric) Has a check digit, start and end
characters (and requires a ‘quite zone’ before and after the barcode. International Standard
ISO/IEC 15417, Alphanumeric (128 ASCII), No fixed length – but the longer it is the more likely
you will get misreads (especially with laser hardware, but also with software.) If you are only
encoding a small number of characters, it’s not a bad choice.
For all the codes recommended, there are many free barcode creators that you can use to print your
own barcodes. There are also some low cost (under $200) that will let you print a series of number onto
labels like Avery or Avery compatible. See also Printing barcodes and especially the recommendation
that you coat the barcodes after you print them so that cleaning isn’t likely to erase them or smudge
them.
Samples of the recommended barcode formats:
Code 128: (The first example is a HUGE barcode – not recommended you go with ones this long, it is
very hard on many hardware, and hard on most software devices to get a good read.)
And 2401234567
EAN-13
QR Code
( ABCDEF 123456789) https://github.com/
And 2401234567
Codeabar:
And 2401234567 with A for start and stop
Notes:
A ‘properly formed’ UPC/UPC-A can be read with EAN-13, but they get an extra 0 put at the
beginning of the number. UPC-D was never popular. UPC-2 and 5 were special purpose for
magazines and books – we do not support them.
UPC-B and UPC-C are mostly phased out ‘in the real world’ and can cause compatibility problems
with the others, though most existing ones will be read if you turn on EAN-13 support, you may have
to manually remove the leading 0.
For performance reasons, we recommend that a given database be set up with the one or two
barcode they use (or if they use more than one, fine, set it up for the 2 or 3 they use). So for
example, a grocery store reader typically is set up to only read EAN codes.
Trying to read looking for all the formats we support means it will take longer to read a barcode and
increases the chances of ‘false positives’ (a false positive is where a value is ‘found’ that is not the
value for the barcode being read, this can be due to misreading one barcode as another – limiting
the number of barcode formats to look at significantly lowers this risk.
Think about the scanners you know in a grocery store. Often the ‘self checkout’ take longer and
more tries to ‘read’ the barcode – because the machine has to accept it any way the consumer can
scan it or the consumer has to keep trying until they get it the way the machine needs it.
But the cashiers often can achieve a read quicker because their scanners can assume that the
cashier has been trained the ‘correct’ way to scan, or simply because the cashier has learned how to
scan it the way the machine needs it.
In the same way – if we know which barcode formats are even possible – we can obtain a reading
more accurately.
Again thinking about the grocery store … if the barcode is flat to the scanner it will be read faster
than if it is at an angle to the scanner. Indeed, for the 1D barcodes, we can optimize it if we can
require them to keep scanning until they get the barcode fairly straight and flat – just like most
‘hand held guns’ at cashiers need to have the barcode straight. But again, like the cashier – the
result is, once the person is trained, we can read the barcode faster.
This is a ‘software only’ solution. This means we don’t have laser guidance to help us read the
barcode. So it will take a little bit of human practice to read barcodes fast. But in our testing, after a
couple minutes of practice, it usually took more time to tell the scanner to scan than it took to do
the actual scan of the barcode.
When we say ‘software only’ we mean that we use the built in camera in your device. If you don’t
have a camera you can’t use the software barcode reader. Well, I guess technically you can in some
very special use cases – you could have a library of photos on the device and pick the barcode you
want to ‘scan’.
Fortunately, you will notice I don’t say ‘accurate’. As far as we can tell, we don’t read the
recommended ones inaccurately – we either ‘see’ a barcode, or we don’t ‘see’ a barcode, so we
don’t shouldn’t get many false positives with the recommended codes. Note: If you select the not
recommended ones, then false positives can and will likely occur more often.
Supported with conditional recommendations ITF-14 Essentially Interleaved 2 of 5 with safety features to protect against false positives. A 13
digit number with a check digit plus
Code93, was created to replace Code39. 93 has features to protect against false positives.
Codes we SUPPORT but do not recommend: The main reason(s) we don’t recommend
them are given beside each code.
1D:
Code39 aka 3 of 9 (A popular Alphanumeric, but it does not have any check digits, so bad reads
(false positives) more likely with Code 39 than its closest companion: Code 93 or code 128. For
this reason, we support them but do not recommend them. They are the international standard
ISO/IEC 16388 . (some people add a check digit and use post-processing, but there is no official
standard so different codes could use different rules. We plan to support the most common ‘non’-
standard, the rule of 43, see below.) (Currently no customers have asked for rule 43 – so if you need or want
it, ask and we’ll plan on adding it for you sooner rather than later.)
o But of the codes on the non-recommended list, Code39 is the one that is closest to being
on the recommended list. Its use of *’s at the start and end prevent the most common
type of read error of some codes: Starting/Ending partway into the bar code. o There is one common checksum practice. The rule of 43 (sum up the data characters,
then divide by 43 and put the result as the last character just before the terminal *
character.) We are defining that as Code39-rule43. But please note: To make practical use of this, you must choose either Code 39
or Code39-rule43 unless you are absolutely certain that none of your plain
Code39 characters can ever have the rule 43. If you choose both there will be no way to determine whether a code that
matches the Code39-rule43 is using a check digit or whether it is simply a
Code39 without check digit so we will read it as a Code39-rule42 code. The outcome of these ambiguous ones then will be randomly accepted as one or
the others. This means about 1 in 43 barcode reads could be wrong if your codes
are random. So: Either only choose one or the other of Code39 and Code39-rule43 or be
absolutely sure that none of your Code39 ones can appear to be a Code39-
rule43 o If you are generating your own barcodes, we recommend you use Code 128 instead. But
if you must generate your own Code39 barcodes and you know that you will only be
using ‘your’ Code39 barcodes, we recommend you create Code39-rule43 codes instead.
Codeabar (Code-a-bar) 16 of the following characters: 0-9, $, +, :, / and . (zero to nine, dollar,
plus, colon, slash and period) Designed to work with low resolution printers like impart printers
and even special typewriters. Physically larger than most for the amount of information stored.
Used heavily in libraries. But does not use a check digit, so bad reads more likely with Codeabar
than its closest companions UPC or Code128. (some people add a check digit and use post-
processing, but there is no official standard so different codes could use different rules. We do
support the most common ‘non’-standard, the library divisor 10 rule, see below.) o We provide a Codeabar-Library10 reader option. The same caveats that apply to
Code39-rule43 apply to Codeabar-Library10. (Currently no customers have asked for Library 10 –
so if you need or want it, ask and we’ll plan on adding it for you sooner rather than later.)
