This is barcode.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.13 from
barcode.texi.

This file is the User's Manual for the barcode library (version 0.98).


File: barcode.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Overview,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

Barcode tools
*************

This file documents version 0.98 of the barcode library and sample
programs (March 2002).

* Menu:

* Overview::
* The Barcode Object::
* Supported Flags::
* The API::
* The barcode Executable::
* Supported Encodings::
* PCL Output::
* Bugs and Pending Issues::

%##########################################################################
%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: Overview,  Next: The Barcode Object,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Overview
**********

The "barcode" package is mainly a C library for creating bar-code
output files. It also includes a command line front-end and (in a
foreseeable future) a graphic frontend.

   The package is designed as a library because we think the main use
for barcode-generation tools is inside more featured applications. The
library addresses bar code printing as two distinct problems: creation
of bar information and actual conversion to an output format. To this
aim we use an intermediate representation for bar codes, which is
currently documented in the `ps.c' source file (not in this document).

   Note that the library and the accompanying material is released
according to the GPL license, not the LGPL one. A copy of the GPL is
included in the distribution tarball.

%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: The Barcode Object,  Next: Supported Flags,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Top

2 The Underlying Data Structure
*******************************

Every barcode-related function acts on a data structure defined in the
`barcode.h' header, which must be included by any C source file that
uses the library. The header is installed by make install.

   The definition of the data structure is included here for reference:

     struct Barcode_Item {
         int flags;         /* type of encoding and other flags */
         char *ascii;       /* malloced */
         char *partial;     /* malloced too */
         char *textinfo;    /* information about text placement */
         char *encoding;    /* code name, filled by encoding engine */
         int width, height; /* output units */
         int xoff, yoff;    /* output units */
         int margin;        /* output units */
         double scalef;     /* requested scaling for barcode */
         int error;         /* an errno-like value, in case of failure */
     };

   The exact meaning of each field and the various flags implemented are
described in the following sections.

   Even though you won't usually need to act on the contents of this
structure, some of the functions in the library receive arguments that
are directly related to one or more of these fields.

%==========================================================================

* Menu:

* The Field List::
* The Intermediate Representation::

%-------------------------------------------------------------------------


File: barcode.info,  Node: The Field List,  Next: The Intermediate Representation,  Prev: The Barcode Object,  Up: The Barcode Object

2.1 The Fields
==============

`int flags;'
     The flags are, as you may suspect, meant to specify the exact
       behaviour of the library. They are often passed as an argument
          to barcode functions and are discussed in the next section.

`char *ascii;'
`char *partial;'
`char *textinfo;'
`char *encoding;'
     These fields are internally managed by the library, and you are
         not expected to touch them if you use the provided API. All
         of them are allocated with malloc.

`int width;'
`int height;'
     They specify the width and height of the active barcode 	region
     (i.e., excluding the white margin), in the units used 	to
     create output data (for postscript they are points, 1/72th
     of an inch, 0.352 mm). The fields can be either assigned to
     in the structure or via Barcode_Position(), at your 	choice.
     If either value or both are left to their default 	value of zero,
     the output engine will assign default values 	according to
     the specified scaling factor. If the specified 	width is bigger
     than needed (according to the scaling factor), 	the output
     barcode will be centered in its requested 	region. If either the
     width of the height are too small for 	the specified scale
     factor, the output bar code will expand 	symmetrically around
     the requested region.

`int xoff;'
`int yoff;'
     	The fields specify offset from the coordinate origin of the
     output engine (for postscript, position 0,0 is the lower left
     corner of the page).  The fields can be either assigned to in
     the structure or via Barcode_Position(), at your choice.  	The
     offset specifies where the white margin begins, not where 	the
     first bar will be printed. To print real ink to the
     specified position you should set margin to 0.

`int margin;'
     	The white margin that will be left around the printed area of
     the bar code. The same margin is applied to all sides of the
     printed area. The default value for the margin is defined in
     `barcode.h' as BARCODE_DEFAULT_MARGIN (10).

`double scalef;'
     	The enlarge or shrink value for the bar code over its default
     dimension. The width and scalef fields interact deeply 	in the
     creation of the output, and a complete description of 	the
     issues appears later in this section.

`int error;'
     	The field is used when a barcode function fails to host
     an errno-like integer value.


Use of the width and scalef fields.
-----------------------------------

A width unit is the width of the thinnest bar and/or space in the
chosen code; it defaults to 1 point if the output is postscript or
encapsulated postscript.

