Worth Data 701 RF manual UPC / EAN Specifications

Appendix J

UPC / EAN Specifications

UPC symbols are found on almost all grocery products and many other retail items. The UPC code most people are familiar with (UPC-A) is a fixed-length (12 digits) numeric only code, with the first digit controlled by UPC coding assignments and the last digit a checksum. UPC-E and UPC-E1 are variations

of the standard UPC-A code. Each digit is constructed of two bars and two spaces. UPC has very precise standards of code size, structure, and numbers to be used.

EAN is an international superset of UPC. EAN- 13 has 13 digits, with the first two digits representing a country code. The final digit is, as with UPC, a check digit. EAN-8 is a shorter version on the EAN-13 code containing seven data digits and ending again with a checksum.

The exact UPC/EAN symbol specifications are available from:

Uniform Code Council, Inc.

7887 Washington Village Drive, Suite 300 Dayton, OH 45459

937-435-3870

Specifications are also available via the internet at:

http://www.uc-council.org

Keep the following guidelines in mind when printing UPC bar codes:

•If you plan to use a "supermarket-type" in-counter scanner to read the codes, specify a bar code height of at least .9" for an optimal first read rate.

•Make it an early practice to observe the numbering conventions of the UPC Council. Do not label unmarked merchandise with a bar code whose numbers may conflict with those already assigned. If products with these numbers are not in your store now, they are likely to be in the future, causing conflicts in your inventory system.

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