A Swiss postal barcode encoding "RI 476 394 652 CH" in Code 128 (B & C)

Code 128 is a high-density linear barcode symbology defined in ISO/IEC 15417:2007.[1] It is used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. It can encode all 128 characters of ASCII and, by use of an extension symbol (FNC4), the Latin-1 characters defined in ISO/IEC 8859-1. It generally results in more compact barcodes compared to other methods like Code 39, especially when the texts contain mostly digits. Code 128 was developed by the Computer Identics Corporation in 1981.[2]

A GS1-128 barcode encoding GTIN, best before date and batch number

GS1-128 (formerly known as UCC/EAN-128) is a subset of Code 128 and is used extensively worldwide in shipping and packaging industries as a product identification code for the container and pallet levels in the supply chain.

Specification

"Code 459
Schematic of a barcode (Code 128B).
1:quiet zone, 2:Start Code B, 3:data, 4:checksum, 5:stop

A Code 128 barcode has seven sections:

  1. Quiet zone
  2. Start symbol
  3. Encoded data
  4. Check symbol (mandatory)
  5. Stop symbol
  6. Final bar (often considered part of the stop symbol)
  7. Quiet zone

The check symbol is calculated from a weighted sum (modulo 103) of all the symbols.

Subtypes

Code 128 includes 108 symbols: 103 data symbols, 3 start symbols, and 2 stop symbols. Each symbol consists of three black bars and three white spaces of varying widths. All widths are multiples of a basic "module". Each bar and space is 1 to 4 modules wide, and the symbols are fixed width: the sum of the widths of the three black bars and three white bars is 11 modules.

The stop pattern is composed of two overlapped symbols and has four bars. The stop pattern permits bidirectional scanning. When the stop pattern is read left-to-right (the usual case), the stop symbol (followed by a 2-module bar) is recognized. When the stop pattern is read right-to-left, the reverse stop symbol (followed by a 2-module bar) is recognized. A scanner seeing the reverse stop symbol then knows it must skip the 2-module bar and read the rest of the barcode in reverse.

Despite its name, Code 128 does not have 128 distinct symbols, so it cannot represent 128 code points directly. To represent all 128 ASCII values, it shifts among three code sets (A, B, C). Together, code sets A and B cover all 128 ASCII characters. Code set C is used to efficiently encode digit strings. The initial subset is selected by using the appropriate start symbol. Within each code set, some of the 103 data code points are reserved for shifting to one of the other two code sets. The shifts are done using code points 98 and 99 in code sets A and B, 100 in code sets A and C and 101 in code sets B and C to switch between them):

  • 128A (Code Set A)  ASCII characters 00 to 95 (0–9, A–Z and control codes), special characters, and FNC 1–4
  • 128B (Code Set B)  ASCII characters 32 to 127 (0–9, A–Z, a–z), special characters, and FNC 1–4
  • 128C (Code Set C)  00–99 (encodes two digits with a single code point) and FNC1

The minimum width of the quiet zone to the left and right of the Code 128 is 10x, where x is the minimum width of a module. It is mandatory at the left and right side of the barcode.

Start/stop and bar widths

Each symbol in the barcode is composed of three bars and three spaces. Each bar or space is 1, 2, 3 or 4 units wide, the sum of the widths of bars must be even (4, 6 or 8 units), the sum of the widths of the spaces must be odd (3, 5 or 7 units), and total 11 units per symbol. For instance, encoding the ASCII character "0" can be viewed as 10011101100, where a sequence of 1's is a bar and a sequence of 0's is a space. A single 1 would be the thinnest line in the bar code. Three 1's in sequence (111) indicates a bar three times as thick as a single 1 bar.

There are 108 possible 11-unit wide symbols, and the code uses all possible symbols. Two of the symbols are used for stop (end-of-barcode) indication, stop and reverse stop. The two stop symbols are special because they are always followed by a 2-unit bar, forming a 13-unit long stop pattern. Reading the stop pattern left to right is the stop symbol (followed by a 2-unit bar), and reading the stop pattern right to left is the reverse stop symbol (followed by a 2-unit bar).