   Either or both the code width and the scale factor can be left
unspecified (i.e., zero). The library deals with defaults in the
following way:

Both unspecified
     	If both the width and the scale factor are unspecified, the
     scale factor will default to 1.0 and the width is calculated
     according to the actual width of the bar code being printed.

Width unspecified
     	If the width is not specified, it is calculated according to
     the values of scalef.

Scale factor unspecified
     	If the scale factor is not specified, it will be chosen so
     that the generated bar code exactly fits the specified width.

Both specified
     	The code will be printed inside the specified region according
     to the specified scale factor. It will be aligned to the left.
     If, however, the chosen width is too small for the specific
     bar code and scaling factor, then the code will extend
     symmetrically to the left and to the right of the chosen 	region.


%-------------------------------------------------------------------------


File: barcode.info,  Node: The Intermediate Representation,  Prev: The Field List,  Up: The Barcode Object

2.2 The Intermediate Representation
===================================

The encoding functions print their output into the partial and texinfo
fields of the barcode data structure. Those fields, together with
position information, are then used to generate actual output.  This is
an informal description of the intermediate format.

   The first char in partial tells how much extra space to add to the
left of the bars. For EAN-13, it is used to leave space to print the
first digit, other codes may have '0' for no-extra-space-needed.

   The next characters are alternating bars and spaces, as multiples of
the base dimension which is 1 unless the code is rescaled. Rescaling is
calculated as the ratio from the requested width and the calculated
width.  Digits represent bar/space dimensions. Lower-case letters
represent those bars that should extend lower than the others: 'a' is
equivalent to '1', 'b' is '2' and so on up to 'i' which is equivalent to
'9'. Other letters will be used for encoding-specific meanings, as soon
as I implement them.

   The textinfo string is made up of fields %lf:%lf:%c separated by
blank space. The first integer is the x position of the character, the
second is the font size (before rescaling) and the char item is the
character to be printed.

   Both the partial and textinfo strings may include "-" or "+" as
special characters (in textinfo the char should be a stand-alone word).
They state where the text should be printed: below the bars ("-",
default) or above the bars. This is used, for example, to print the
add-5 and add-2 codes to the right of UPC or EAN codes (the add-5
extension is mostly used in ISBN codes).

%==========================================================================


File: barcode.info,  Node: Supported Flags,  Next: The API,  Prev: The Barcode Object,  Up: Top

3 The Flags
***********

The following flags are supported by version 0.98 of the library:

`BARCODE_ENCODING_MASK'
     	The mask is used to extract the encoding-type identifier from
     the flags field.

`BARCODE_EAN'
`BARCODE_UPC'
`BARCODE_ISBN'
`BARCODE_128B'
`BARCODE_128C'
`BARCODE_128'
`BARCODE_128RAW'
`BARCODE_39'
`BARCODE_I25'
`BARCODE_CBR'
`BARCODE_MSI'
`BARCODE_PLS'
`BARCODE_93'
     	The currently supported encoding types: EAN (13 digits, 8
     digits, 13 + 2 add-on and 13 + 5 add-on), UPC (UPC-A, UPC-E,
     UPC-A with 2 or 5 digit add-on), ISBN (with or without the
     5-digit add-on), CODE128-B (the whole set of printable
     ASCII characters), CODE128-C (two digits encoded by each barcode
     symbol), CODE128 (all ASCII values), a "raw-input" pseudo-code
     that generates CODE128 output, CODE39 (alphanumeric),
     "interleaved 2 of 5" (numeric), Codabar (numeric plus a few
     symbols), MSI (numeric) and Plessey (hex digits).          *Note
     Supported Encodings::.

`BARCODE_ANY'
     	This special encoding type (represented by a value of zero, so
     it will be the default) tells the encoding procedure to look
     for the first encoding type that can deal with a textual 	string.
     Therefore, a 11-digit code will be printed as UPC (as 	well as
     6-digit, 11+2 and 11+5), a 12-digit (or 7-digit, or 	12+2 or
     12+5) as EAN13, an ISBN code (with or without hyphens, 	with or
     without add-5) will be encoded in its EAN13 	representation,
     an even number of digits is encoded using 	CODE128C and a generic
     string is encoded using CODE128B. Since         code-39 offers a
     much larger representation for the same         text string,
     code128-b is preferred over code39 for         alphanumeric
     strings.

`BARCODE_NO_ASCII'
     	Instructs the engine not to print the ascii string on 	output.
     By default the bar code is accompanied with an ascii 	version
     of the text it encodes.

`BARCODE_NO_CHECKSUM'
     	Instructs the engine not to add the checksum character to the
     output. Not all the encoding types can drop the checksum; 	those
     where the checksum is mandatory (like EAN and UPC) 	just
     ignore the flag.

