Barcode Generator

It is the last digit of the number, and it is calculated from all the ones before it, so a scanner can tell a misread from a real code. You do not need to type it: enter the first 12 digits of an EAN-13 (11 for UPC-A, 7 for EAN-8) and it is added for you. If you do type the full number, it is checked instead — a wrong one is refused rather than drawn.

Type the number and pick the symbology. As an EAN 13 generator it computes the check digit for you and refuses a number that cannot be valid, which is the failure that costs money — a barcode that scans as the wrong product is worse than one that does not scan. The UPC barcode generator side works the same way for twelve-digit North American codes.

EAN-13 is the retail barcode used almost everywhere outside North America, UPC-A is its 12-digit North American sibling, and EAN-8 is the short version for packaging too small for either. Code 128 is the general-purpose one: it accepts letters, digits and punctuation, so it suits internal SKUs, asset tags and order numbers. If the barcode will be scanned at a shop till, it has to be one of the first three.

You can generate a valid barcode for any number, and this tool will draw it. That does not make it yours: real retail numbers are issued through GS1, and a made-up one may already belong to another company's product. For anything sold in a shop, buy the prefix. For a warehouse, a library or your own stock system, an invented number is fine — and Code 128 is usually the better choice there anyway.

Usually size or margins. A barcode printed too small, or scaled non-uniformly, blurs the narrow bars; and the white space either side — the quiet zone — is part of the code, so cropping tight to the bars breaks it. This generator includes the quiet zones and the SVG scales without distortion, so print the SVG rather than a stretched screenshot, keep it at least 25 mm wide for EAN-13, and leave the white margin alone.

SVG for anything that will be printed: it is a vector, so the bars stay crisp at any size and a label printer gets exact edges. PNG is a fallback for software that will not accept vectors — a marketplace listing form, an older label designer, a spreadsheet. The PNG here is rendered from the same SVG at a fixed scale, so both encode identically.

Any printable ASCII — letters, digits, spaces and punctuation. When the data is all digits and of even length it is encoded in Code C, which packs two digits per symbol and makes the barcode about half as wide; anything else uses Code B. Both are standard Code 128 and any scanner reads them without configuration.