Barcode Types and Applications

UPC barcodes essentially take your product’s UPC number and put it in barcode format. They can contain your product’s ID number, details about the product’s manufacturer, and other top-of-mind details you need to know when selling or shipping an item.

UPCs are used on virtually every retail product, so they’re fairly prevalent. They’re also the most commonly used barcode type for point-of-sale transactions. Check out our guide to UPCs to find out more.

EAN barcodes are very similar to UPC barcodes, but with slight differences in text placement to accommodate the EAN code’s extra digit.

These types of barcodes are most often used on internationally sold products since all EAN and GTIN (a global trade barcode) numbers are 13 digits long. However, they’re also commonly found on books, since ISBN numbers are also 13 digits.

One of the oldest, most common barcode symbologies still in use is the Code 39 barcode. This barcode can be alphanumeric, and it can be any length. It’s most commonly used for electronics, healthcare, and government applications.

GS1 barcodes are the mandatory barcode type for retail coupons in the US—mostly because they’re fast and easy to read. This reduces the amount of time a customer has to spend at the cash register, which allows businesses to make more sales in less time.

Since GS1 DataBar codes are so fast to read, they’re also logical choices to use in patient care applications within hospitals and doctor’s offices. The faster you can scan a patient’s bracelet, the faster you can administer the care they need.

Codabar barcodes can be up to 16 alphanumeric characters long. They’re easy to scan and easy to print. In fact, any impact-style printer can produce a codabar code—even typewriters.

That being said, they don’t encode a lot of data, so they’re being phased out in favor of other symbologies with more data.

QR codes are a pretty popular barcode type these days, especially in marketing campaigns. QR codes can encode up to 1,520 characters, which can be alphanumeric, bit and byte binary, and even Kanji.

This means QR codes can contain mass amounts of data, including links. The symbology is also fast, and it features multiple redundancies—so it has a high fault tolerance in the event that the barcode label gets damaged.

However, QR codes are not as compact as data matrix codes (which you’ll read about below), so they may not be a good fit for small items. Business owners using QR codes would also need to invest more into getting QR code readers in their point-of-sale locations, warehouses, or anywhere else where the codes would be used (since QR codes are too complex to be read by laser scanners).

If the PDF417 barcode looks familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen it on the back of your driver’s license. PDF417 codes are popular among agencies that produce IDs because the code symbology can support four times more data than any other type of 2D barcode—up to 1 kilobyte.

That means you can encode large data files like photos, fingerprints, and signatures. You can also encode links to multiple data files.

Data matrix barcodes feature a high data density, meaning they’re able to encode vast amounts of data (up to 3,116 characters) in a very small space. They can be read by CCD scanners even when they’re upside down or sideways. And they feature a high fault tolerance, fast readability, and application identifiers to help delineate different types of information within a single code.

All these features make data matrix codes very popular among electronics manufacturers and health-care providers.

Aztec codes offer a number of unique perks. For starters, they don’t require a “quiet zone” of blank space around them—they can be read even when closely surrounded by text and other graphics.

Aztec codes can also be decoded even with poor resolution, so they can still be read when the printing gets smudged or they’re being scanned from a phone screen. That makes them perfect for boarding passes, tickets, and other travel applications where the printing or scanning quality may not be ideal.

A PM code is essentially just a colorful version of the QR barcode format. But because there are so many color variations, PM codes can encode up to 1.8 Mb of information. That’s enough for a whole image or even a short video.

Unlike QR codes, PM codes can’t be scanned by mobile devices, which makes them a poor choice for marketing. And, they’re not ideal for businesses that can’t afford an advanced barcode scanner.

With this type of code, the barcode symbology of your choice is either engraved or applied onto the product or packaging. This creates a truly 3D code, with ridges and valleys that you can physically see and feel.

Scanning these codes gets tricky, though. To read the code, your scanner needs to be able to measure the depth of the code marks, as well as the thickness, shape, and positioning of the marks. To get that kind of a read, you’d need direct part mark scanners, which are hundreds to thousands of dollars each.

On the plus side, engraved codes are much more resistant to factors that would deteriorate a standard printed barcode label (like high heat, pressure, moisture, etc.). So despite their extra cost and complicated reading process, they may be the right choice for some applications.