Code93. The only ‘postal code’ barcode that received general acceptance. (We added this in
2017)
Standard/Industrial 2 of 5. Not currently supported. (Not interleaved so it takes twice the space of
Interleaved 2 of 5)
Interleaved 2 of 5. (If you have an option, use ITF-14 instead of I 2of5) This code has a particular
problem with ‘bad reads’. (If you need to use Interleaved 2 of 5 we strongly recommend you use )
If the barcode has 1, 5 or 8 followed by 0, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 (So 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 51, 52 …86, 87
or 89) then the barcode can accidently terminate earlier depending on many causes including
reflections (and with hardware line readers: bad angle reading (falling off) And if the barcode has
33, 35,36, 53,55, 56,63, 65 or 66 then the barcode can start to be read ‘mid code’. o Technical reason: Interleaved 2 of 5 codes charters in pairs – 2 at once. And pairs of
numbers like 33 and 65 have as the end of their ‘code’ the pattern that is also the ‘start
character’ for 2 of 5 and pairs of numbers like 10, 12, 87 have as the start of their code
the pattern that is also the ‘end character’. o While a misread like this be rare, obviously if it happens there is no way for hardware or
software barcode readers to know they have a bad read. It will be read as a false
positive with no indication (other than if the human sees the problem).
o Software will generally have fewer mis-reads of 2 of 5 than hardware line scanners
because it won’t have misreads due to wondering off the barcode like a line can. But if
there are reflections, the software, like hardware, won’t know there was a bad read.
o There is a ‘trick’ to minimize the bad line angle – you print a top and bottom ‘guard’ or
‘bearer’ line as follows:
Interleaved Code 2 of 5 with bearer (guard) lines to protect against bad line angle.
While obviously you can print the guard lines and you should if you are printing these.
Those you receive from others may or may not contain the guard lines. And the guard
lines only fix one of the problems with Code 2 of 5 – as a result, we strongly recommend
you not use Code 2 of 5 unless you are receiving them from an external source and have
no choice. The only hardware I know that can reduce bad reads is a barcode pen, which
isn’t affected by most reflections and thereby avoids those types of bad reads.
Code 3 of 9 Sample:
And 2401234567
2401234567:
Interleaved 2 of 5 ITF: 2401234567
IATA 2 of 5: 2401234567
Industrial 2 of 5: 2401234567
Ones we know we don’t support: Some of these may work but we have not tested. If you have a good
test sample of any of these and want us to test and let you know, we will do so. Send them to
Codeabar variants: (So, these are not code-a-bar, but they are based on code-a-bar and some or all
may work with our reader, indeed, likely they all work, but we do not know and while we may have
tested a small sample of some of them, we do not have good enough samples of any of them to test
thoroughly.)
ABC Codabar
USD-4
NW-7
Code 2 of 7
Monarch
Code-27
Ames code
Rationalized Codabar
2 of 7 Code
ANSI/AIM Codabar BC3-1995
Uniform Symbology Specification Codabar
USS Codabar
Code93. The only ‘postal code’ barcode that received general acceptance. (We added this in
2017) Standard/Industrial 2 of 5. Not currently supported. Interleaved 2 of 5. Not currently supported. ITF-14.
Is the checksum human readable? Do I type it in? Some barcodes print in a human readable some or all of the code. Some print the checksum so humans
can read it, others do not.
When a barcode can’t be read, it is necessary for you to enter the code by typing it in you do not want to
type the checksum in. When you type in a code, it is just the ‘result’ – we do not know what type of
barcode you are typing in, so we have no way to know to strip the check digit if you type it in.
EAN and UPC print the check digit as the last digit. Do not type it in if you are manually
entering the code. We strip the check digit when we find an EAN or UPC code.
Code 128 does not print the check digit (but it is there in the barcode) so you type the
whole string in as you see it, and we strip the (hidden to you) check digit when we find a
Code 128 value.
Code 39 does not print a check digit – because it doesn’t have one. So you type the
whole string in.
Code 39 rule 43 does print the check digit – so you do not type in the last character. We
strip the check digit when we find a code 39 rule 43 code.
Codeabar does not print a check digit – because it doesn’t have one. So you type the
whole string in.
Codeabar Library 10 does print the check digit – so you do not type in the last character.
We strip the check digit when we find a Codeabar Library 10 code.
QR codes don’t show you the string nor can you see all the check values, so unless you
know what is in the QR code, you can’t type these in, they have to be read. Fortunately
they contain lots of error correcting information so their success rate is the highest of all
the bar codes we support.
Printing barcodes
Don’t! The first statement is – don’t print your own, most of the time. You are better getting professionally
printed ones that are designed (guaranteed) to wear, not fade out. Most inkjet inks in your inkjet
printers are not UV safe for example. Most laser and inkjet will smudge – especially as you clean the
equipment.
Get good quality, matte finish, black and white, UV safe, non-smudging barcodes.
But assuming you want to print your own … read on.
Use black and white on non-shiny labels Whenever possible – use Black and White matt (not glossy) barcodes on matt (not glossy) paper. They
are the quickest and easiest to read. On the other extreme: two tone (white on white, silver on white,
black on black) are the most problematic to read – though you can see in the examples, a silver on white
code still gets good reads if you use a system like EAN/UPC that has a check digit so false reads can be
quickly rejected. The higher the contrast between the bars and the spaces, the more likely you are going
to get a quick, easy, accurate read.
This is especially important on tiny barcodes like the following image: If the barcode is too small to make
it big enough but keep it in focus, making it black and white (instead of blue and white) makes a read
much easier and more likely:
As big as possible lines and spaces Print them as large as practical/possible for your needs. But even more important is how wide each line
and space is. This is one of the reasons we recommend EAN-8 so highly – it has the widest lines/spaces
at any given physical side for codes with a check digit.
In my example above I am holding the object to use my laptop camera and I needed 2 hands to stabilize
this tiny jar. With tiny bar codes, if you do have to read them, the biggest trick is to stabilize the camera
(or object) so the image doesn’t jiggle too much. Having a camera that focus close (4 or 6”, 100-150mm)
is a necessity with ones this small.
Don’t use ‘invisible’ barcodes And don’t use ‘invisible’ barcodes that need special readers/light to see/read the barcode unless you are
using a hardware barcode reader. With a software solution given most cell phones record mostly only
‘visible’ light4 – you need a barcode that is visible to the human eye.
4 I have heard that you can get a cell phone that will use IR, but when I went looking I didn’t find any. So it may be that my comment ‘most cell phones’ is wrong, it may be ‘all cell phones.’ But because I have heard that there are exceptions, I stated ‘most’. One person told me ‘the older ones don’t have an IR filter to remove IR so you could
If you REALLY want to do this without using a hardware barcode reader, remember the people reading
the barcode reader are going to ALSO have to carry a ‘light source’ that makes the invisible barcode
visible to the naked eye – so pick one that uses a simple source like black-light and test it with your
devices in the lighting they will be installed to make sure they are going to be able to read the barcodes
with the light source you plan on having them take with them, without them having to turn all the lights
out before every read.
