UPCTOOL

upctool − encodes a string used to create a UPC or EAN barcode & returns it to stdout

upctool codeset barcode [supplemental]

UPCTools is a collection of fonts that allows you to create UPC, EAN, Bookland (ISBN), and ISSN barcodes. You cannot simply type directly in the fonts and create a valid, scannable symbol. The upctool command line utility accepts a number and formats it to include the start and stop bars, and calculates the necessary check digit(s). The string it returns is to be formatted in one of Azalea Software's UPC barcode fonts.

upca

upce

UPC version E: 6- or 10-digit barcode + 0-, 2-, or 5- digit supplemental barcode. Retail items in the US & Canada.

ean8

EAN-8: 7-digit barcode + 0-, 2-, or 5-digit supplemental barcode. Retail items in Europe & Asia.

ean13

EAN-13/JAN-13: 12-digit barcode + 0-, 2-, or 5-digit supplemental bar code. Retail items in Europe & Asia.

book

Bookland: 10-digit ISBN + 5-digit supplemental bar code. Used for books. Based on ISBN number & price.

issn

ISSN: 10-digit ISSN + 2-digit supplemental barcode. Used for periodicals outside the US.

music

Music: 10-digit + 1 digit music code.

UPCTools contains a number of different fonts. While they can all be used to create UPC and EAN barcodes, they are designed with specific needs in mind. The font names provide clues about their various characteristics.

The Tall fonts (Upc-Tall-Regular, Upc-TallNarrow, etc.) create full-sized symbols and the Half fonts (Upc-Half, Upc-HalfNarrow, etc.) create half-height, truncated barcode symbols.

The Narrow fonts’ bars are pre-narrowed .002" and the Thin fonts’ bars .004" to compensate for ink spread on the printing press. If you are creating camera-ready artwork, talk with your printer about any anticipated ink spread. When in doubt, consider using the narrower fonts.

The Music fonts create symbols with the left and right notches, but without human-readable characters underneath the bars. Why? Because the human-readable characters in a music bar code don’t line up under their respective bars. Simply use the OCR-B-Music font to make the human-readable characters manually. The Music fonts are pre-narrowed .004".

The Bars fonts (Upc-HalfBarsThin and UpcTallBarsThin) create just the bar codes without human-readable characters and without the notches. The Bars fonts are pre-narrowed .004".

The ISBN number is often printing above or below Bookland bar codes in OCR-A. We’ve included an OCR-A-Book font with UPCTools so that you can create the ISBN number manually.

The upctool utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

The upctool utility is GTIN compliant and accepts 14-digit GTIN input.