November 2009 — Issue #4
UPC's Who doesn’t know what a barcode is? Barcodes are on nearly every product that we purchase these days, so almost everybody takes them for granted. But what is a barcode, what does it do, and if you are a manufacturer, how do you get a barcode for your product? Barcodes or UPC’s (Universal product codes) were actually invented some 57 years ago, but the first retail scan didn’t actually occur until 1974 (a packet of Wrigley’s gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio). Food distribution and grocery stores were the originators for barcode uses. Inventory control, faster and more “accurate” customer checkout, and gathering of information for marketing etc. are several of the benefits of using UPC’s. Of course today, nearly every thing for sale uses a barcode of some sort. It’s estimated that there are about five billion scans every day.
A bar code has two parts: The machine readable barcode and the human readable 12 digit number at the bottom of the bars. Once you apply and pay, the UCC will issue the first six to ten digits, depending on the number of products you anticipate coding. These digits identify the manufacturer and the individual items to be coded. The manufacturer is responsible for assigning specific item digits within the range provided, to each and every item, package size variation and any repackaging, so that each unique package gets its own unique item code. (A single item is a different code than a 3 pack of the same item.) Finally the 12th and last digit of the code is called a check digit. This tells the scanner if the number scanned correctly or not. You can find the formula and discussion of same at: How UPC Bar Codes Work. From a printing perspective, you really only need the first 11 digits. Our software will automatically create the check digit as well as the barcode. Now that you have your barcode, how do you incorporate it into the package design? There are a few rules to follow, but it’s not overly complicated. The biggest issue we get is barcodes built from 4 color process or in halftones. Barcodes really need to be a single solid color to ensure that the code scans properly. Furthermore, don’t create the bars in red or values close to red – yellow, orange, etc. as the bars won’t be “seen” by the scanner. The best combination is simply black on a white field. Other colors can be used, but contrast is the key. You’ll also want to leave enough “quiet zone” around the barcode to help ensure that it scans. In smaller spaces, barcodes can be minimized, but 80% is the minimum recommended for most scanners. All that being said: simply have the designer provide a “position box” only, and supply the barcode numbers to your printer. We’ll take it from there. The bars need to be prepared for the printing process anyway, and this ensures that some of the issues noted above don’t make it through to the press, potentially delaying production. As a final note at Columbine Label Company, we use a barcode verifier as part of our Quality Control process. This device not only reads the bars to match up to the human readable, it verifies they are the correct width. Not too skinny, not too fat, not too much chance for failure at the retail level. You don’t want an unhappy retailer upset with you because you have an awesome product with an even better looking label, that won’t scan or causes problems at the cash register. You may have noticed there was no discussion of price within a barcode. Only because the barcode doesn’t contain pricing information. Otherwise, once printed, the price could never be changed. The cash register communicates with another computer that matches the barcode to the price. That’s why sometimes the shelf price says one thing and the cash register says another. I find in my experience this sort of discrepancy is usually not in my favor. Probably just me.
Quotable Quotes"The United States has become great, not because of things, but because of ideas." "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." History in November:
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