What is the Code 39?
CODE 39 is the barcode developed by Intermec Corporation in 1975. Up to 43 characters including numbers, letters and some symbols can be included in the barcode. Since letters can be handled, CODE 39 is indispensable in the industrial fields and used in industries such as automotive and electronics
What is the Code 39 in Excel?
Microsoft Office Code 39 Barcode Tutorial
The Code 39 font is the easiest barcode symbology to use in Microsoft Office. Creating the barcode is as simple as appending the data with the start and stop characters of an asterisk (*) or exclamation point (!).
How to create a 3 of 9 barcode manually?
To create a 3 of 9 barcode manually that encodes the data “BAR CODE-39”, the following may be performed: Type the start character of “*”. Enter the data to be encoded, which is “BAR CODE-39”. To create the space in the barcode using the standard Code 39 Fonts, an underscore must replace the space in the data to encode: “BAR_CODE-39”.
What is the symbology of the Code 39 character set?
The symbology of the Code 39 character set consists of barcode symbols representing numbers 0-9, upper-case letters A-Z, the space character, and the following symbols: – . $ / + %. Lower-case characters may also be easily encoded with the extended fonts provided in the IDAutomation Code-39 Font Package.
Does Code 39 use asterisk characters?
Code 39 uses asterisk character (*) as Start and Stop characters, and it should not be part of the Code 39 barcode data. In the barcode Human-readable interpretation, it can display or hide start/stop characters (asterisk *). Code 39 barcode standard mode supports 43 characters, including
The Code 39 specification defines 43 characters, consisting of uppercase letters (A through Z), numeric digits (0 through 9) and a number of special characters (-, ., $, /, +, %, and space). An additional character (denoted '*') is used for both start and stop delimiters. Each character is composed of nine elements: five bars and four spaces. Three of the nine elements in each character are wide (binary value 1), and six elements are narrow(binary value 0). The width ratio between narrow and wide is not critical, and may be chosen between 1:2 and 1:3.
The barcode itself does not contain a check digit (in contrast to—for instance—Code 128), but it can be considered self-checking on the grounds that a single erroneously interpreted bar cannot generate another valid character. Possibly the most serious drawback of Code 39 is its low data density: It requires more space to encode data in Code 39 than, for example, in Code 128. This means that very small goods cannot be labeled with a Code 39 based barcode. However, Code 39 is still used by some postal services (although the Universal Postal Union recommends using Code 128 in all cases[1]), and can be decoded with virtually any barcode reader. One advantage of Code 39 is that since there is no need to generate a check digit, it can easily be integrated into an existing printing system by adding a barcode font to the system or printer and then printing the raw data in that font.
Code 39 was developed by Dr. David Allais and Ray Stevens of Intermec in 1974. Their original design included two wide bars and one wide space in each character, resulting in 40 possible characters. Setting aside one of these characters as a start and stop pattern left 39 characters, which was the origin of the name Code 39.[2] Four punctuation characters were later added, using no wide bars and three wide spaces, expanding the character set to 43 characters. Code 39 was later standardised as ANSI MH 10.8 M-1983 and MIL-STD-1189.[3] MIL-STD-1189 has been cancelled and replaced by ANSI/AIM BC1/1995, Uniform Symbology Specification — Code 39
The * character presented below is not a true encodable character, but is the start and stop symbol for Code 39. The asymmetry of the symbol allows the reader to determine the direction of the barcode being scanned. This code is traditionally mapped to the * character in barcode fonts and will often appear with the human-readable representation alongside the barcode.
As a generality, the location of the two wide bars can be considered to encode a number between 1 and 10, and the location of the wide space (which has four possible positions) can be considered to classify the character into one of four groups (from left to right): Letters(+30) (U–Z), Digits(+0) (1–9,0), Letters(+10) (A–J), and Letters(+20) (K–T). For example, the letter P (being the 16th letter of the alphabet) has its bars aligned to represent the number 6, and the space in the far right position to select the group Letters(+20).
When represented as a digit, the number "10" is used to encode the number zero. Because there are only six letters in the Letters(+30) group (letters 30–35, or U–Z), the other four positions in this group (36–39) are used to represent three symbols (dash, period, space) as well as the start/stop character.
The two wide bars, out of five possible positions, encode a number between 1 and 10 using a two-out-of-five code with the following numeric equivalence: 1, 2, 4, 7, 0. The numbers are summed together. For example, the number 6 is encoded NWWNN, with wide bars occupying the positions for 2 and 4 (2+4=6). In the case of NNWWN which is 4+7 = 11 it is assigned to 0 for digits (+0), and 10 for the letter columns (+10 – +30). When encoding the (+10 to +30) letters the equation needs a "−1" added so 'A' is WNNNW → 1 + 10 − 1 → 10 as shown in the table.
The last four characters consist of all narrow bars and three wide spaces. There are four possible positions for the single narrow space.
Code 39 check digit
Code 39 is sometimes used with an optional modulo 10 or 43 check digit. Using it requires this feature to be enabled in the barcode reader. The code with check digit is referred to as Code 39 mod 10 or Code 39 mod 43 respectively.
