FAQs - Barcodes

Barcode related

QB1. What is the difference between Really Simple Barcodes, dBarcode Pro and a barcode font for Windows?

Answer: Really Simple Barcodes creates barcode images for many different barcode types and copies the image to the clipboard or saves it in a graphics file. Thus it is suitable for occasional use. dBarcode Pro is an OLE server and so can insert barcode images into OLE enabled application such as Word (by choosing insert object from the application's menu). dBarcode Pro also supports full automation OLE and so may be programmed from within applications such as VB6, Excel and Access. Some application which have a programming language do NOT support high-quality metafile images; Visual FoxPro version 3 is one of these - and we would recommend a barcode font for automating barcode creation in Visual FoxPro.
A barcode font will produce a barcode in most Windows applications - but you need to purchase the font for the barcode type you require, and the font for Code 39 is different from the font for Code 128, etc. Also see the next question.

QB2. Will a barcode font allow me to translate text directly into a barcode image?

Answer: Not exactly! The nearest you can get to this is with Code 39 barcodes (and one or two of the older code types). To create the Code 39 barcode for ABC123 you simply produce *ABC123* and display/print it in the Code 39 font (including the * characters which are the start and stop characters). Most other barcode types either a) require one or more check characters to be included in the barcode, or b) do not have a one-to-one correspondence between text characters and barcode patterns. In these cases the dFont application (supplied with each font) may be used to determine from the text the characters required to generate the barcode. The Visual Basic source of dFont is also supplied and relevant sections of this may be used to create barcode entries in appliaction such as Visual FoxPro, Paradox, Excel, Access, etc.

QB3. How can I get barcodes printed from Crystal Reports?

QB4. How can I get barcodes printed from Visual FoxPro?

QB5. How can I get barcodes printed from  Word's Mail Merge?

Answer: See our recommendations.

QB6. How can I include printable barcodes on Web pages?

Answer: Take a look at our document on Barcodes on Web pages

QB7. What's the difference between 1D and 2D barcodes

Answer: 1D barcodes hold a limited amount of information (generally less than 40 characters, although there are exceptions) while 2D barcodes can hold considerably more (in some case up to 2000 characters). However, 2D barcodes require more expensive barcode scanners to read the barcode, and in many cases such scanners do not operate through the computer's keyboard input - and so may not interface readily to your specific application. Many 1D barcode scanners (known as keyboard wedge scanners) connect in series with the keyboard - so, from an application's point of view, scanning a barcode is just like typing on the keyboard.

Most barcodes used for product identification (such as in retail stores and warehouses) will be 1D barcodes, such as EAN, UPC (for point of sale use), or Code 39 or Code 128 (for non-point of sale use).