There is also special laminate that can be put over a barcode that only allows infra-red light to pass
through. This makes thigs like a security badge harder to copy because the barcode is ‘invisible’ to
anything other than infra-red light, and if you remove the laminate it destroys the badge. If you need
this level of security on your barcodes you realistically have to use hardware barcode readers. Note:
While it is true that some digital cameras can read a little bit in the infra-red range, but it isn’t enough to
get a barcode reader … at least not with today’s equipment. When/if this does become (or is) possible it
will be a serious problem for people who have relied on this security feature, but there is no indication
that ‘consumer level’ equipment will get this capability any time soon. Of course, anyone attempting
this is likely not going to feel constrained to use consumer level equipment.
Don’t lose your barcodes to washing/weather: If you can, use preprinted, coated, barcodes that can be ‘cleaned’ later without erasing or smudging.
If you are creating them, consider this: Print them out on matt labels, then spray them with a matt
laquer such as ‘Tremclad Rust Paint, Clear, Flat’, an alkyd-based product, or several Varathane products.
Use several light coats – heavy coats, especially the 1st coat, will make some labels curl. There are also
special photographic sprays. If you are in a regulated industry (such as hospital or food preparation)
make sure you are using a coating that is permitted. And test a lot before you buy a case of spray cans.
Either way, if they will be exposed to UV light, use a coating that has UV protection, typically the
‘outdoor’ ones. This is like giving sunscreen to your barcodes so they don’t fade. This is particularly
important if you use coloured barcodes instead of black – red is usually particularly quick to fade –
based on testing done by ‘Photos By Madman’ over the years: ‘Red barcodes can become invisible in as little
as 3 weeks in bright sunlight without significant UV protection.’5
1D barcodes vs QR: If you are going to be installing the barcodes on a highly curved surface, go with a 1D barcode, not a QR
code so you can install it along the object not ‘around’ it.
Don’t get cute: Stay away from fancy barcoding printing options with 1D barcodes like embedding an image in the
barcode. These just make the reading rate/success lower. If you want to go fancy like this, use QR codes
use those’. And I know for Raspberry pi you can – so if you build your own cell phone (yes technically you can, it will likely be very bulky) I guess you could do try doing so using the Raspberry PI noir camera (noir means no ir filter, not ‘no ir’) 5 Red is bad for another reason. A lot of hardware barcode readers use red light to read. This means that whatever percentage of the color you chose is red … the red light barcode reader will read the red as white. So a red and white barcode is pure white to them. So you should stick to black on white or if you must, blue on white (blue is more or less black with all the red taken out.)
which are designed to incorporate it in with no reading errors. The two samples below are almost or
completely impossible to be read by hardware or software.
Quality – test that the labels you buy are going to stick! Go with good quality labels with good quality glue for the surface you are sticking them on, if they start
to curl etc.., they will be hard or impossible to read.
And just for fun Here is a great way to mark all your buildings so that you can scan the asset (building) as you walk up to
it. (The color red remember for a hardware barcode reader is ‘white’ so it is even easier for a hardware
barcode reader to read it. Someday.)
Since we are on the more or less fun side of things, there are about a dozen buildings that I have seen
pictures of that are done up with barcodes.
Here is something that I have not seen yet, but I fully expect to see some day: Someone is going to
colour the roof of their building as a giant QR code so that you can scan it using google earth images.
And here is another idea, if you want to advertise, do up your whole building as a big QR code so people
can scan it while they drive by. Use lots of redundancy and don’t plant trees that will grow up and block
it.
And finally, back in the 1960’s or 70’s there was a fad where some building were done up to look like
computer punch cards, presumably the info on ‘the punch card’ was advertising to technical people or
typists.
Installing barcodes Make it so it is easy to read it ‘straight on’
Do NOT wrap a barcode ‘around’ a curved object such as a round table leg. Instead, place it ‘along’ the
leg so that it can be read facing the reader straight. The first image below is wrapped ‘around’ a curved
surface and therefore cannot ever be read – even by most hardware readers other than ‘pens’. The pop
cans image illustrates the wrong and correct way to put a barcode.
The image below was on a curved surface, and it took much longer to get a read because of that – I had
to rotate it until both sides of the barcode and the middle were in focus enough. And the ends are
tighter together than the middle making a read difficult. If it had been curved much more it would not
have been possible to get a read.
Install it at a height that is convenient for your users to hold their cell phone beside it to read it. (This is
really just a refinement on the 1st rule to make it easy to read ‘straight on’)
Put them in a location that either avoids getting dirty, or if it does get dirty, is easy to clean. For
example, placing a label right at the bottom of a piece of equipment on ‘the kick plate’ for example is
usually a bad location due to more dirt/grease at floor level. Also applying them underneath a place
where oil is added/checked is usually a bad location. In general, higher will be better than lower as long
as it isn’t so high that shorter people can’t easily scan them.
If you print your own barcodes, consider spraying them with a clear spray as discussed above in the
printing barcodes section either before installing them or after installing them to make them easier to
clean without smudging. If your barcodes look like this after cleaning, they won’t be useable.
Install them smoothly. If you make a mistake such as the next image shows, put a new one on instead –
this cannot be read.
The next image is another one that could not be read until I manually smoothed it out.
This is what it looked like from a different angle:
But they don’t have to be perfect, the above label was read once I smoothed it out.
And finally, stick them on a surface where they will stay. Many machines have a ‘non-stick’ surface to
make them easier to clean, or they have a very thin layer of grease (either because of use, or because it
was applied on purpose to prevent rust/sticking.) It may be necessary to clean some surfaces – surfaces
that have any grease or dirt/dust/flaking paint– before the label will stick to them. But most devices
have ‘other’ locations you can stick that there won’t be a problem.
Good reads, bad reads: The barcode needs to be clear between the light (white) lines and darker (black) lines.
The image needs to be ‘enough in focus’ that we can determine the white lines from the black lines.
All of the screen shot samples I took in this document were actual reads (or in a couple cases as
indicated – ‘no reads’) (It should be obvious which pictures were taken by me and which were web
grabs.)
Technical notes: The images displayed in this document were actual images using our software and
video web cams.
- Asus laptop
- Microsoft Microsoft Lifecam Studio Webcam (A $70 on sale web cam)
- eTek – a $5 including shipping from China web cam.
The barcodes were also tested against a Windows phones & Surface tablets, several Android phones and
tablets.
The only device that had problems getting reads was the $5 eTek web cam. It could only focus to about
2’ (600mm) and as a result it could not properly read any of the smaller barcodes. But the larger ones
such as the jars it had no trouble with.
Here are a couple examples of a ‘just good enough’ image that we were able to read. Any smaller, any
blurrier and it was not readable. (they were slowly brought towards the camera so that I could show the
spot where I got just barely got a read.
In a similar fashion, the faster you are moving the camera, the blurrier the results will be.
