Q: Hi, My business is growing quickly and we now need a warehouse. As there are now many products coming in and out, which are a mixture of products supplied by other companies and ones we manufacture ourselves. If I buy software to create barcodes for our own products and a scanner, will the scanner and software be able to read the other companies' barcodes and add or remove them from our database etc? I have read so much information on barcodes, but nothing that actually answers this question. Thanks Ok well what if I know that they are all either EAN or UPC codes or should i just get a good scanner anyway? but say i have for example, a pack of blank DVDs made by Imation. Would the scanner read and add to my system that i had just received a pack of them?
A: The scanner simply reads the code and converts it into a string of letters and numbers. Most scanners can recognise the various bar code codings, such as 3 of 9 etc, can cope with different magnifications etc. The biggest factor influencing readability is failure to observe a suitable guard zone beyond the guard bands. High contrast lines near the bar codes can be interpreted as extra bars, thus defeating the crc check and resulting in a failure to read. Other common errors are use of printing colours that fail to give sufficient contrast when viewed under a red light. EAN is a numbering convention, the first few digits give the country, the next the vendor and then a product number. Most scanners work as keyboard entry. The rest is up to the software you buy.