Check digit calculation

The check digit is a weighted modulo-103 checksum. It is calculated by summing the start code 'value' to the products of each symbol's 'value' multiplied by its position's weight in the barcode string. The start symbol and first encoded symbol are in position 1. The sum of the products is then reduced modulo 103. The remainder is then converted back to one of the 103 non-delimiter symbols (following the instructions given below) and appended to the barcode, immediately before the stop symbol.

For example, in the following table, the code 128 variant A checksum value is calculated for the alphanumeric string PJJ123C:

CodeValueWeightValue × Weight
Start Code A103(1)103
P48148
J42284
J423126
117468
218590
3196114
C357245
Sum878
Remainder mod 10354

So the value 54, which equals a V, is appended, then followed by the Stop code.

For the purpose of computing the check symbol, the shift and code-switch symbols are treated the same as any other symbol in the bar code.

Using FNC4 to encode high (160–255) characters

The special symbol FNC4 ("Function 4"), present only in code sets A and B, can be used to encode all the Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) characters in a Code 128 barcode.[3]

When a single 'FNC4' is present in a string, the following symbol is read like ASCII, but the value is incremented by +128, thus taking the higher range of the ISO-8859-1 table. If the following symbol is a 'SHIFT', then a second symbol will be used to obtain the character.

If two consecutive 'FNC4' characters are used, all following data characters are extended ASCII characters until two further consecutive 'FNC4' characters are encountered or the end of the symbol is reached. If during this sequence of extended encodation a single 'FNC4' character is encountered it is used to revert to standard ASCII encodation for the next data character only. 'SHIFT' and character subset characters shall have their normal effect during such a sequence.[4]

From Code 128A you can reach Latin-1 special characters from 160 (hex A0, non breaking space) up to 223 (hex DF, ß) via FNC4. The lower case characters from 224 (hex E0, à) to 254 (hex FE, þ) are available by FNC4+SHIFT B. The characters ÷ (247, hex F7) and ÿ (255, hex FF) are not available.

The feature is not available for GS1-128.[5][6] Since the support of Code 128 Type B (and C) is not very common, it might be easier to use a QR Code instead for characters from the ISO-8859-1 code range.

Bar code widths

Code128 specifies a combination of 6 alternating bars and spaces (3 of each) for each symbol. Thus, each symbol begins with a bar and ends with a space. In barcode fonts, the final bar is generally combined with the stop symbol to make a wider stop pattern. The following table details the widths associated with each bar and space for each symbol. The width of each bar or space may be 1, 2, 3 or 4 units (modules). Using the example above, an 'A' would be depicted with the pattern 10100011000, or as widths 111323 in the tables below.

The widths value is derived by counting the length of each run of 1's then 0's in the pattern, starting from the left. There will always be 6 runs and the lengths of these 6 runs form the Widths value. For example, using the pattern 10100011000, the run lengths are 1 (digit 1), 1 (digit 0), 1 (digit 1), 3 (digit 0), 2 (digit 1), 3 (digit 0). Reporting just the lengths of each run gives 1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 3, thereby producing a widths value of 111323.