Another problem is where you have multiple barcodes close together. Our software versios has a
pause/read button designed for that situation. Before you start recording the barcode, press the pause
button, then move in so that only one barcode is visible, then press the Read button to read it. This is
similar to how/why stores will use ‘guns’ with triggers to read sheets of barcodes. They usually use the
red line to see which code is going to be read, then they pull the trigger. In our case, the trigger is the
Read button you tap on your screen once the image is showing the barcode you want.
If you are using a desktop computer, and your camera can’t focus close enough, you may not be able to
read one barcode from multiples. Your choices are:
Hide or split up the barcodes so only one can be seen
Get a camera (Usually called a web or usb camera) that is not a wide angle one, and that
can focus to 6” (150mm) or less with ones that can focus down to 4” 100mm) the best.
This will give you a better ability to isolate one barcode from a group.
If your barcodes are just too close together to isolate, you’ll need to either cover the ones you don’t
want to read (with your hand or piece of paper), and/or split them up so they are far enough apart.* If
you frequently have them too close together, we give the option to change the area of the screen to
only read a portion, this can be effectively the same as holding your hand over the ones you don’t want
to read.
* I was in a Home Depot, and they had this problem even with their hand-held guns. What the clerks did
was to have a piece of paper with a cut out rectangular hole in it, then the held the open space over the
barcode they wanted to read.
The following was a good read, but notice the left side of the barcode is much closer to the camera than
the right side. The closer you are to ‘square on’ – the more likely it is that you will get a good reading.
On the other hand, the angle within the image is not important: The following is a ‘good read’.
Nor are small amounts of reflection like above (notice the bright dot which was from the camera light,
and the reflection going through the barcode.
Medium amounts of blur and reflection are also OK, and you can read it upside down.
But the image below was on a curved surface, and it took much longer to get a read because of that – I
had to rotate it until both sides of the barcode and the middle were in focus enough. And the ends are
tighter together than the middle making a read difficult. If it had been curved much more it would not
have been possible to get a read.
But strong reflections make the barcode unreadable such as this one:
On the other hand, even though this was a silver on white, which caused glare, it only took me about ½
second to get a good read. As you can see there was enough in the section I circled in black to have no
problem reading this.
Hardware vs Software vs the MC-Express ‘native’ barcode readers You may be aware that there are a lot of different barcode readers available that are known as
‘hardware’ barcode readers. In fact before seeing ours, you probably have only seen or interacted with
hardware barcode readers.
In a nutshell
- Hardware readers come in many types, some use red light or IR light, some use very fast moving
scanners going back and forth (that make it look like a solid line to the human eye), some use a
pen that the human ‘draws’ along the barcode. (The pen is the only one that I have seen reliably
read a barcode wrapped around a uneven or cylindrical object)
- MC-Express’ native barcode reader has you take a picture using the ‘native’ picture taker first,
then it analysis the picture that was taken. (This is why they call it a ‘native’ barcode scanner)
- MCxLE/MCe’s software barcode reader gives the option of doing the ‘native’ way (This
unfortunately is the way iOS makes us do it. See our Whitepaper on different devices, in the
Appendix on why iOS devices are not the best currently for more details)See Appendix: Why are
iOS devices not the best? for more details.) but for almost every device other than iOS we give
the default option of a video stream that allows you to point your device at the barcode, and as
soon as you get an image that we can read the barcode … we do without you having to push all
the extra buttons that a native picture taking method requires.
- If you use MCxLE/MCe and other programs on your device to read barcodes, unless all the
software you buy has good barcode reading software, your only choice will be to go with
hardware. Even there – you may find that you want to use our software barcode because it
means not having to plug in another device, and only use the hardware barcode reader when
we can’t read them (for example they are IR barcodes) or you are using the other software.
With our software you have always (even back to our Palm Pilot version) been able to use Hardware
barcode readers, as long as you had one that worked with your device. This is because ‘all’ a hardware
barcode reader is, is basically a keyboard, but instead of a human typing on the keyboard, a human
passes a barcode by the hardware and the hardware knows it should type those characters into
whatever program is running at the time.
We are not the only company that has written a software barcode reader, but note that with software
barcode readers, some of the advantages are only there if you integrate them into your application like
we have.
So, if you are interested, let’s look at some hardware readers and how they compare to ‘our’ software
reader.
The advice advantages here are mostly for Android and Windows phones and tablets and Windows
laptops. (See our Whitepaper on different devices, in the Appendix on why iOS devices are not the best
currently for more details)See Appendix: Why are iOS devices not the best? for more details
Note: We don’t sell hardware readers and we include the software reader for free in our software, so
we have as close to no bias as is humanly possible when discussing the differences between hardware
readers and our software reader. We of course have the bias that we are proud of our work – but if your
use case means a hardware reader is better for you – we would prefer you use a hardware reader and
be happy, and if your use case makes our software reader better – we’d prefer you use that rather than
have the awkwardness of an additional piece of hardware.
General Advantages Advantages of MCe/MCxLE, MC-Express software over hardware:
No additional cost, included in the price of ‘MCx Limited Internet Edition’, MCe and MC-Express.
No extra hardware to carry, get lost, cords to get in the way (or Bluetooth receivers to lose)
Advantages of MCxLE/MCe over Hardware & MC-Express
If the barcode is hard to read or the image is not crystal clear or you have multiple barcode
formats that you support you will sometimes get multiple different readings. Hardwware and
MCExpress in these situations ‘pick one’ for you, typically the first one they find. MCxLE/MCe
instead shows you the choices and let’s you pick. This can drastically reduce false positives while
getting the benefits of not hand typing the values.
Advantages of Hardware over MCxLE, MCe and MC Express:
Slightly faster much of the time for getting a read. With high quality devices like Samsung S7/S8
the difference is negligible, sometimes the software is faster, sometimes the hardware is faster,
but with low end devices like the Moto G and Moto X phones and iPhones (they require a
clumbersome process to get an image) hardware barcode readers are usually quite a bit faster.
Continuous hardware readers vs our software reader vs MCExpress: Hardware advantage:
If the hardware is a ‘continuous scan’ type it will immediately type into ANY application you
have as soon as it sees a barcode.
MCxLE/MCe/MC-Express advantage:
Lower battery use.
They don’t read barcodes unless you tell them to (no accidentally scanning and entering into a
random field.)
Note: MC-Express does not support this. Only MCxLE/MCe and some hardware provide this feature.
Hardware and MCxLE/MCE advantage over MC Express:
You don’t have to go through the native process of taking a picture, accepting it, saving it then
letting the barcode software try to find a barcode. You just point the barcode reader or camera
at the barcode and let the hardware or software find the barcode.
Hardware wands (can be attached to your cell phone) vs our Software
Software advantages:
More convenient, no ‘pen’ to have to hold.
