Contents

Help Contents

License

Generating Single Barcodes

Saving A Sequence Of Barcodes

Grouping Digits


License, Source Code, Warranty
License

Barcode97 is Freeware. You may use it whenever you need it without paying anything to anyone. You are highly encouraged to copy the program and give it to other people. All files must be included unmodified! You must not sell this software. (You may include Barcode97 in Shareware- or Freeware collections on CD-ROM or diskettes)

Source Code

The source code is not included in the distribution and is not publicly available. If you really want it, you will have to pay very much. So forget asking for it, except you are rich.

The UNIX version XBarcode is available only in C source code. It is not as comfortable as Barcode97 but if you are interested in the barcode generation routines, this may be a good choice. (Be warned: XBarcode was programmed quick and dirty!)  You can obtain XBarcode from my homepage or via ftp.

Warranty

Please keep in mind:  This program comes without any warranty. If you use it, it's on your risk.


Generating Barcodes

Proceed the following steps:

Select barcode type and enter desired code:

While moving with the mouse cursor over the radio buttons you will see what characters you can use with each barcode type. There is also a maximum length for each code. If you enter an illegal code you will get an error message in the first line of the main window. Copying and Saving this code will be disabled then. (See: valid codes)

Select options:

You can specify the size of the bitmap by entering numbers for the width and height (in pixels). An easier way is to resize the preview window with the mouse.

The width of the lines is determined by the zoom factor: the zoom factor n means a single line is n pixels wide.

Turn off the preview window if you think you don't need it. The updating can waste a lot of time, especially when you are saving more than one barcode.

If you are generating EAN codes you will probably prefer the standard layout.

Choosing 'add text' displays the entered code below or above the bars. You can select a font and the text position after clicking the 'Font'-button.

These options do not have an effect on LaTex or Postscript saving!

Export barcode:

There are two possibilities:

Press the 'Copy'-button to copy the barcode to the Windows' clipboard. Switch the to the application in which you like to use it and paste the clipboard.

Press 'Save As' to save the barcode to a file. Choose format, directory and enter a filename. Confirm with the 'Ok'-button!


Valid Codes

EAN

Only digits may be used. The length of the entered code must be 7, 8, 12 or 13. If you enter 7 or 12 characters, the check digit will be calculated and appended to the code. If you are outside of Europe or the calculation of the check digit does differ for any other reason from the implemented one, you can calculate it manually and supply it with the code. The radio button text for EAN barcode type is updated according to the length of your entered input. '+1' is indicating the invisible check digit you omitted in the input.

UPC

Only digits may be used. The length of the entered code must be 11 or 12. That is UPC-A standard. UPC-E is not supported. If you enter 11 characters, the check digit will be calculated and appended to the code. If you enter the check digit yourself and do it wrong, the scanner probably will not recognize the code.

Code 128 (EAN128)

You may use all ASCII characters from 0 to 127. To enter a special character, enclose it in paranthesis. For example (CR) for the carriage return character. The code must begin with a start character, this can be one of (STARTA), (STARTB), (STARTC). You may also use the short forms (SA), (SB) or (SC). If you do not specify the start charcter, Start A will be used.

Barcode97 will determine automatically code shifts if you use a character that is not in the actual character set. It will produce a permanent code change to Code A or B. This may be inefficient, if after a single character the character set must be changed again. You can optimize the output in these case with the (SHIFT) or (S) code to shift from A to B or B to A for only one character. The program will give you an error message if you use (SHIFT) in Code C - it is not defined there. You will also get an error message, if the entered (SHIFT) is useless. For example:  (SB)H(S)i!  You start with character set B, so (SHIFT) must not be used for the code of i, otherwise you would get the code for (HT).

The character set C is used for double density digits. You have to enter (C) to switch to that code, if you want to. This will not be done automatically. You can then enter an even number of digits. For example  ...(C)09251997test... The program will insert (B) after the 7 - because that character set is needed to generate the lower case t. If you want to use double density numbers and you don't want an even number of digits to use, you have to turn off Code C manually. Try for example ...(C)19970101(A)5ABC...

Available Special Codes

ASCII 0-31 with the standard abbrevations:

NUL, SOH, STX, ETX, EOT, ENQ, ACK, BEL, BS, HT, LF, VT, FF, CR, SO, SI, DLE, DC1..DC4, NAK, SYN, ETB, CAN, EM, SUB, ESC, FS, GS, RS, US

DEL

CODEA	/	A	to switch to character set A

CODEB	/	B	to switch to character set B

CODEC	/	C	to switch to character set C

STARTA	/	SA	to start with character set A

STARTB	/	SB	to start with character set B

STARTC	/	SC	to start with character set C

Code Codabar

You may use digits, letters from A to E, T and N and special characters: . + - * / = and the Dollar sign. The code must begin with a start character and end with an end character. Don't ask me which they are - but they are from the set above :-)

Code 2 of 5

Only digits may be used. Code length of the interlaced code must be even!

Code 3 of 9

You may use digits, letters from A to Z and special characters: + - / . % $ and blank.


Sequence Of Barcodes, Saving Multiple Barcodes
A Sequence Of Barcodes

You need more than one barcode? Then you probably like to save a sequence of barcodes with increasing numbers. To achieve that, just place underscores ('_') in the barcode editing line in the main window. You must not use more than eight underscores and they may appear everywhere in the barcode. They can succeed one another - but that is not required. When you take a look at the preview window you will see that the underscores are replaced by zeros.

Saving Multiple Barcodes

The filename in the 'Save As'-window must contain the same number of underscores as the barcode in the main window. You can set start and end value of the counter in the 'Save As'-window. The underscores in barcode and filename will be replaced from left to right with the actual number of the counter.

If the preview window is visible you can watch the changing barcodes while saving is in progress. The program will be faster if you turn off the preview window before saving. Maybe you shouldn't choose the GIF file format for the sake of speed!

Warning: Saving a lot of codes may take a long time... You can not abort the progress unless an error occurs.

Example: Saving serial numbers  SN 00-????-98.

(1) 	Choose barcode type Code128 or 3 of 9

(2) 	Enter the barcode SN 00-____-98

(2a)	(if necessary:) Adjust bitmap size

(3)	Klick the Save As-button

(4)	Choose the file format (default: BMP)

(5)	Modify filename as you like it, but keep four underscores in it (for example: SN-____.BMP)

(6)	Enter counter start and end value in the From and To fields

(7)	Press Ok-button and go to lunch

(8)	Access the files from your applications or HTML documents. Here is the code from file SN-2732.BMP:


Grouping Digits

You may wish to increase the readability of numeric codes for human readers. This feature is available for EAN (if not in standard layout mode), UPC and 2 of 5 codes. You can enter space characters (' ') or dashes ('-') at any position in the input line. They do not affect the bars of the code, and a scanner will not read them. If Barcode97 has to calculate a check digit, it will be appended at the end of your input. Enter a space at the end to separate the check digit from the rest of the code.