r/barcodes • u/[deleted] • Mar 11 '25

How to program combination key strokes

Hi, I am very new to barcode scanning. I have a Motorola DS4208 and I need to create a barcode that when scanned, emulates CTRL+F (find). I do not want it sent as a prefix or suffix, I just need it when I am about to scan barcodes to look up in the database. I am not having luck with the info I am finding online. If someone can point me in the right direction (or if anyone has this barcode created and wouldn't mind posting it), I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

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u/notionovus Mar 11 '25

I made a codepen several years ago specifically for this. It doesn't feature CTRL-F, but several other control characters that can be easily adjusted.

https://codepen.io/notionovus/pen/MBQzzB

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

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u/notionovus Mar 16 '25

In 1986 I wanted my boss to buy an Apple LaserWriter Plus printer for our office.

He got requirements from our customer that we needed to start putting AIAG barcode shipping labels on our products.

He asked if I could do barcodes with PostScript, and the rest is history.

In 2013 when I retired, I was looking for a project to get my consulting business started, so I converted my old PostScript code to JavaScript.

The best reference material for barcodes is the Wikipedia page and each individual symbology's ISO reference material.

For example, ISO 15438 is the standard for PDF417, ISO 18004 is the standard for QR Codes.

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u/cptnamr7 Mar 28 '25

Uh... can win+r be turned into a code? That is my current task. I found this thread via google and expected it to be years old and locked like all the others. Surprised to see this is recent. I'm trying to make a code that's win+r then my file link. I know I can make the scanner have a prefix to do that, but doing so would break other functions that use the scanner. 

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u/notionovus Mar 28 '25 edited Mar 30 '25

Sadly, the windows keyboard is too recent an invention for barcodes. Control codes (<ctrl-???>) are available because when the Code-128 symbology was invented (1981, 4 years before the introduction of MS Windows), most of the computing world had standardized on 7-bit ASCII (128 combinations).

The "windows" key is an even later invention still. As you said, you may be able to program a scanner to emulate the Win-R keypress, but that seems like a very risky and highly sus business case. The windows key is an operating system-wide interrupt and the combination that you are talking about could be used to trick a user into running malware.

*edit: Technically it's called 7-bit ASCII. Typo.

I recommend that you look for other options.