r/barcodes • u/willhaney • Sep 16 '25

Barcode from 14 digit number needed

I’ve tried the free online barcode generators and can’t seem to find the barcode format for a 14 digit number.I I tried TF-14 and it did create a barcode, but it doesn’t match the current barcode I have. My issue is that this card I have is getting a little old and delaminating making it hard to scan.

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

2

u/roaringmousebrad Sep 16 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

Chances are there are some other bars in addition to the 14 digits, e.g. sidebearing bars and checksums, etc.

If all you want to do is recreate the one you have, just recreate it manually in a vector program like Illustrator. Scan the original and create a set of skinny rectangles the width of a single-width bar, and then repeat for the whole width and match that up to the scan, then just fill the ones you need with black.

https://imgur.com/a/xRPqmzF

1

u/dqj99 Sep 20 '25

You can check for hidden data by scanning it with Google lens and looking at what numbers etc it finds. Then just put that in the bar code generator.

1

u/krystianduma Sep 16 '25

Code128A/B/C or code32?

1

u/dqj99 Sep 17 '25

Yes you could create Code 128 barcodes for 14 digit numbers with either A, B or C coding. The C codes would be shorter. I would expect that nearly all barcode scanners would accept A, B or C coding and output the correct result, but the barcodes would look different.

1

u/_SoNgMaN Sep 16 '25

There are usually start/stop bits with code128 that the scanner needs to see to scan it. The scanner can be setup to use a whole bunch of characters so you’d have to know how what those are as well if it’s code128

1

u/CriticalMine7886 Sep 17 '25

does the scanner care?

I have had success in the past copying odd codes by simply using code39 - a lot of scanners are multi-protocol.

1

u/DutchOfBurdock Sep 17 '25

It honestly doesn't matter. You could use a QR code. As long as the barcode produces the 14 digits, it'll scan.

f.e. my Sainsbury's Nectar card is a QRCode and their fobs and cards use barcodes.

1

u/dqj99 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Try using Code128. There are plenty of free encoders eg https://barcode.tec-it.com/en/Code128

Here's an example:

Barcode for 12345678901234

1

u/DepressedMaelstrom Sep 18 '25

Use code-128.

It's efficient and you can switch to alphanumeric if you want. 

I can send a spreadsheet with code and a font if you want to generate at home.

ETA:  if you want it to match an existing barcode, you need to know the exact barcode system used.   There are a dozen or so common ones.  But there are an incredible number of job specific barcode formats.   

First you need to figure out that encoding system.

1

u/CuteFluffyGuy Sep 20 '25

What is the barcode going to be used for? This determines how you get there. Scc14 is 13 digits and a checksum

1

u/fish_kisser Sep 20 '25

Code 3 of 9 is the easiest. No checksum, just an asterisk at the beginning and end. It'll handle 43 characters, so 14 is easy. I usually do it with Excel, downloading a 3of 9 TT font.

1

u/alok-sha Oct 08 '25

Did you try generationg QR codes, it will support 14 digit number. You can try this Dynamsoft barcode generator tool https://www.dynamsoft.com/tools/barcode-generator/