Code 128
Value Hex value 128A 128B 128C Font position
(Common/Uncommon/Barcodesoft)
Bar/Space
Code Latin-1 Pattern Widths
0 00 space space 00 32 or 194 or 207 / 212 / 252 or  or Ï / Ô / ü 11011001100 212222
1 01  !  ! 01 33  ! 11001101100 222122
2 02 " " 02 34 " 11001100110 222221
3 03 # # 03 35 # 10010011000 121223
4 04 $ $ 04 36 $ 10010001100 121322
5 05  %  % 05 37  % 10001001100 131222
6 06 & & 06 38 & 10011001000 122213
7 07 ' ' 07 39 ' 10011000100 122312
8 08 ( ( 08 40 ( 10001100100 132212
9 09 ) ) 09 41 ) 11001001000 221213
10 0a * * 10 42 * 11001000100 221312
11 0b + + 11 43 + 11000100100 231212
12 0c , , 12 44 , 10110011100 112232
13 0d - - 13 45 - 10011011100 122132
14 0e . . 14 46 . 10011001110 122231
15 0f / / 15 47 / 10111001100 113222
16 10 0 0 16 48 0 10011101100 123122
17 11 1 1 17 49 1 10011100110 123221
18 12 2 2 18 50 2 11001110010 223211
19 13 3 3 19 51 3 11001011100 221132
20 14 4 4 20 52 4 11001001110 221231
21 15 5 5 21 53 5 11011100100 213212
22 16 6 6 22 54 6 11001110100 223112
23 17 7 7 23 55 7 11101101110 312131
24 18 8 8 24 56 8 11101001100 311222
25 19 9 9 25 57 9 11100101100 321122
26 1a  :  : 26 58  : 11100100110 321221
27 1b  ;  ; 27 59  ; 11101100100 312212
28 1c < < 28 60 < 11100110100 322112
29 1d = = 29 61 = 11100110010 322211
30 1e > > 30 62 > 11011011000 212123
31 1f  ?  ? 31 63  ? 11011000110 212321
32 20 @ @ 32 64 @ 11000110110 232121
33 21 A A 33 65 A 10100011000 111323
34 22 B B 34 66 B 10001011000 131123
35 23 C C 35 67 C 10001000110 131321
36 24 D D 36 68 D 10110001000 112313
37 25 E E 37 69 E 10001101000 132113
38 26 F F 38 70 F 10001100010 132311
39 27 G G 39 71 G 11010001000 211313
40 28 H H 40 72 H 11000101000 231113
41 29 I I 41 73 I 11000100010 231311
42 2a J J 42 74 J 10110111000 112133
43 2b K K 43 75 K 10110001110 112331
44 2c L L 44 76 L 10001101110 132131
45 2d M M 45 77 M 10111011000 113123
46 2e N N 46 78 N 10111000110 113321
47 2f O O 47 79 O 10001110110 133121
48 30 P P 48 80 P 11101110110 313121
49 31 Q Q 49 81 Q 11010001110 211331
50 32 R R 50 82 R 11000101110 231131
51 33 S S 51 83 S 11011101000 213113
52 34 T T 52 84 T 11011100010 213311
53 35 U U 53 85 U 11011101110 213131
54 36 V V 54 86 V 11101011000 311123
55 37 W W 55 87 W 11101000110 311321
56 38 X X 56 88 X 11100010110 331121
57 39 Y Y 57 89 Y 11101101000 312113
58 3a Z Z 58 90 Z 11101100010 312311
59 3b [ [ 59 91 [ 11100011010 332111
60 3c \ \ 60 92 \ 11101111010 314111
61 3d ] ] 61 93 ] 11001000010 221411
62 3e ^ ^ 62 94 ^ 11110001010 431111
63 3f _ _ 63 95 _ 10100110000 111224
64 40 NUL ` 64 96 ` 10100001100 111422
65 41 SOH a 65 97 a 10010110000 121124
66 42 STX b 66 98 b 10010000110 121421
67 43 ETX c 67 99 c 10000101100 141122
68 44 EOT d 68 100 d 10000100110 141221
69 45 ENQ e 69 101 e 10110010000 112214
70 46 ACK f 70 102 f 10110000100 112412
71 47 BEL g 71 103 g 10011010000 122114
72 48 BS h 72 104 h 10011000010 122411
73 49 HT i 73 105 i 10000110100 142112
74 4a LF j 74 106 j 10000110010 142211
75 4b VT k 75 107 k 11000010010 241211
76 4c FF l 76 108 l 11001010000 221114
77 4d CR m 77 109 m 11110111010 413111
78 4e SO n 78 110 n 11000010100 241112
79 4f SI o 79 111 o 10001111010 134111
80 50 DLE p 80 112 p 10100111100 111242
81 51 DC1 q 81 113 q 10010111100 121142
82 52 DC2 r 82 114 r 10010011110 121241
83 53 DC3 s 83 115 s 10111100100 114212
84 54 DC4 t 84 116 t 10011110100 124112
85 55 NAK u 85 117 u 10011110010 124211
86 56 SYN v 86 118 v 11110100100 411212
87 57 ETB w 87 119 w 11110010100 421112
88 58 CAN x 88 120 x 11110010010 421211
89 59 EM y 89 121 y 11011011110 212141
90 5a SUB z 90 122 z 11011110110 214121
91 5b ESC { 91 123 { 11110110110 412121
92 5c FS | 92 124 | 10101111000 111143
93 5d GS } 93 125 } 10100011110 111341
94 5e RS ~ 94 126 ~ 10001011110 131141
95 5f US DEL 95 195 / 200 / 240 Ã / È / ð 10111101000 114113
96 60 FNC 3 FNC 3 96 196 / 201 / 241 Ä / É / ñ 10111100010 114311
97 61 FNC 2 FNC 2 97 197 / 202 / 242 Å / Ê / ò 11110101000 411113
98 62 Shift B Shift A 98 198 / 203 / 243 Æ / Ë / ó 11110100010 411311
99 63 Code C Code C 99 199 / 204 / 244 Ç / Ì / ô 10111011110 113141
100 64 Code B FNC 4 Code B 200 / 205 / 245 È / Í / õ 10111101110 114131
101 65 FNC 4 Code A Code A 201 / 206 / 246 É / Î / ö 11101011110 311141
102 66 FNC 1 FNC 1 FNC 1 202 / 207 / 247 Ê / Ï / ÷ 11110101110 411131
103 67 Start Code A 203 / 208 / 248 Ë / Ð / ø 11010000100 211412
104 68 Start Code B 204 / 209 / 249 Ì / Ñ / ù 11010010000 211214
105 69 Start Code C 205 / 210 / 250 Í / Ò / ú 11010011100 211232
106 6a Stop 11000111010 233111
Reverse Stop 11010111000 211133
Stop pattern (7 bars/spaces) 206 / 211 / 251 Î / Ó / û 1100011101011 2331112

