| Bar Codes play an essential part in tracking many | | | | bar code or width of the bar code - it makes very |
| different types of assets. There are different types of | | | | efficient use of space. Encoded characters include |
| bar code symbologies for different types of | | | | numbers, letters and special characters. |
| applications. It may be difficult for the general customer | | | | Code Interleaved 2 of 5 is the most popular |
| to decide what the best option is for their company's | | | | symbology used by shipping and warehouse industries. |
| asset management system. Here is a quick | | | | It is also used in the medical field. You'll see these |
| explanation of the most commonly used symbologies. | | | | symbologies on ground shipping boxes from the major |
| Code 39 is the most popular bar code symbology | | | | shipping companies. It is variable in length and is |
| used for ID, inventory, tracking and labeling. It is also | | | | numeric only. The data to be encoded must contain an |
| specified in many military and government | | | | even number of digits as each two digit numbers is |
| specifications. Code 39 (or Code 3 of 9) is the most | | | | uniquely represented by a set of bars and spaces in |
| common symbology in use for custom applications. It is | | | | the bar code. The character '0′ may be added |
| popular because it can support both text and numbers | | | | to the beginning, if the data does not contain an even |
| (Code 128 is used mostly in the shipping and | | | | number of digits. The bars encode the odd digits, and |
| electronics industry and on labels. It is variable in length, | | | | the spaces encode the even digits. Prone to |
| alphanumeric, and continuous where all spaces are | | | | substitution errors, you should always use a checksum. |
| part of the characters. Each character consists of | | | | Checksums are additional characters appended to bar |
| three bars and three spaces. For general-purpose use, | | | | codes to guarantee good reads. |
| Code 128 is usually the best choice. This is a very | | | | Seton offers a wide variety of bar code labels and |
| compact, high density symbol. Because of its high | | | | asset management products to meet your company's |
| density - the number of data characters per inch of | | | | specific needs. |