More convenient, no ‘cord’ getting in the way all the time, or if you get cordless – no
pen or USB key to forget to bring with you/drop inside something/lose generally
Hardware advantage: (wands really only have 1 advantage)
Can read barcodes wrapped around curved objects like a table leg. It isn’t easy to do
until you practice and learn to rotate the pen as your go around the leg, but it can be
learned if you have a lot to read.
Hardware handheld scanners (can be attached to your cell phone) vs our Software
Software advantages:
More convenient, no ‘gun’ to have to hold
More convenient, no ‘cord’ getting in the way all the time, or if you get cordless – no
pen/reader to forget to bring with you/drop inside something/lose generally
Hardware advantage
Some of these have special non-visible light reading capabilities.
The ‘gun trigger’ feature on some can also help with some barcodes.
Personal preference which is better:
On better hardware ones the red visible line that shows where it is trying to read helps a
lot with this, we show a video image on the screen to help line up and focus so this is
usually a user preference. If you have a cheaper hardware one without a red line, then
the advantage goes to our software method.
Cellphone add-ons vs our software
Software advantages:
More convenient, not as bulky/thick/protruding
Hardware advantages:
Some people find them easier to focus and line up (On better ones the red visible line
that shows where it is trying to read helps a lot with this but, as above, MCxLE/MCe
have a video image to assist so this is personal preference.) The ‘gun trigger’ feature on
some can also help with some barcodes.
Some of these have special non-visible light reading capabilities.
Personal preference which is better:
As above, the ones that show a red line are preferred by some people, the video image
we show to focus are preferred to other. If you have a cheaper hardware one without a
red line, then the advantage goes to our software method.
Barcode readers in grocery stores. MCe Software Advantages:
Portable – wherever your cell phone goes, your scanner goes
tiny lens, doesn’t get dirty easily, easy to clean. (You’ve seen how cashiers keep a
cleaning rag so they can keep cleaning the scanner)
MCe Software Advantage: no contact with package. As the plastic or glass on the
scanner get used it gets scratched and reading becomes harder and harder until
someone replaces the plastic or glass cover – we’ve all seen grocery stores with the
glass/plastic over the scanner so scratched up it takes several attempts to get a read of
the code. Because the barcode is not touching the camera lens, the act of reading
doesn’t wear out or scratch our software barcode reader.
Most of these hardware readers can only read EAN and/or certain UPC codes, our
software can read several other powerful and useful bar code formats.
If you get more than one read (different values) we let you pick between them (This is
part of MCxLE/MCe not part of MC Express)
Hardware Theoretical Advantage:
Apparently some of them can read poorer quality barcodes than the software can due
to laser assist. (They can ‘see’ the difference between the barcode and dirt/smudges ON
the barcode.) In practice – I have seldom seen this work, but occasionally.
Hardware Advantage:
Not-portable, you can’t easily lose it/misplace it – it is always where you expect it.
Some readers have special light to let them read ‘invisible’ or barcodes with special ink
easily, even when the human eye can’t see it or there is some impurities (smudges).
On most of the more expensive ones, their scanner spins around several times a second
so the angle of the barcode has much less impact on the speed or ability to read.
Zero focus issue, you place it on the glass plate (or slide it across) and the glass plate is
the focal point. This makes it easier to use for high numbers of scans per minute.
Equality:
If the barcode is not ‘perfect’ you can move the product closer/nearer to the scanner
until it scans. With the cell phone, you can move the phone closer/nearer to the
scanner.
If you just can’t read the barcode, you can type it in and/or select it from a drop down
type list.
Dedicated Smart devices Advantages:
These are usually ‘ruggedized’ solutions. One we saw claimed to be able to be dropped 30’ onto
concrete without breaking.
Disadvantages:
We have not seen any of these that work with modern software such as MCe/MCxLE. They tend
to be older solutions and work with older version of our software (such as our Palm Pilot and
PocketPC versions) and these are not compatible with MRO 7.0 and forward. The cost of
implementing them is significantly more now than with more up-to-date devices. Ask for a copy
of our whitepaper on ruggedized devices cf regular devices that are ‘ruggedized’.
iPhone/iPad, Android/Windows Laptop – which to choose? Modern Android works really well with it if they have an ‘out facing’ cameras (most now-a-days do),.
Windows tablets and laptops are the clear winners if they have an ‘out facing’ camera.
iPhones and iPads work as well as MC-Express’ ‘native’ barcode scanner. But as discussed elsewhere
cannot do the advanced MCe/MCxLE methods until they catch up with where the other browsers were
in 2011.
Running Google Chrome on iOS does not help because iOS blocks Chrome features such as these and
makes Chrome restricted to the Safari level.
Chrome and Edge to work fine with it on most laptops. Especially those that have 2 cameras (one
pointing away)
Firefox is not supported due to several problems it has had for several years now. Fortunately, all
platforms that Firefox run on have at least one other browser we do support.
What if my computer/phone/tablet doesn’t have a camera (I was asked by someone who owned a
Kindle that worked great with our product otherwise). Well, there is really no practical solution to this, if
you don’t have a camera, you’ll have to go to a hardware solution. Tip: It’s usually far cheaper to
upgrade to a device with a camera than it will cost to buy a barcode reader!
Chrome: Chrome only works on HTTPS, talk to your service provider if the did not install MCe/MCxLE on HTTPS)
The first time you read a barcode or take a picture you will be asked for permission. If you say no, it will
never ask you again (and never let you use it) until you clear the setting.
By default, Firefox will ask every time they try to use the video, it gives 3 choices, it varies from version
to version, but essentially you can answer ‘yes, allow’.
To fix this, once they make this mistake: (last checked on Chrome 43)
Hit the hamburger button.
Select settings
Select ‘Show advanced settings…’ at the bottom of the page (they may have to scroll down)
Click on ‘Content Settings’ (right where ‘Show advanced’ used to be.
Scroll down to the Media section (near bottom)
Make sure ‘Ask’ is selected (Red arrow)
Click on Manage exceptions (Blue arrow)
So in the next image, you can see that Video has been blocked on my computer (red arrow). Clicking on
the x will get rid of this block. Note: I know of no way to stop it from asking for a specific site.
Appendix, Which phone, tablet or laptop should I use? Given how fast smart phones come and go, and given that most smart phone batteries are significantly
depleted after 1 year and almost unusable after 2 years, and given that smart phones are getting
significantly faster at every price point every year, any naming of specific devices will be out of date
within weeks of being written.
There are a few major factors for getting a good read:
1. How fast can your camera focus to close-up images? The faster it can adjust, the better your
experience. We need images in focus to get a barcode read. In some cases you will learn
techniques for your phone to get it to focus faster. For example with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and
S8+ phones, this author found it worked better to start at a distance and move in. The S7 and
S8+ took about 3x’s as long to focus when starting in close and moving out, and they were even
better if you put your hand or something beside the barcode if the barcode is a different
distance from the rest of what the camera is looking at (make everything the same distance
away.) A Moto X play on the other hand didn’t make much difference which way you do it.