The "Code A", "Code B" and "Code C" symbols cause all following symbols to be interpreted according to the corresponding subcode (i.e. 128A, 128B or 128C). The "Shift" symbol switches a single following symbol's interpretation between subcodes A and B.

The encoded ASCII char depends on the actual used barcode-font. Especially the ASCII char of value 0 and of value 95 and above may be defined differently in the font that is installed.

The FNCx codes are used for special purposes. FNC1 at the beginning of a bar code indicates a GS1-128 bar code which begins with a 2- 3- or 4-digit application identifier assigned by the Uniform Code Council, which explains the following digits. For example, application identifier 421 indicates that an ISO 3166-1 numeric country code and ship-to postal code follows. Thus, the U.S. ZIP code for the White House would generally be printed as "(421) 840 20500", but would actually be coded as "[Start C] [FNC1] 42 18 40 20 50 [Code A] 16 [Check symbol 92] [Stop]"

FNC2 (message append) can appear anywhere within a barcode to indicate that the barcode reader should store the current string and prepend it to the string of the next barcode that's read. It is not used by GS1-128.

FNC3 (initialize) can appear anywhere within a barcode to instruct the barcode reader to initialize or reprogram itself according to the barcode string's instructions.

FNC4 is used to represent an extended ASCII character set (see § Notes). It is not used by GS1-128.[7]

Availability

For the end user, Code 128 barcodes may be generated by either an outside application to create an image of the barcode, or by a font-based barcode solution. Either solution requires the use of an application or an application add in to calculate the check digit and create the barcode.

Barcode length optimization by Code 128 Type-C

Code set C uses one code symbol to represent two digits. Thus it may create shorter barcodes if the content consists of numbers only or if there are longer sequences of digits within the code.

However, when the string contains only a few digits or it's mixed with non-digit character, it does not always produce a more compact code than code sets A or B. Using code set C saves one symbol per two digits, but costs a mode-shift symbol to enter and exit the set. Thus, it is only worth using if there are enough consecutive digits. For example, encoding the string "X00Y" with code set A or B requires 7 code symbols ([Start B] 56 16 16 57 [checksum] [Stop]), while using code set C for the "X00Y" would result in a code 8 symbols long ([Start B] 56 [Code C] 00 [Code B] 57 [checksum] [Stop]).

Using code set C is only advantageous under the following conditions:

Location of digitsNumber of consecutive digits
beginning of data4+
end of data4+
middle of data (surrounded by symbols from code set A or B)6+
entire dataeither 2 or 4+ (but not 3)

At the end of a string, delaying the transition to code set C until there are an even number of digits remaining avoids an extra symbol. Consider the string "...01234": a delayed switch produces ... 0 [Code C] 12 34 [checksum] [Stop] but an early switch produces ... [Code C] 01 23 [Code A] 4 [checksum] [Stop].[8]

For example, given the string "098x1234567y23", savings on barcode length using code set C are achieved only if it is applied to middle part of the string. For the beginning and ending part of the string, switching to code set C is not effective. As there are an odd number of digits in the middle of the string, the odd one must use a different code set, but it makes no difference whether this is the first or last; 16 symbols are required in either case: [Start B] 0 9 8 x 1 [Code C] 23 45 67 [Code B] y 2 3 [checksum] [Stop], or [Start B] 0 9 8 x [Code C] 12 34 56 [Code B] 7 y 2 3 [checksum] [Stop].

