| using
the code, sometimes by the application, sometimes by the product size. The bar
code symbol is a pattern of bars and spaces following specific standards, that
when read by a scanner, interpret the bars and spaces into characters and numbers.
Sometimes the characters and numbers have specific meanings, but more and more
often, they are similar to our car license plates, that when called up in a computer,
provide a range of information, depending on the application, the industry and
the code. Today there are linear or one-dimensional codes, two-dimensional (2D)
codes, and two new symbology families from the Uniform Code Council: the Reduced
Space Symbology (RSS) and the Composite Code. One-dimensional codes contain the
same information throughout the height of the code, making them vertically redundant.
This allows some acceptance of voids and specks in the printing process. Two-dimensional
codes can be used as license plates or to carry large amounts of data. They come
in several flavors, including stacked and matrix. The former is a series of one-dimensional
codes horizontally stacked on each other. Matrix codes, meanwhile, have black
spots (often square or rectangular-shaped) in different positions within a matrix.
The position of that spot or element is what encodes the data. The scalable matrix
code usually offers higher data densities than the stacked code. The new UCC symbology
families stack or combine different codes, including linear and 2D codes, into
one symbol |
