How to Barcode a Product
- 1). Contact one of the many barcode resellers and reserve your product barcode. It will pay to shop around, but expect to pay a one-time registration fee. You should receive a certificate assigning you this barcode; avoid any resellers that charge renewal or other yearly fees.
If you expect to have a larger number different products requiring bar codes, it will be cheaper to register your company and be assigned a block of bar codes. GS1 is the organization which handles this procedure, and their US office is listed in the Resources section. - 2). Print your barcode and attach it to your product. There are commercial fonts available for purchase that can be printed from normal personal computer programs.
Barcode labels must be sized from 1.0 x 0.25 inches minimum to a maximum of 1.5 x 1.0 inches. A minimum resolution of 300dpi is required.
Barcodes also include a check-digit, which is an extra digit added to the barcode label to allow the scanner to assure that it has correctly read the code.
Using commercial software to generate your barcode will assure you have met these specifications. A sample product is attached in the Resources section.
If you are using outside suppliers for product packaging, your supplier may have tools to develop these barcodes. - 3). Register your barcode with any retailers you will supply with product. While retailers are able to access the information you provided when registering the barcode, many have additional information requirements to consider a product for their inventory.
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