Barcode product recommendations
our guide for specific applications

The suggestions below are based on ease of use. Most of our barcode products can be used with most of the applications listed. However, the recommendations point the way to the products which are appropriate in many cases. Please download a testware version to see whether the product suits your application. See Support site for help on barcodes or our How to create barcodes in... page for information on creating barcodes in specific environments.

Adobe Acrobat
ASP & ASP.NET
C
C++ Builder
Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports Designer Component
Databases
Delphi 5/6
java - including BEA WebLogic Server, IBM WebSphere and Sun Java System Application Server
Label design and printing
Mac products
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Internet Information Server
Microsoft Word
ODBC connectivity
VBScript/JavaScript
Visual Basic
Visual C/C++
Visual Fox Pro
Visual Studio.NET (VB, C# and J#)

MS Office applications

Microsoft Word:
Generally Barcode Macros for Office is the ideal choice (see how create barcodes in Word).
For applications that do NOT require mail-merge Active Barcode Components can also be used, or one of the Barcode font for Windows products would also be suitable when programming in VBA.
For 2D barcodes the dBarcode-2D Developers Kit, one of the Active Barcode Components may be used.

For label printing from text or CSV files we recommend Really Simple Labels.

Microsoft Excel:
Generally Barcode Macros for Office is the ideal choice (see how create barcodes in Excel).
(For commercial distribution the dBarcode Developer's Kit provides the required functionality).
For 2D barcodes the dBarcode-2D Developers Kit, one of the Active Barcode Components may be used.

To connect to Excel spreadsheets for label printing we recommend Really Simple Labels. AnyLabels, dLabel Pro or dBarcode Suite may also be used.

Microsoft Access:
Generally Barcode Macros for Office is the ideal choice (see how create barcodes in Access), but note that this product is for users and its Active-X control may not be distributed. (For commercial distribution one of the Active Barcode Components or the dBarcode Developer's Kit provides the required functionality).
For 2D barcodes the dBarcode-2D Developers Kit, one of the Active Barcode Components may be used.

To connect to Access databases for label printing we recommend Really Simple Labels. AnyLabels, dLabel Pro or dBarcode Suite may also be used.

Label design and printing

It is usually more efficient to use a purpose-designed label printing system such as Really Simple Labels, AnyLabels, dLabel Pro or dBarcode Suite. These programs can derive data from most ODBC data sources.

Developer components for label printing include the Labels.NET family.

Programming languages

Visual Basic 6: Active Barcode Components are probably the best when barcode images are to be used (see how create barcodes in VB).
Alternatively the more powerful dBarcode-1D Developers Kit and dBarcode-2D Developers Kit contain Active DLLs which may be called directly from VB as well as other languages.

For VB.NET applications we recommend dBarcode.NET components

Visual C/C++: dBarcode DLLs are designed for this, and include both 32-bit and 64-bit DLLs for even faster action (see How to create barcodes in C/C++).
dBarcode-1D Developers Kit (or 2D version) also contain powerful Active DLL components that can be called from C/C++ as well as other languages.

Visual Studio.NET (VB, C#): dBarcode for .NET Components are probably the best when fully managed components are required for the .NET v2 Framework (see how to create barcodes in C# or how to create barcodes in VB.NET ).
Active Barcode Components are Active-X controls and so may be imported into older Visual Studio .NET projects. However, we no longer provide support for this mode and recommend the use of the dBarcode.NET components for new .NET projects where the >NET Framework v2 is available.

For designing and printing labels from .NET applications we recommend Labels.NET

C++ Builder: We no longer support C++ Builder. However, Active Barcode Components may be imported in C++ Builder and allow barcode images to be used. Alternatively the dBarcode DLLs may be called directly.
One of the Barcode font for Windows or Font Kit products may also be used.

Delphi: A Delphi component derived from TImage (including Pascal source code) is included with all our dBarcode DLLs and the dBarcode Developer Kits, and their use is illustrated in how to create barcodes in Delphi).
Active Barcode Components are Active-X controls and so may be imported into Delphi but we no longer provide sample code or support for this.

Java: The dBarcode Java Classes are designed for use with Java 2, and require the J2SE 1.4 or later (for desktop and applets) and the J2EE 2.4 or later for servlets. Suitable for use with BEA WebLogic Server, IBM WebSphere and Sun Java System Application Server.

VBScript/JavaScript: For server-side programs on IIS see Barcode IMG Server for IIS. For fully managed solutions the dBarcode.NET components are recommended.

Mac products

For simple barcode creation and label printing on Mac OS-X (10.4 or later) systems we can offer Really Simple Barcodes for Mac.

Miscellaneous

Adobe Acrobat can use both images created with any of the dBarcode products, Really Simple Barcodes or Barcode Macros for Office, and barcodes made from any of the font products on pages created in other applications. (Acrobat 5 requires at least version 2.11 of the barcode fonts, where the multi-user version contain an embedding licence.)

Crystal Reports: For Crystal Reports XI or later the Barcode Tools for Crystal Reports provides tools for both embedding 1D barcode images in reports or for creating font based barcodes in-situ. The Barcode 2D Tools for Crystal Reports product provides similar tools for most common 2D barcodes.

Earlier versions of Crystal Reports did not support image embedding, so barcodes could only be created using font techniques. For these versions the Barcode Tools for Crystal Reports include a Crystal Reports UFL (User Function Library) for use in formulae (see how to create barcodes in Crystal Reports). A similar UFL is provided in Barcode 2D Tools for Crystal Reports to produce 2D barcode subject to certain capacity restrictions.

Crystal Reports Designer Component (for Visual Basic 5/6; not suitable for VB.NET): Tools for the RDC are included in Barcode Tools for Crystal Reports and Barcode 2D Tools for Crystal Reports .

Databases: To connect to a dBase File, Excel spreadsheet, Access, FoxPro, SQL Server or Oracle database for Label/Ticket/Card printing we recommend Really Simple Labels. For connections by ODBC dBarcode Suite may also be used.
AnyLabels is suitable for use with Office 97-2003 products and most ODBC databases and includes a barcode driver. Labels.NET provides the label printing functionality of Really Simple Labels or AnyLabels for developers creating their own applications.

Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS): Barcode IMG Server for IIS and Barcode-2D IMG Server for IIS support ASP and ASP.NET to produce server-side barcodes which work in any browser capable of using GIF or PNG images. (see how to create barcodes on Web servers)
Alternatively any of the font products may be used (see demo).

For ASP.NET applications fully managed solutions are provided by the dBarcode.NET components (see how to create barcodes in ASP.NET). Working samples may be viewed online.

Visual Fox Pro: For 1D barcodes either the Universal Font Kit, or one of the Barcode font for Windows products. 2D barcodes may be created using one of the 2D Barcode Font Kits. Each kit includes a sample Visual FoxPro project suitable for VFP version 7 or later.