To compute this, each character is assigned a value. The assignments are listed in the table above, and almost, but not quite, systematic.
Here is how to do the checksum calculation:
Take the value (0 through 42) of each character in the barcode excluding start and stop codes.
Sum the values.
Divide the result by 10 (for Mod 10 check digit) or by 43 (for Mod 43 check digit).
The remainder is the value of the checksum character to be appended.
Code 39 is a common barcode type used for various labels such as name badges, inventory, and industrial applications. The symbology of the Code 39 character set consists of barcode symbols representing numbers 0-9, upper-case letters A-Z, the space character, and the following symbols: – . $ / + %. Lower-case characters may also be easily encoded with the extended fonts provided in the IDAutomation Code-39 Font Package.
Code 39 Barcode Symbology Overview
The Code 39 barcode is the easiest of the alpha-numeric barcodes to use and is designed for character self-checking, thus eliminating the need for check character calculations. Code 39 is also known as the 3 of 9 Barcode, Code 3 of 9, and Barcode39. Several standards exist that dictate how Code 39 barcodes should be printed for certain implementations. Although a checksum character is optional, many standards require it. The checksum character is a type of MOD43 calculation provided in many of the IDAutomation font encoders for the Code 39 Barcode Fonts. Enabling the check digit is also an option within IDAutomation Barcode Components and Applications that allow the component to automatically generate and include the MOD43 checksum without fonts.
Printing & Generating Code 39 Barcodes
Printing the Code 39 barcode as a font is an easy process if checksum characters are not required for the implementation. If the checksum is needed, IDAutomation provides several Font Encoders, Components, and Applications for this purpose.
IDAutomation Code 39 Barcode Fonts may be created directly from the keyboard or used in a calculated field to dynamically produce multiple symbols in many applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, FileMaker, QuickBooks, and OpenOffice.
To create a 3 of 9 barcode manually that encodes the data “BAR CODE-39”, the following may be performed:
Type the start character of “*”.
Enter the data to be encoded, which is “BAR CODE-39”.
To create the space in the barcode using the standard Code 39 Fonts, an underscore must replace the space in the data to encode: “BAR_CODE-39”.
Type the stop character of “*” .
Select only *BAR_CODE-39* and change the font to the Code 39 Barcode Font.
When the IDAutomation Code 39 Barcode Font is used, the parenthesis may be used as the start and stop characters to keep the asterisks from appearing in the text interpretation. For example, (BAR_CODE-39). This functionality is exclusive to the IDAutomation Code 39 Fonts.
2014 Update: IDAutomation now provides Symbol Encoded Fonts that encode the space character without a substitution character; available in the latest version of the IDAutomation Code 39 Fonts. After installation, these fonts are identified by the “Y” character in the font name, for example, IDAutomationYHC39S.
Code 39 is a linear barcode symbology that is also known as Code 3 of 9. It is used to encode alphanumeric data, including uppercase letters, numbers, and a limited set of special characters.
The symbology consists of narrow and wide bars that represent the encoded data, with each character represented by a sequence of nine bars, three of which are wide and six are narrow. This allows the self checking of Code 39. The width of the bars and spaces determine the encoded character, with the bars representing ones and the spaces representing zeros. The barcode is read by scanning the code from one end to the other and decoding the pattern of narrow and wide bars.
Code 39 is widely used and is a relatively simple symbology that is well-suited for encoding short strings of data. It is often used in applications such as labeling, product identification, and inventory control.
Code 39 can be produced in different ratios of 2:1 and 3:1. This is the ratio between the thin and thick lines of the code. The higher the ratio, the wider the printed barcode with the same content, but the better the readability. ActiveBarcode always uses the 3:1 ratio. This ensures best readability.
Code 39 includes start and stop characters, which are represented by the sequence of bars for the asterisks symbol. The asterisks are usually not displayed in the text line below the barcode. But sometimes you can find a Code 39 with the asterisks at the beginning and end of the text line. To recreate such a code, you do not need to enter the asterisks: If the text line shows *1234* you just have to enter 1234 because the asterisks are a fixed part of Code 39.
By default, Code 39 does not have a built-in check digit. If you create a Code 39 barcode with the text "CODE39", the barcode will appear without the check digit:
If you create the barcode with a checksum, it will be displayed with a modulo 43 check digit:
Code 39 - Full ASCII
Code 39 was developed in 1974 by David Allais and Raymond Stevens, then with Interface Mechanisms Inc. (now Intermec Corporation). It was the first barcode symbology to use alphabetic characters in addition to numeric digits. Variations of Code 39 have been used extensively in multiple industries, notably in the US military as a component of the Logistics Applications of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols (LOGMARS) system.
The Code 39 - Full ASCII symbology is an extension of the original Code 39 (Code 39 - Regular) symbology that enables encoding of all 128 ASCII characters. The barcode reader that is used to scan the barcode must be configured to perform Full ASCII character translations.
