16

Jul

Choosing the correct label printing software

Whether you spell it barcode, bar code, or bar-code, the right software for you likely depends as much on how you want to print your barcodes as it does on the type of barcodes that you need to print. If you are looking to place a pre-printed UPC or EAN-13 barcode on a retail point of sale product (for example, as you might see on a box of cereal), then all you need is software that can generate barcodes for export into your software.

In contrast, “on demand” applications tend to use barcodes other than UPC and EAN-13, including many of those listed below. And, rather than being imported into pre-press artwork, these barcodes are usually printed as needed on labels. What’s more, these labels often contain much more than just the barcode. In addition to the “human readable” version of the barcode data (often, but not always, appearing underneath the barcode), there can be a substantial quantity of text-based information. There may even be a picture of a part, or other graphics. (That’s why some industrial labels are so large.)

Just because software can print labels doesn’t mean that it can print labels with barcodes. For example, the simple label software you might buy to print addresses to mail your household bills or ship your company newsletter just isn’t going to support the variety of advanced barcodes and data integration required by industrial labeling applications.

Fortunately, BarTender label software can do it all. It comes with out-of-the-box support for more than 100 barcode standards, just about any size text and text style, as large or small a label as your printer can handle, and it can even encode RFID tags. And, if all you need is to export a barcode into your pre-press artwork, BarTender can do that too!

Please click here for more information about BarTender.

Overview of Barcode Standards:

Among the numerous families of barcode standards supported by BarTender software are:

Aztec CodeGS1 DataBar
Codabar GS1 DataMatrix
Code 39 GS1-128
Code 93 HIBC
Code 128 Interleaved 2-of-5
Data MatrixISBT 128
DUN-14 ITF-14
GS1 CompositePDF417 and MicroPDF417
Postal and Shipping, including UPS, USPS, Maxicode, KIX Code, Japanese Post,  Canadian Customs, and Australia Post Coupons, including EAN-13 ’99′ and North American Coupon
QR Code and Micro QR Code
Telepen  
TLC  
Trioptic  
UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, JAN-13, JAN-8
 
Information first written and published by Seagull Scientific.

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