`BARCODE_OUTPUT_MASK'
     	The mask is used to extract the output-type identifier from
     the flags field.

`BARCODE_OUT_PS'
`BARCODE_OUT_EPS'
`BARCODE_OUT_PCL'
`BARCODE_OUT_PCL_III'
     	The currently supported encoding types: full-page postscript
     and encapsulated postscript; PCL (print command language, for
       HP printers) and PCL-III (same as PCL, but uses a font not
      available on older printers).

`BARCODE_OUT_NOHEADERS'
     	The flag instructs the printing engine not to print the header
     and footer part of the file. This makes sense for the
     postscript engine but might not make sense for other engines;
     such other engines will silently ignore the flag just like
     the PCL back-end does.


%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: The API,  Next: The barcode Executable,  Prev: Supported Flags,  Up: Top

4 Functions Exported by the Library
***********************************

%MANPAGE barcode.3 %M .TH BARCODE 3 "October 1999" "GNU" "GNU barcode"
%M .UC 4 %M .SH NAME %M barcode \- a library to create and print bar
codes %M .SH SYNOPSIS %M .B #include <barcode.h> %M .sp %M .BI "struct
Barcode_Item *Barcode_Create(char *" text ");" %M .br %M .BI "int
Barcode_Delete(struct Barcode_Item *" bc ");" %M .br %M .BI "int
Barcode_Encode(struct Barcode_Item *" bc ", int " flags ");" %M .br %M
.BI "int Barcode_Print(struct Barcode_Item *" bc ", FILE *" f ", int "
flags ");" %M .br %M .BI "int Barcode_Position(struct Barcode_Item *"
bc ", int " wid ", int " hei ", int " xoff ", int " yoff " , double "
scalef ");" %M .br %M .BI "int Barcode_Encode_and_Print(char *" text ",
FILE *" f ", int " wid ", int " hei ", int " xoff ", int " yoff ", int
" flags ");" %M .br %M .BI "int Barcode_Version(char *" versionname ");"
%M %M .SH DESCRIPTION %M %M The barcode family of library functions is
meant to ease %M creation of bar-code printouts.  %M %M The information
below is extracted from the texinfo file, which is the %M preferred
source of information.

   The functions included in the barcode library are declared in the
header file barcode.h.  They perform the following tasks:

`struct Barcode_Item *Barcode_Create(char *text);'
     	The function creates a new barcode object to deal with a
     specified text string.  It returns NULL in case of failure and
     a pointer to a barcode data structure in case of success.

`int Barcode_Delete(struct Barcode_Item *bc);'
     	Destroy a barcode object. Always returns 0 (success)

`int Barcode_Encode(struct Barcode_Item *bc, int flags);'
     	Encode the text included in the bc object. Valid flags are
     the encoding type (other flags are ignored) and
     BARCODE_NO_CHECKSUM (other flags are silently ignored); if the
     flag argument is zero, bc->flags will apply. The function 	returns
     0 on success and -1 in case of error. After 	successful
     termination the data structure will host the 	description of
     the bar code and its textual representation, 	after a failure
     the error field will include the reason of 	the failure.

`int Barcode_Print(struct Barcode_Item *bc, FILE *f, int flags);'
     	Print the bar code described by bc to the specified file.
     Valid flags are the output type, BARCODE_NO_ASCII and
     BARCODE_OUT_NOHEADERS, other flags are ignored. If any of 	these
     flags is zero, it will be inherited from bc->flags 	which
     therefore takes precedence. The function returns 0 on 	success
     and -1 in case of error (with bc->error set 	accordingly).
     In case of success, the bar code is printed to 	the specified
     file, which won't be closed after use.

`int Barcode_Position(struct Barcode_Item *bc, int wid, int hei, int xoff, int yoff, double scalef);'
     	The function is a shortcut to assign values to the data
     structure.

`int Barcode_Encode_and_Print(char *text, FILE *f, int wid, int hei, int xoff, int yoff, int flags);'
     	The function deals with the whole life of the barcode 	object
     by calling the other functions; it uses all the specified 	flags.

`int Barcode_Version(char *versionname);'
     	Returns the current version as an integer number. Therefore,
     version 	1.03.5 will be returned as 1035 and version 0.53 as 53.
     If         the argument is non-null, it will be used to return the
     version         number as a string.

