Bar code fonts and utilities

Solutions available: Windows stand-alone font, Windows font + encoder, AFP, Xerox, PCL, and bespoke solutions.

Please email sales@terrapin.co.uk with your requirements and we will find a solution for you.

Linear or 1D Bar Codes
Currently most bar codes encountered are linear or one-dimensional in nature - the information contained in the bar code is determined by the varying widths of bars and spaces.

Some of the most popular linear bar codes include the following:
(click on a bar code for full specifications):

Code 2 of 5 Interleaved	Code 128
Code 3 of 9	EAN/UPC

Click here for Barcode Singles product brochure (font-based solution).
Click here to download Barcode Singles demo software.

Click here to download WBC4 demo software (image-based solution).

2D Bar Codes
2D bar codes allow for very high information density (for marking small items such as computer chips or jewelry) and an ability to encode a very large quantity of information (such as on a medical ID card). For example, rather than just encoding an index to a database record that requires disk and CPU intensive lookups as well as access to the master database to resolve, a whole database entry for a customer can be encoded into a small self-contained bar code.

Terrapin can provide 2D bar code font solutions for PDF417, DataMatrix and Aztec symbologies to support the following print environments: AFP (240, 300 & 600 dpi), Xerox Metacode, HP-PCL, Windows and PostScript.

Our 2D bar code solutions have been proved to work on Pitney Bowes, Bell & Howell, Bowe and other industry standard mailing/inserting machines.

DataMatrix	PDF417	Aztec

2-D Bar Code DEMOs

You can download Windows demo's of the encoders by clicking below. Datamatrix 2-D encoder - [click here] PDF417 encoder - [click here]

Linear vs. 2D bar coding from the user's point of view
Encoding data for use with linear bar codes is fairly simple and most companies are able to assign this task to their system programmers. 2D encoding algorithms are more difficult to understand and will require significant amounts of time to comprehend by the even the most astute system programmers. Terrapin is able to offer these algorithms in 'C' programming code, which can easily be incorporated into the user's application avoiding programmers having to in essence 'reinvent the wheel.'

Payment Bar code Software

PayPoint and Post Office Bar Code Generator

This Code 128 numeric bar code utility has been developed specifically for printing the PayPoint bar code. This utility generates bar codes that can be read by PayPoint scanners. It processes individual strings, or lists of bar codes (for example from an Excel spreadsheet or Access database). It adds the start and stop characters and calculates the Modulo 103 check digit. Calculation of Luhn check digit is optional, as is the addition of Human Readable Information. Bar codes can be printed direct from the generator window, or copied into the clipboard for pasting into a document.

Once the string has been pasted, simply highlight and change to the appropriate TrueType bar code font which comes bundled with the utility. The point size can then be adjusted to achieve the size of bar code appropriate to your document.

This example is of the PayPoint generator, but the Post Office version is also available. The difference is that the Post Office version places a space between every 4 numbers in the human-readable display, as this is a specific requirement of the Post Office. The software also produces compatible bar codes for the AllPay and PayZone systems.

Click here to download demo
Click here for product brochure.
To place an order email: sales@terrapin.co.uk

Postal Bar codes

Royal Mail Bar Code	US PostNet	Planet Bar Code

Machine-readable bar codes are also desirable in the postal industry because the mail bar codes often have to be read under less than ideal circumstances. It was decided that a standard bar code that relied on the relative widths of bars to encode information would not produce sufficiently accurate results for mail sorting purposes. For this reason, a new type of bar code was developed using bar heights rather than widths to encode information. In the US, Postnet was developed for the US Zip Code, which is strictly numeric. The code uses bar height above the baseline to encode information.

Because UK postal codes are alphanumeric, utilisation of the US Postnet bar code would have produced codes unacceptably long, so the concept of bar height below the baseline was added to the bar code.

Other machine readable fonts

MICR
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition is generally used in banking because magnetic ink produces the most reliable reading. E-13B was the first magnetic font produced for automatic banking, and can usually be found at the bottom of cheques for encoding account information.

Cleanmail Font
This is a font that conforms to Royal Mail specifications to make it more legible to reading machines. Most fonts can be modified to meet Royal Mail Cleanmail specifications. For a Cleanmail-compliant font, please contact us.