2. How close can your camera focus? The closer you can get in focus, the larger the image is and
the more likely you can get a good read quickly. This was not a problem with any of the ‘high
end’ phones we tested, but it was a problem with USB cameras6 and with cameras built into
laptops – many aren’t designed to do close up work. Tablets vary – test before you buy a lot.
3. How fast is your computer (your phone is a computer). If you are taking a picture then reading
that picture it really doesn’t matter – it will take you so long to get the picture and then read it
that taking a half second to find the barcode in the image is not really a problem. But for most
people, you will be using the video scanner, and the slower your device is, the fewer images per
second can be read to find and read the barcode. With a phone like a Galaxy S7 or newer, we
will be processing typically 20 frames per second which means the faster you get the image in
focus, the faster you will get a read – your barcode reading can be almost as fast as a cashier.
But on a slower phone like a Moto X play, the computer is only fast enough to read 1 or 2
images a second, so it will take a few seconds to get everything in focus and lined up to get a
reading.
4. Not a problem usually anymore: Video Camera resolution. When we first came out with
software barcode reader in 2014, there were some really cheap smartphones (unlocked, not on
a plan they sold for around $110 USD) that had really low resolution cameras that made it more
difficult to get a good barcode read, and the $7 USB camera we tested on a laptop. As of 2016,
very few smart phones have a problem with this, and any reasonably priced USB camera will
have no problem either. But if you buy your USB camera in a dollar store like this author did (for
$7) – you can probably still get one that won’t work. If buying a stand-a-lone camera, pay a few
dollars more to get the one that focuses at the shortest distance.
Sadly, we can’t currently recommend iOS devices (See our Whitepaper on different devices, in the
Appendix on why iOS devices are not the best currently for more details). See Appendix: Why are iOS
devices not the best? for more details.
6 The only one we could never get to work was a $7 USB camera. It was both unable to focus close and it was fairly low resolution.
Food for thought on performance: you can get a read on a slow device but most people will not find it a
pleasant experience. But then, if you are slow at typing, having your phone take 10 seconds to get a read
of a barcode may be faster than you can read the id and type it in. And a very slow Android phone will
still get you a read faster than the fastest iOS device – because you have to go through the extra steps to
make it work on an iOS device.
Appendix: Why are iOS devices not the best? First let me say – don’t shoot the messenger.
3 of our senior developers and testers and one owner have iPhones and iPads that they use regularly.
And we use our own software for running our company (as it is said – we eat our own dogfood).
But Apple has purposely and publicly made the decision to keep their Safari browser and other features
‘years behind’ the industry. The reason stated in 2016 by a marketing VP in Apple was that, by staying
several years behind everyone else, they could provide better stability to their customers.
Obviously the sarcastic comment many people made to this announcement was ‘fail’. But sarcasm aside,
Apple has made a choice to market heavily but stay behind everyone else and hopefully learn from their
mistakes.
As a result, features like allowing Browser applications like our have access to the video camera are, as
of 2016, 5 years behind the other major browsers. Notes we have previously made, collected here:
As of 2014.12.10 If you have an iOS device, until Apple implements more of the HTML5 standard
(specifically get user media see http://caniuse.com/#search=getusermedia ), the software
solution only works in the less friendly ‘native picture’ method. It can’t use the video stream like
it does on other smart phones, tablets, laptops etc.., In 2013 I thought Apple was likely to catch
up ‘soon’ but so far I’ve obviously been wrong.
Update 2016.10.05 Apple has finally put it in their unofficial 2016, 5 year plan to implement this
feature. They point out and admit in their 5 year plant that ‘all the major browsers have had this
standard implemented since 2011.‘ (So they admit that they were already about 5 years behind
the other browsers.)
Update 2017.03 Apple has finally gotten their browser indexdDB database with enough bugs out
of it that we consider it a first class citizen now. We have work-a-rounds for the remaining bugs.
Update 2017.05.15 Apple has added this to their official ‘working on’ list so there is finally hope
that I can remove all of these ’iOS can’t do that yet’ comments soon.
We recognize the political quicksand we walk into when we dare to suggest to iPhone users that their
products are not ahead of everyone else, and even worse when we state they are more than 5 years
behind the competitors. We understand that iPhone users generally think that their products are the
most advanced and most expensive. (They are indeed the most expensive. Apple’s annual report for
years has claimed that their customers willingly pay 2x’s what other customers are willing to pay for the
same functionality and performance. There’s a reason Apple is the world’s largest company by a long
margin.)
And we do continually have and own and test on the latest and greatest iOS operating system. And the
reality is that we have more ‘patches’ to work around iOS bugs than we do around all the bugs in all the
other browsers we support put together.
This won’t stop us from continuing to try to make iOS devices the best we possibly can – after all – 3 of
us use them regularly – and we use our own software for our own internal purposes (as above, we eat
our own dogfood) – so we desperately want iOS devices to be able to do everything that the other
devices can. But none of that changes the reality that Apple has made a conscious decision to not be as
up to date as their competitors. And somehow they get away with it. They claim it is because they have
virtually no bugs and everything that works, works perfectly. (And when it doesn’t they claim it is not a
bug, it is a uncompleted feature, so … no bugs.)
In a nutshell: iOS compared to all the other platforms we support
Does not let us provide you the most advanced barcode reading experience. (but they say they
are finally working on it as of early 2017)
Does not let us provide you the most advanced picture taking experience. (but they say they are
finally working on it as of early 2017)
Have memory leaks (bugs) especially if we use UNICODE (so we try to use as little Unicode on
iOS as possible) this used to be a problem, but we found a way to do several things we used to
do with Unicode the same on all platforms without making the other platforms suffer because
of the iOS bugs.
Has some other memory leaks (so we very slightly degrade the multi-row editing capabilities so
that we can work with large numbers of rows the best we can.)
If it makes our iOS users feel a little better, IE 11 is also stuck in the past. And while Microsoft would
suggest that Edge is the upgrade to IE 11, it doesn’t change the fact that IE stopped at 11 and will never
get a feature upgrade again.
Appendix: What is the best browser? (Hint: Chrome) Other than Safari, the browsers we support are all quite good for this. Indeed, even most of the ones we
don’t support are pretty good. But some will irritate you more with permissions questions than others.
The biggest factor you will see and have to decide if you care about: Some browsers ask you for
permission every time you use the video camera (so every time you try to do a barcode read.)
Chrome, only asks you once per site, and once you’ve approved it once, you will be approved forever.
Note that the operating system may also ask once, but that is usually only once for the browser. But
since our application is like the first one you will use for this type of thing, it is the one where you will
run into this.
On some browsers, such as the Samsung built in browser (we do not support this browser), they ask 4
times initially, and then twice every time. This is something with their browser and has nothing to do
with our software. (Technically it is because they have decided to ask you EVERY time, and there is a bug
in their engine that makes it necessary to start up the video stream twice whenever you first pick a
camera, and this is why they ask you twice even after the initial attempt. So this browser would very
quickly become irritating to the author of this document if he were doing barcode reading with it.
