Barcode Printers & Scanners - How does it work?

What is Barcode Technology and how does it work?

A bar code is a series of varying width vertical lines (called bars) and spaces. Bars and spaces together are named “elements”. There is a different combination to the bars and spaces which represent different characters in a bar code.

When a bar code scanner is passed over the bar code, the light source from the scanner is absorbed by the dark bars and not reflected, but it is reflected by the light spaces. A photocell detector in the scanner receives the reflected light and converts the light into an electrical signal.

As the Barcode Scanner is passed over the bar code, the scanner creates a low electrical signal for the spaces (reflected light) and a high electrical signal for the bars (nothing is reflected); the duration of the electrical signal determines wide vs. narrow elements. This signal can be “decoded” by the bar code reader’s decoder into the characters that the bar code represents. The decoded data is then passed to the computer in a traditional data format.

Some of the top Barcode Printers Manufacturers are: Zebra, Intermec, Datamax

Here is a list of Barcode standards:

• Codabar
• Code 11
• Code 2 of 5
• Code 39
• Code 39 Extension
• Code 93
• EAN 8
• EAN 13
• ISBN 10
• ISBN 13
• ITF14
• Interleaved 2 of 5
  
• Identcode
• Leitcode
• Code 128 A
• Code 128 B
• Code 128 C
• EAN 128
• SSCC18
• MSI
• Onecode
• Planet
• Postnet
• RM4SCC (British Royal Mail 4-State Customer Barcode)
• US Postal
• UPC-A
• UPC-E