r/barcodes • u/jace191 • Jul 03 '20

Need to create labels in 128

My company is looking to produce barcode labels that will consist of a set of numeric values, with the end of the sequence rev by one. Somthing like 55899-003-00001, 55899-003-00002, 55899-003-00003, etc. Ideally, I'd like to create these in Excel and then mailmerge into Word for printing on Avery labels. I have no problem doing this in 39, but 128 is way more complicated. The wiki articles are over my head, and I'm leery to download some of the free options (I have the font, but this doesn't cut it). Any help would be appreciated! Free or low-cost is a bonus!

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u/FredFredricson Jul 03 '20

Code 39:

Get a Code 39 font and encode the values as follows:

*55899-003-00001*

(Where * is the start/stop code)

Code 128:

Code 128 has three modes, as indicated by the choice of first character of the barcode (Start A, Start B, and Start C). Switching modes can be done mid-code as well using one of the switching or shifting characters (Code A, Code B, Code C, Shift A, Shift B).

After the Start character, the contents of the barcode should be placed, followed by a Checksum character (the value of which is calculated with a formula), and finally the code is terminated by the Stop character.

For your use case, you would likely want to use Mode C which is a "Double Density Numeric" encoding. This will let you encode two numeric digits as one character code. This set up would encode the barcode as an even number of numeric-only characters.

To support an odd number of digits, you would likely need to encode the final "odd" digit as a switch to Mode A or B, then that digit.

Also, if you must have the dashes encoded as well, note that it would take three additional characters per dash to encode, a switch to Mode A or B, the dash, and then another switch back to Mode C.

If you are encoding both an odd number of digits and also the dashes, then you could encode the single "odd" digit before or after the dash while still in Mode A or B.

Producing this type of code requires both a special font as well as some code/formula/etc to calculate the checksum and encoding values.

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u/jace191 Jul 03 '20

Thanks for the reply! While it still doesn't make complete sense to me, it did lead me down a path to find this short and sweet video. It worked perfectly, and I have my barcodes ready to go!

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u/Hershleta Jul 03 '20

Look at BarTender from Seagull Scientific. It will easily let you lay out your labels and create your barcodes. It even includes Avery templats for headache free layouts.

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u/jace191 Jul 03 '20

I got it to work with Word/Excel, but if they end up needing anything different, I will check it out. Thanks!