Optimizing the length of the resulting barcode is important when barcode readers are used which must detect the entire barcode image at once in order to read it, such as common laser scanners. The longer the barcode is, the greater distance of laser barcode reader from barcode image is needed, making reading difficult or impossible above some threshold lengths/distances.

The optimal encoding can be found using a dynamic programming algorithm.[9]

References

  1. "ISO/IEC 15417:2007 - Information technology -- Automatic identification and data capture techniques -- Code 128 bar code symbology specification". www.iso.org. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  2. "CODE 128 and GS1-128". Barcode Information & Tips. Keyence. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  3. Apparently ISO 15417 Annex F
  4. "TBarcode1D_Code128". Han-soft corporation. Retrieved 2017-01-21. If a single "FNC 4" character is used, indicates the following data character in the symbol is an extended ASCII character. A 'SHIFT' character may follow the 'FNC 4' character if it is necessary to change character subset for the following data character. Subsequent data characters revert to the standard ASCII character set. If two consecutive 'FNC4' characters are used, all following data characters are extended ASCII characters until two further consecutive 'FNC4' characters are encountered or the end of the symbol is reached. If during this sequence of extended encodation a single "FNC4" character is encountered it is used to revert to standard ASCII encodation for the next data character only. 'SHIFT' and character subset characters shall have their normal effect during such a sequence.
  5. "Code 128 Explained". Softmatic GmbH. Retrieved 2017-01-21. In principle non-ASCII characters like German umlauts (e.g. ÄÖÜ) can be encoded in a Code 128 symbol by using a special character (FNC4). However, this feature is not widely supported. Using a 2D barcode symbology like Aztec or Datamatrix with dedicated support for non-ASCII data might be a better choice.
  6. GS1 General Specifications (January 2006  Version 7.0), section 5.3.1.1 GS1-128 Symbology Characteristics, stating, "Characters with ASCII values 128 to 255 may also be encoded in Code 128 Symbols. Characters with ASCII values 128 to 255 accessed by Function 4 Character (FNC4) are reserved for future use and are not used in GS1-128 Bar Code Symbols."
  7. "5.4.3.4.2 Function characters". GS1 General Specifications Standard. Version 23.0. GS1 AISBL: 287. Jan 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  8. GS1 General Specifications, Version 13, Issue 1, Jan-2013, Section 5.4.7.7. Use of Start, Code Set, and Shift symbols to Minimize Symbol Length (Informative), pages 268 to 269. This section gives the compression strategy.
  9. Skiena, Steven S. (2010). "8.9 War Story: Text Compression for Bar Codes". The Algorithm Design Manual (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-1-849-96720-4. dynamic programming led to an 8% tighter encoding on average.

Sample code

  • ZXing – Multiplatform open source barcode scanner / generator with versions available in Java (core project) and ports to ActionScript, C++, C#, ObjectiveC and Ruby.
  • Python Bar Code 128 – This code appears to draw boxes one pixel wide. It appears it was modified from a short line long line bar code which would have drawn lines. The "Black boxes" should be the same size as the "White Boxes".
  • GenCode128 – Free C# source code implementation of Code128. Almost all features are implemented, but is not 100% complete.
  • Barcode1DTools Ruby gem – Ruby source code for many 1D barcode symbologies including Code 128.
  • Perl barcode generation code – Perl source code for many 1D barcode symbologies including Code 128.
  • Barcode::Code128 – Free Perl barcode generation module.
  • GOCR – Free OCR with Code 128 recognition.
  • Barcode Code 128 – Free JavaScript source code implementation of Code128.
  • Barcode4J – Free Java API with implementation of Code128 and other standard barcodes.
  • JavaScript Code 128 – Open-source JavaScript implementation of Code128 and other linear barcodes.
  • Introducing creation of Code 128 barcodes Guide to converting text to Code 128 barcodes. Written for Lazarus (open-source, multi-platform GUI Pascal) but of general use.
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