Appendix: What’s our planned timetable? 2015.01 basic barcode reading working and available with EAN-13, UPC-A and Code 128 – these are all
high quality barcodes with check digits you can have it as part of ‘shipping’ product now.) (completed
2014.11)
By 2015.07 we plan on adding Code 3 of 9 and Code 3 of 9 Rule 43 ( completed 2015.05).
By 2015.07 we plan on adding EAN-8 and UPC-e. (EAN and UPC-e completed 2017.05 EAN-8 initially
completed in 2015.05, UPC-e but we were getting, from our perspective, too many false positives. )
By 2015.09 we plan on having barcodes read even if they aren’t ‘horizontal’. (completed 2015.06)
By 2015.10 we plan on adding QR reading. (completed 2015.06)
By 2017.08 we plan on adding Code 93. (completed 2017.05)
By 2017.08 we plan on adding Standard/Industrial Bar 2 of 5. (completed 2017.05)
We plan on adding a tool that lets you tell what type of code a barcode is if it one we support – even if it
isn’t one that you permit in your company. No timetable. If this is important to you and we haven’t
implemented it – let us know!
This will be useful when you have barcodes you can’t read and you are trying to find out why.
It will also be useful when you are setting up and you know you have a bunch of barcodes but
you have no idea what format of barcodes they are!
We are considering adding in a custom QR format that would allow us to embed Unicode characters in
QR. If you are interested in this, especially if you would be willing to be a beta tester doing ‘real’ testing,
please contact us. There is no industry standard way of doing this so the QR creator and QR reader
would have to agree. For those interested in technical detail: I am looking at possibly using BOM (Byte order
maping) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13395311/ios-zbar-
sdk-unicode-characters if we go this way, we will likely call the reader QR-BOM and if this work well, it could allow
regular QR codes to be read with no confusion. Another alternative I’m considering is ‘Base64 encoding’, with a
fixed string ‘Base64:’ at the beginning (it will *also* be encoded into Base64 of course) so that we can support
both ‘regular’ QR codes and this encoding. We will name it QR-Base64. With a slight enhancement to the standard,
it would also be possible, if a client were willing to never read ‘regular’ QR codes to allow for them to simply be
Base64 encoded with no additional starting string. In this case you would have to specify that you do ‘not’ read QR
codes, and that you only read QR-Base64. Note that while the above techniques are used by some people, this
would in no way be ‘an industry standard’, it would at best be considered ‘common conventions’ like the Rule 43
for 3 of 9 and the Library 10 for for codeabar. As a result, after discussion with customers who would actually use
this, we may do QR-BOM or QR-Base64 or we might do both.
Codeabar planned but no timetable for adding. (Completed 2015.06) (aka Code 2 of 7, Code 27)
Codeabar Mod 10, (Luhn 10, used by libraries, bloodbanks, Fedex) planned but no timetable for adding.
The barcode standards above cover all of the highly popular barcodes, including both ones we
recommend you use for internal purposes (EAN, UPC, Code 128, QR) and ones, (like 3of9, Codeabar,)
that we do not recommend you use if you have a choice.)
There are, of course, at least a couple dozen other barcode standards. If you are in need one, let us
know and we can discuss whether we can/when we might/what it might cost to add it.
At this time, there are no other code formats that are scheduled beyond the list above. We have
considered a few such as I2of5, but as no customers have expressed a need for any of them we are not
putting them in the development priority queue.
Appendix: Desktop Maintenance Connection (DMC/MRO) Barcodes While it is easy to print out ‘lots’ of barcode formats, reading them is not as easy. That is why when you
see barcode printers, they can often print out a long list of 30 or more barcodes, but when you look at
hardware readers, or software readers like ours, the list is typically much smaller.
Barcode MRO can print Recommended? Comments
Code 128A Yes Yes Alphanumeric, check digit
Code 128B Yes Yes Alphanumeric, check digit
Code 128C Yes Yes Alphanumeric, check digit
EAN-13, JAN-13, GS1-13
Yes Yes People call this UPC. 2 check digits. Numeric only.
EAN-8, JAN-8, GS1-8
Yes Yes People call this UPC. 2 check digits. Numeric only.
UPC-A Yes Yes 2 check digits, Numeric only.
QR No Yes Alpha numeric
UPC-E Yes Future7 Future. 2 check digits, Numeric only.
Code 93 Yes Conditional Check digit, bars, 13 numbers, slower to find (fewer frames per second). Canada Post the biggest user but many companies world wide use it too. Best results require horizontal reads.
Industrial 2of5
Yes Conditional Non-interleaved (wastes space). Slower to find (fewer frames per second). Best results require horizontal reads.
Code 39 Yes No Only use if you receive items with these on them. No check digits. False positives due to bad angle reads.
Codeabar No No check digits
Code 39 Rule 43 No Future Check digit
Codeabar Library 10
No Future Check digit
Code 11 If you need this, there will be a custom fee.
UCC/EAN-128 This is a subset of Code 128, see above.
Extended Code 39
There are several that MRO can print that we do not have good enough specs on to be able to write a
reader, and we’ve had no customer requests. If you need one of them talk to us about pricing and
timing. HIB EAN/UCC 128, HIB EAN/UCC 25, HIBC LIC 128, HIBC LIC 39, MSI
7 We plan to implement this when we have a customer who needs it.
If you plan to scan without knowing which software or hardware you are going to be using, we strongly
recommend you pick from our recommended list. Most hardware barcode readers can read those as
well.
Other tips:
If printing from DMC/MRO, consider these recommendations for settings:
The wider the Narrow Bar Width is, in general, the larger the barcode will be and the easier (quicker) it
will be read. Normally pick 2, 3 or 4
The height in pixels is important if you have several barcodes in a row to make it easy to scan the correct
one.
Most barcode standards require that you have 7 to 11 ‘narrow bar widths’ of quiet zone for a code to be
readable. So with a narrow bar width of 2, 25 is a good choice. (2 * 11 = 22 plus 3 for a safety margin)
Add check digits to barcode only applies to barcode standards that do not have a check digit. And if you
add them to standards that don’t support it, the check digit will be part of the scan value.
Barcode ratio of wide bar over narrow bar. 3 is the most common industry standard and it is
recommended. It means that, on barcodes that only have 2 widths, the wider ones are 3 times wider.
Note on some like the EAN ones, bars and spaces come in 1, 2, 3 or 4 times the narrowest, so this ratio
has no bearing on those codes.
Include bearer bars. These are there to help make sure you don’t get false positives readings at an angle.
If you are using some of the ‘supported but not recommended’ formats, you might try with and
without bearer bars to see what works best.
