Barcode information - clocked types

Common Clocked barcode types (follow links for linear 1D types or 2d types)

•   Australia Post
•   Infomail Barcode A
•    Intelligent Mail
•   Japan Post
•   Korean Postal Authority
•   OneCode
•   Postnet & FIM
•   Planet
•   RM4SCC and 4-State
•   Singapore Post
•   Swiss post Strichcode

 

Australia Post

The Australian Postal Service uses a variant of the 4 State code with Reed-Solomon Error Correction, and four versions of the code are supported:

Standard Customer code: the default setting in dLSoft libraries, obtained by unchecking both the EXTRA1 and IEXTRA2 checkboxes in applications, or clearing the flags parameter bits DL_FLAG_EXTRA1 (bit 4 of the flags variable) and DL_FLAG_EXTRA2 (bit 5 of the flags variable).

Customer 1: obtained by by checking the EXTRA1 checkbox in applications, or setting the flags parameter bit DL_FLAG_EXTRA1 (bit 4 of the flags variable).

Customer 2: obtained by by checking the EXTRA2 checkbox in applications, or setting the flags parameter bit DL_FLAG_EXTRA2 (bit 5 of the flags variable).

Reply Paid coupon: obtained by checking both the EXTRA1 and IEXTRA2 checkboxes in applications, or setting the flags parameter bits DL_FLAG_EXTRA1 (bit 4 of the flags variable) and DL_FLAG_EXTRA2 (bit 5 of the flags variable).

  (shown enlarged)

 

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InfoMail Barcode A

InfoMail Barcode A uses a variant of the 4 State code with Reed-Solomon Error Correction. The final barcode consists of 51 bars made from 17 codewords, 12 datawords and 5 error-correction words.

The data is constructed from 6 numeric fields. In the dLSoft implementation the data string may be provided by joining either the fields of the required length (space filled or made up with leading 0s), or comma or tab separated fields. The following fields are required:

Field name	Field length	Max value
AccountID	6	213867
ProductID	2	99
ClassID	1	3
DayMonthID*	4	3112
ConsignmentID	2	49
UniqueID	6	249999

* DayMonthID is provided in the form of ddmm, where dd is the day of the month and mm is the month of the year; thus June 3 is provided as 0306.

The barcode will typically be printed with a height of 5 mm, and an overall length of 56.5 mm. or approximately 23 bars per inch

 

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Intelligent Mail

Intelligent Mail® is a four-state system used by the US Postal Service mailstream. It is also known as OneCode and the USPS 4-State Customer Barcodes (4CB). The code combines the routing ZIP code and tracking information into a single fixed length code. OneCode barcodes are clocked codes consisting of 65 bars, each of which may be one of four heights.

         (shown enlarged)

The data for Intelligent Mail® symbols consist of 20 digits of tracking information and 0, 5, 9 or 11 digits for a Delivery Point ZIP code. The allowed data lengths are 20, 25, 29 or 31 digits.

The tracking information consists of:

• Barcode Identifier (2 digits, second digit must be 0 – 4)
• Special Services (3 digits)
• Customer Identifier (6 digits)
• Sequence number (9 digits)

The first three items are assigned by USPS, while the Sequence number is assigned by the mailer.
Intelligent Mail® symbols contain an 11 bit CRC check sequence.

 

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Japan Post barcode

The Japan Post barcode is a clocked barcode similar in appearance to 4 State code, with a mod 19 check-digit. The elements are normally reproduced at 8, 9,10, or 11.5 point, although values between 7 and 12 point are permitted.

(shown enlarged)

The symbol will accept digits and uppercase letters and the hyphen. The data consists of a 7 digit postal code plus address data. If the address data is less than 13 characters the remaining character positions are filled with control characters to make the length 20.

The postal code section may have a hyphen at the 4^th character position (eg. 123-4567) although this hyphen does not appear in the encoded data. There may also be a hyphen between the postal code and the address data (eg. 154-0023-1-3-2-A-507). Again this hyphen does not appear in the encoded data. Note that the remaining hyphens are encoded.

 

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Korean Postal Authority barcode

The Korean Postal Authority code is a clocked code consisting of a 6 digit Zip code plus a single parity digit.

The Zip code may be provided with a dash between the first three and last three digits. The dash is not encoded and a human readable form is not included under the barcode.

 

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PostNet barcodes

PostNet codes are the clocked codes used in the US mail system. There a three types of PostNet code (identified as A, C and C’) which differ in the number of characters encoded. These codes are based on the US ZIP code system.

     PostNet A

PostNet A barcodes encode 5 characters
PostNet C barcodes encode 9 characters
PostNet C' barcodes encode 11 characters

Planet codes

The same clocked barcode scheme also forms the basis of the Planet codes.

Planet codes are clocked codes used within the US Postal Service for the confirmation of incoming or outgoing mail.

         Planet_OC

Planet codes consist of 9 digits prefixed by a code to indicate whether the Origin Confirm or Destination Confirm service is required, and postfixed by a mandatory check digit.

FIM codes

The US postal also uses FIM symbols – FIM A, FIM B and FIM C. There is no text content associated with these codes.

    FIM A          FIM B              FIM C

 

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RM4SCC & 4-State barcodes

RM4SCC is the Royal Mail (UK) version of the 4 State clocked barcode used for directing mail. The codes contain a start and stop bit, while the 4 State code (below) does not. While both codes offer the option of a checkdigit, it should be noted that the Royal Mail code must include the checkdigit.

These codes are based on the UK Post Code system, but may also contain an International Prefix and a Delivery Point Suffix.

Note that in both RM4SCC and 4 State all characters are converted to upper case prior to encoding and any illegal characters with ASCII codes >32 are converted to X. Illegal characters with ASCII codes <= 32 are ignored -- so spaces and carriage returns are ignored.

       RM4SCC

4 State is similar to the RM4SCC code and is used in some European countries without the start and stop bits and in some cases without the Checkdigit. This code is referred to as 4 State.

       4 State

 

Singapore Post

Singapore Post (SingPost) uses the RM4SCC system and requires the checkdigit.

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Swiss Post barcodes

The Strichcode for A-Post and B-Post is used by the Swiss Postal Service.

In the dLSoft library the B-Post symbol is produced by checking the EXTRA1 checkbox in applications, or setting the flags parameter bit DL_FLAG_EXTRA1 (bit 4 of the flags variable).

 There is no text content associated with these codes.