completely OT

[Exmoor Beast]

HELP!

things are going doolaalee here and we seem to be on the brink of landing a potentially HUGE contract. The downside is we need to start using barcodes and I don't understand how they work to be honest.

I have spoken to GS1UK and they were a slight help. I know we need to become members to get allocated a company number and then a code for each item. All this I am happy with (I think) but then armed with this number (or batch of numbers) what do I do next?

How does the number become a sticky stripey label???

Sorry its OT but I know you good folk will point me in the right direction.

Cheers

Will

Heres a picture to make up for the OT:)

[Disco_Dunk]

Will...... it's been a loooooong time since I did anything with bar-codes so take this with a pinch of salt.....

The easiest bar-code system to implement is called Code39 (or was it 32? something like that) - basically, there's a barcode representation for each letter and digit, so you can get a simple windows font, type out what you want encoded, then change it's font to Code39 (or whatever it is) and hey presto, you've got a barcode. We used to have great fun printing out obscene barcode messages

The bar-codes on things like baked-bean tins are a whole different ball game, and I think they're a more complex format (something about interleaving.....)

Have a look at http://www.skandata.com/howto1.html

Maybe someone will come along and explain things better.....

Dunk

[sgnas]

Rather predictably, a little bit of software transforms the alphanumeric string into a barcode.

There are several formats (at least 3) you just need to know what format your client uses and how they construct their text string

It could be

Supplier code

Product code

etc.

That might be enough, but they might include, for non retail purposes, date of manufacture or similar

[Gromit]

The bar-codes on things like baked-bean tins are a whole different ball game, and I think they're a more complex format (something about interleaving.....)

Rather boringly, I was sitting at the dinner table a few weeks ago, with nothing to do (other than eat me dinner) looking at the 5 barcodes on varioius bottles of condiments in front of me, trying to match the numbers with the lines. I thought that I had matched up each number with a pair of lines, but then concluded that there were too few lines and gave up.

errr, not much help that eh?

[Les Henson]

looking at the 5 barcodes on varioius bottles of condiments in front of me, trying to match the numbers with the lines.

You sad man!!

Les

[rtbarton]

It's not just the number of lines, its the thickness and spacing too, I suspect it boils down to a serial bitstream.

I tried some software which looked like a printer driver to the software so you could use it with any program, some label printing software packages have a barcode option on too, try searching for "barcodes" on Tucows.

The easiest way to read a barcode is to get a keyboard wedge, this reads the barcode and sends it to the computer just as if you'd typed it.

[FridgeFreezer]

Can you not ask the supplier what bar codes they want you to use and then be honest and say "can you point us in the direction of the right stuff to make them?". There's no point you pretending you know what it's all about, buying something that you think is right and then finding out it's completely wrong.

After all, the customer should know what they want - and you may be able to blag some equipment from them short-term. These days you can buy little dedicated printers for not much money (<£50) from the likes of Dymo that come with the software too. Failing that perhaps you would want to link in to your customer's computer system to synchronise with their codes? (makes your life easier as you are using their stuff).

Oh and More than you ever wanted to know about bar codes (Wikipedia is your friend )

Any office supplies place should be able to sell a bar copde printer

[pugwash]

once you know the codes you are going to use- and that may be defined by your supplier, you need to ask what type of barcodes you can use.

you can then use barcode software, which is pretty freely available just about everywhere. you just stick a code into the software and it prepares a barcode. If you get the right software then you could print to labels, and just stick thos one your products. Altneratively you can turn the barcode into a jpg and send it off to a printers to get proper labels printed up.

[V8CAMEL]

once you know the codes you are going to use- and that may be defined by your supplier, you need to ask what type of barcodes you can use.

you can then use barcode software, which is pretty freely available just about everywhere. you just stick a code into the software and it prepares a barcode. If you get the right software then you could print to labels, and just stick thos one your products. Altneratively you can turn the barcode into a jpg and send it off to a printers to get proper labels printed up.

[/quote

word has a font to convert to barcodes. Set them up print them on labels BC 39 Hi

also availiable in excel

[pugwash]

yeah but it quite often converts them into some funny format which isn't compatible. You do have to make sure that you are using the right type of barcodes or else you won't be able to read them properly.

[Andy]

on topic answer

nice photo

[Steve King]

Assuming that the product is food, I think that the actual content of the bar code is governed by EU regulations.

I use bar codes at work on insurance renewal papers, but these only relate to transactions, so that we get a form and cheque back, scan the bar code and job done.

I think the codes relating to food need the country of origin, date of manufacture, type of product etc.

As to suppliers of software and hardware there are loads out there and unless you have signed up to a particular database supplier the world (to quote Del Boy!) is your Lobster!

[PeterW]

Assuming that the product is food, I think that the actual content of the bar code is governed by EU regulations.

I use bar codes at work on insurance renewal papers, but these only relate to transactions, so that we get a form and cheque back, scan the bar code and job done.

I think the codes relating to food need the country of origin, date of manufacture, type of product etc.

As to suppliers of software and hardware there are loads out there and unless you have signed up to a particular database supplier the world (to quote Del Boy!) is your Lobster!

You need one of these

And some of this

And read this about GS1 standards...

EAN-13 is the food standard for retail use

Cheers

Pete