Barcode Generator

A barcode is a visual representation of data that can be scanned by a barcode reader or smartphone camera. It encodes information — such as a product ID, price, or URL — as a pattern of parallel bars and spaces of varying widths. Barcodes are used in retail, logistics, healthcare, libraries, and manufacturing.

Use CODE128 for general purposes — it supports letters, numbers, and special characters and is the most versatile format. Use EAN-13 for retail products sold in stores (standard worldwide product barcode). Use UPC-A for products sold in the US and Canada. Use CODE39 for inventory and industrial applications.

CODE128 is a high-density linear barcode that can encode all 128 ASCII characters — letters, numbers, and special characters. It is the most commonly used barcode format for shipping labels, inventory management, and general-purpose applications. It has no character limit and is supported by all barcode scanners.

EAN-13 (European Article Number) is the international standard for retail product barcodes and uses 13 digits. UPC-A (Universal Product Code) is used primarily in the United States and Canada and uses 12 digits. Most modern scanners can read both formats, and EAN-13 is a superset of UPC-A.

Yes. For internal tracking (inventory, assets, documents), you can create your own CODE128 or CODE39 barcodes with any numbering system. For retail products sold in stores, you need to purchase official GS1 barcodes (EAN-13 or UPC-A) from GS1, the global standards organization.

Traditional barcodes (like CODE128 and EAN) are one-dimensional — they encode data horizontally in bars and spaces. QR codes are two-dimensional — they encode data in a grid pattern and can store much more information (up to 4,296 characters vs. a few hundred for barcodes). QR codes can also store URLs and are scannable by smartphone cameras without a dedicated scanner.

Yes. Calcon's Barcode Generator lets you download the barcode as an SVG file (vector, infinitely scalable, print-quality) or as a PNG image (raster, suitable for web and documents). You can also copy the barcode as a Base64 data URI to embed directly in HTML or CSS.

Yes, Calcon's Barcode Generator is completely free with no usage limits, no signup required, and no watermarks on downloaded files. All barcode generation happens in your browser.