For the recommended formats, there is no value in using bearer bars because all our
recommended ones have check digits and the purpose of bearer bars is to prevent a reader
from getting a false positive by only reading part of the code. But if you WANT to include them,
they won’t hurt.
Print barcode readable text at bottom of barcode. We have no recommendation, go with your
preference. In most places that barcodes can be printed in DMC/MRO, the value of the barcode is
already being printed elsewhere on the line so if you do end up wanting to hand type it in, you don’t
need the barcode to see the value to type. If they are stickers to stick on the equipment, then print the
text so you have it.
Appendix: But my barcode value isn’t right (Regex’s)… Regular Expressions (RegEx’s) are a tool/option for properly reading barcodes.
Here are some useful examples (should be useable as is or easy to change.)
Remove leading zero’s For example, let’s say you started with barcode 2 of 5, then realized that with both hardware barcode
readers and software barcode readers that that barcode 2 of 5 makes it too easy to get false positives
from angled reads, so your barcode printing company recommends you switch to ITF-14 (A barcode 2 of
5 more or less compatible, but prevents bad angled misreads). But the problem is ITF-14 forces 14 digits,
so you do the obvious, you pad it on the left with 0’s so 48339 becomes 00000000048339
To remove leading zeros, you can use the following regex:
Search string: ^0*(.*)
Replace string: $1
Tech info for those interested: The search string says, look for zero or more 0’s “0*” starting at the
beginning of the string “^”, do it greedily “*” (find as many 0’s as possible at the beginning) then find the
characters after that “.*” and put them into group 1 “()” so I can use them in the replace. Return me (the
replace) just group 1 “$1” and throw away everything else (where everything else in this case is the
leading zeros)
Take 1st 4, skip 3, take next 3 Search string: ^(….)…(…)
Replace string: $1$2
Tech info for those interested: The search string says take the 1st 4 characters – regardless of what they
are ”….”, put them in group 1 “()” then ignore three ‘…’ then take the next 3 characters “…”, put them in
group 2 “()” and ignore anything else on the line.
The replace says, take group 1 and add group 2 to it.
Take last 3 THEN 1st 4 Search string: ^(….).*(…)$
Replace string: $2$1
Tech info for those interested: The search string says take the 1st 4 characters – regardless of what they
are ”….”, put them in group 1 “()” then greedily “*” ignore all characters “.*” except the last three “…$”
and put the last three in group 2 “()”. The replace string says, return me group 2 then group 1.
Add fixed string to the beginning: Search string: (.*)
Replace string: CGY-$1
Tech info for those interested: The search string says take all the characters “.*” and put them in group
1. The replace string says, put the characters “CGY-“ in front of group 1.
Of course you could combine this with one of the above, for example: Search string: ^0*(.*)
Replace string: EDM-$1
Appendix: Fun facts: Quick: Name 2 animals that look like a barcode. Answer below.
The first product scanned ‘for real’ was a pack of Juicy Fruit gum. That pack of gum is now in a museum.
In June 1974, one of the first UPC scanners, made by NCR Corp. (which was then called National
Cash Register Co), was installed at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. On 1974.06.26 (June), the
first product with a bar code was scanned at a check-out counter. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley's
Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
For some 1974 is ‘a long time ago’. For some of us – we are shocked that they’ve only been around since
1974 – we thought they’ve been around our whole lives! But then, my grandma told me about how she
remembers the day the whole town of Toronto came out to see this new fangled thing called an
airplane, and my mother-in-law talks about getting in trouble driving at the break neck speed of
25mph/40kph on the highway (dirt road). She also had a hand written “permanent driver’s license”.
It is almost impossible to sell product to a retail store in Canada/USA now unless it comes with a UPC or
EAN code.
Most people think that you can’t use EAN/UPC for anything other than products for sale. But they are
used for other purposes like coupons, and there are blocks that total 1.2 TRILLION codes that YOU are
allowed to use for internal purposes: Inventory etc.., Though we often recommend you go with EAN-8
that has a miserly 12 Million codes available for your use!
Officially, it is ‘U.P.C.’ an abbreviation for Universal Product Code . ‘UPC’ in the US means ‘Unified
Plumbing Code’
The author of this document (and the designer/programmer of the barcode reader in MCx Limited
Internet Edition/MCe) first wrote software to read barcodes in the 1980’s – a mere 10 years after they
were first used ‘in the real world’. And now, (late 2014,) we brought software barcode readers into
MCxLE/MCe using just software through the camera on your cell phone/tablet/laptop. How far we’ve
come in these few years. He has also collaborated in 3 open source barcode projects through the years.
Maintenance Connection Canada Gives back!
What are 2 animals that look like Barcodes? Zebra (you probably came up with that one) and Quagga
(Extinct since about 100 years before barcodes were put into use.) And then there are the zebra and
quagga mussels. But they don’t look as much like a barcode as the zebra and quagga do. Quagga have
been argued to have been closer related to horses than zebra’s, but recent DNA testing from some of
the last specimens mounted before they went extinct, show that they are closer related to zebras.
Appendix, Big numbers – Millions and Billions The following chart is for anyone reading this document that does not easily think using Canada/US
words/numbers. For comparison:
Canada, US
French (français)
British Chinese Lakh/Crore Arabic figure Indian figure Power notation
Trillion Trillard Billion 1000
亿,
(仟 亿),
qiān yì
1 lakh
crore एक
लाख करोड़
1,000,000,000,000 10,00,00,00,00,000 1012
Billion Billard Thousand Million
10 亿,
10 yì
1 arab अरब 1,000,000,000 1,00,00,00,000 109
Million Millard Million 1000
仟, (仟
仟)
10 lakh
अदन्त
1,000,000 10,00,000 106
Thousand Mille Thousand 仟, qiān
Thousand
सहस्र
1,000 1,000 103
Notes for the chart above:
British/English: Some sources say that the British system is not used anymore, that the Canadian/US
definition is now used. However in discussing with British friends this does not seem the case. As one
says ‘Well, Americans may claim that we use their Billion – but that is just their opinion. We use both but
still use the British terminologies more than the American.’ And as another said ‘I was taught at
schoolteacher that a billion is a million x million. But like the rest of the world we get lazy and refer to
any multiples of millions as billions...’ (Basically – any number greater than million is ‘big’ hence billions.)
Chinese:
I am using the ‘modern’ Chinese number system, not any of the older systems.
I am using the Financial Chinese numbers (the hard to forge ones) not the so called ‘Normal’
numbers (easy to make larger/forge by adding a stroke or two.)
Where they differ, I use the ‘simplified’ 大写 characters, not the ‘traditional’ 大寫 numbers
I use the Mandarin Pīnyīn.
Due to this complexity, I’ve included links for each of the Chinese numbering characters for
further information.
For Lakh/Crore I am using the India Hindi. But in other, like Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati etc.., there is a word
for word replacement for lakh/crore.