A brief introduction to barcode

A barcode is a graphic identifier used to express information by arranging multiple black bars and blanks with different widths according to certain coding rules. Barcodes are the machine-readable code used in trading to identify the products in the world of retail. At present, barcodes include one-dimensional barcodes and two-dimensional codes.

So far, there are many types of one-dimensional barcodes, such as UPC codes and ENA codes; the most common barcodes of commodity in life, Code 39, which is mainly used for automobile industry and library management; Code 128, which can be used as container identification code in the transportation industry; International Standard Book Number ISBN. However, since these barcodes are one-dimensional, information is only recorded in the horizontal direction, while the height of the bar does not store information. Therefore, the information storage capacity of the one-dimensional codes is limited.

There are two types of two-dimensional codes: matrix type and stack type, which record infoermation in both horizontal and vertical directions. Therefore, compared with one-dimensional barcodes, the data storage of two-dimensional barcodes are larger, the occupied space is smaller, and the reliability is relatively stronger. At present, the application of two-dimensional code is becoming more and more extensive. Commonly applications of 2D codes including electronic ticketing, payment codes, electronic movie tickets, business cards, retail, advertising, entertainment, DM codes for financial banking and industrial labels, and PDF417 for boarding passes and lottery tickets. .

What is a barcode printer

A barcode printer https://www.hprt.com/Product/Label-Printers/ plays an important role in the barcoding technology. It is a printer used to print barcodes labels or tags that can be sticked on products, parcels, envelopes, food items, clothes, etc.


Based on printing technology, there are mainly two types of barcode printers: direct thermal barcode printer, thermal transfer barcode printer.

Based on applications, barcode printers can be seperateted into commercial barcode printer(also know as desktop barcode printer) and industrial barcode printer.