Aztec barcode font kit

The Aztec barcode font kit includes the Aztec fonts and both 32 and 64 bit ANSI and Unicode DLLs and 32 and 64 bit Active-X components, a fully-managed-code .NET component, and a Java class, allowing calls from most programming languages to convert a character string into an Aztec barcode, plus a 32 bit UFL for use within Crystal Reports*.

Fonts are provided in TrueType, OpenType, and Postcript formats and at several weights.

The DLL is suitable for calling from Visual Basic 6, VB.NET, C#, Visual C++, Microsoft Office, Delphi, C++ Builder and many other development systems. The DLL/OCX provides control over the Security level (Layers), and the encoding Mode (Normal, Compact and Full Range).

The OCX may be used through its properties, and the Caption property may be bound to a database field.

The kit includes examples (with source code) for C/C++, MS Access, Crystal Reports*, Delphi, Java, VB6, VB.NET and Visual FoxPro. Also included are mailmerge samples for Access and Excel data sources.

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[Aztec is also supported by the Universal 2D Barcode font kit]

Aztec is a matrix symbology which supports the entire ASCII character set and offers several error checking modes. Aztec symbols are square and may be read at any orientation.

Aztec barcode symbol

The symbol is made up of squares which "grow" from the centre around a centre mark. The size of the symbol is characterised by the number of "layers" outside the centre mark, and this can range from 1 – 32.

The components in the Aztec font kit convert the barcode data into a string of ASCII characters which, when displayed/printed in one of the fonts provided, appears as a collection of squares that form the Aztec barcode symbol.

Security and Layers

In Normal mode the user may select any percentage of the symbol to contain error checking data within the range 1 – 99%. This is the Security Level in dLSoft libraries. If a value of 0% is used then the symbol will actually be produced with the default amount of error correction (which is 23% + 3 codewords). The higher the security level the greater will be the number of layers required to contain the symbol – and hence its overall size.

In Compact mode the user specifies the number of layers used to contain the symbols information – and this is restricted to the range 1 – 4. Error correction data fills the space available.

In Full range mode again the user specifies the number of layers allowed for the symbol, but this time the range is 1 – 32. Again error correction data is used to fill otherwise unused space in the specified number of layers.

In Full range mode the maximum capacity of Aztec Code symbols is approximately as follows:

Digits only – maximum capacity 3800 digits
Alphanumeric text – maximum capacity 3000 characters*
Byte values – maximum capacity 1900 bytes

*Note that capital letters, punctuation and new lines/paragraphs reduce this value.

Runes are special Aztec symbols which consist of a single layer and have no security options. Appended symbols are not supported by dLSoft products at this time.

Sample code in C/C++

A typical C/C++ call to the DLL to convert and output a text string is:

iLevel=0; // 0 for default
iMode=0; // 0 for Normal, 1 for Compact, etc
iFlags=0;
strcpy(szData,"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
nl=strlen(szData);
n=Bar2Dazf((LPSTR)szData,&nl, &iFlags, &iLevel, &iMode,(LPSTR)szBarcode);

szBarcode receives the multi-line text that forms the barcode.
The iFlags value may be used in the Unicode version to allow data to be encoded as Unicode, greatly simplifying the encoding of non-western character sets.

Sample code in VB

A typical VB call to the DLL to convert a text string is:

Aztnet1.StartMode = 0
Aztnet1.SecurityLevel = 0
Aztnet1.Caption = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
barcode1.Text = Aztnet1.Barcode()

The barcode text has been copied to a TextBox (barcode1)

Adding to an Access Form or Report

To add the control to an Access Form or Report, open the form or report in Design view and ensure that the Toolbox is visible. Select the “More controls” icon on the Toolbox and then select the AZTOCX Active-X Control module from the list of controls displayed. Draw a rectangle for the control on the from or report.

Once added to a form or report, selection of the control will show the available properties in Access’s properties window. The font should be set by right-clicking on the control and choosing the Aztocx control properties from the displayed menu.

Using the dFontAZ Java class

The dFontAz Java class may be used to return strings that contain rows of characters that, when displayed in the AZT font form a QR Code symbol. The class may be used directly or through the dFontAZ.jar provided.

The class is instantiated with the new command:

dFontAZ az1=new dFontAZ();

and the required properties set using the setModeType() and setLevel() methods. The data is supplied to the class using the setCaption() methods and the update() method called to generated the barcode characters.

The number of rows of characters in the resulting barcode may be obtained from the getNStrings() method, and each line of the barcode returned using getBarcodeString(i), eg.

// g is output graphics – screen or printer
// ht is the chose font height in points
// x and y are the top left coordinated required for the symbol
n=az1.getNStrings();
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
{ g.drawString(az1.getBarcodeString(i),x,(y+i*ht)); }

Licensing

Each kit may be licensed as a single computer product or as a developer version which permits Royalty-free of the components for up to 10,000 distributions.

System requirements

Requires Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7. To obtain printed barcodes a Windows compatible printer is required. One of the tools provided must be used for conversion of data into a barcode.

The 32 bit components may be installed on either 32 or 64 bit systems. 64 bit components require a 64 bit operating system.

Except where otherwise stated, the .NET component is designed for use with Visual Studio 2005/.NET Framework 2.0 or later; and supports x32, x64 and IA64.

*Note: The Aztec UFL for use within Crystal Reports can generate barcodes containing a maximum of 100 characters - the limitation arising from the maximum number of characters that can be returned from a Crystal Reports formula.

Testware versions randomly scramble characters, but otherwise provides a scannable barcode.
The fonts are not suitable for use without the one of the provided components to create the barcode.

All developer font products include an embedding licence so that fonts may be embedded into Acrobat pdf pages (see sample pdf document) or font objects created for embedding barcodes into web pages (see demo page).

View 2D Barcode Font kits help files - see the Home menu above.