   %MANPAGE END

%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: The barcode Executable,  Next: Supported Encodings,  Prev: The API,  Up: Top

5 The barcode frontend program
******************************

%MANPAGE barcode.1 %M .TH BARCODE 1 "October 2001" "GNU" "GNU barcode"
%M .UC 4 %M .SH NAME %M barcode \- a stand alone program to run the
barcode library %M .SH SYNOPSIS %M .B barcode %M [\-b - | string] [\-e
encoding] [\-o - | outfile] [ %M .I other-flags %M ] %M .SH DESCRIPTION
%M %M The information below is extracted from the texinfo file, which
is the %M preferred source of information.  %M .PP The barcode program
is a front-end to access some features of the library from the command
line.  It is able to read user supplied strings from the command line
or a data file (standard input by default) and encode all of them.

   %M .SH OPTIONS %M .PP

* Menu:

* The Command Line::

%-------------------------------------------------------------------------


File: barcode.info,  Node: The Command Line,  Prev: The barcode Executable,  Up: The barcode Executable

5.1 The Command Line
====================

barcode accepts the following options:

`--help or -h'
     	Print a usage summary and exit.

`-i filename'
     	Identify a file where strings to be encoded are read from. If
     missing (and if -b is not used) it defaults to standard 	input.
     Each data line of the input file will be used to create 	one
     barcode output.

`-o filename'
     	Output file. It defaults to standard output.

`-b string'
     	Specify a single "barcode" string to be encoded.          The
     option can be used multiple times in order to encode
     multiple strings (this will result in multi-page postscript
     output or a table of barcodes if -t is specified). The
     strings must match the encoding chosen; if it doesn't
     match the program will print a warning to stderr and
     generate "blank" output (although not zero-length).
     Please note that a string including spaces or         other
     special characters must be properly quoted.

`-e encoding'
     encoding is the name of the chosen encoding format being 	used.
     It defaults to the value of the environment variable
     BARCODE_ENCODING or to auto detection if the environment is
     also unset.

`-g geometry'
     	The geometry argument is of the form "[<width> x
     <height>] [+|- <xmargin> +|- <ymargin>]" (with 	no intervening
     spaces). Unspecified margin values will result in         no
     margin; unspecified size results in default size.  	The
     specified values represent print points by 	default, and
     can be inches, millimeters or other units 	according to the -u
     option or the BARCODE_UNIT 	environment variable.  The
     argument is used to place the 	printout code on the page. Note
     that an additional white 	margin of 10 points is added to the
     printout. If the option is 	unspecified, BARCODE_GEOMETRY
     is looked up in the 	environment, if missing a default size
     and no margin (but the 	default 10 points) are used. The
     margins can be negative values. This         can be useful with
     the option -s for fine tuning the placement of the         barcode.

`-t table-geometry'
     	Used to print several barcodes to a single page, this option
         is meant to be used to print stickers. The argument is of the
           form "<columns> x <lines> [+ <leftmargin>         +
     <bottommargin> [- <rightmargin> [-         <topmargin>]]]" (with
     no intervening spaces); if missing,         the top and right
     margin will default to be the same as the         bottom and left
     margin. The margins are specified in print         points or in
     the chosen unit (see -u below).  If the         option is not
     specified, BARCODE_TABLE is looked up in the         environment,
     otherwise no table is printed and each barcode         will get
     its own page.  The size (but not the position)         of a
     barcode item within a table can also be selected using         -g
     (see "geometry" above), without struggling with         external
     and internal margins.  I still think management of
     geometries in a table is suboptimal, but I can't make it
     better without introducing incompatibilities.

`-m margin(s)'
     	Specifies an internal margin for each sticker in the 	table.
     The argument is of the form 	"<xmargin>,<ymargin>" and the
     margin is applied 	symmetrically to the sticker. If unspecified,
     the environment 	variable BARCODE_MARGIN is used or a default
     internal 	margin of 10 points is used.

`-n'
     	"Numeric" output: don't print the ASCII form of the code,
     only the bars.

`-c'
     	No checksum character (for encodings that allow it, like code
     39, 	other codes, like UPC or EAN, ignore this option).

`-E'
     	Encapsulated postscript (default is normal postscript). When
     the output is generated as EPS only one barcode is encoded.

`-P'
     	PCL output. Please note that the Y direction goes from top
       to bottom for PCL, and the origin for an image is the top-left
          corner instead of the bottom-left

`-p pagesize'
     	Specify a non-default page size. The page size can be specified
            in millimeters, inches or plain numbers (for example:
     "210x297mm",         "8.5x11in", "595x842"). A page specification
     as numbers 	will be interpreted according to the current
     unit specification 	(see -u below). If libpaper is
     available,         you can also specify the page size with its
     name, like "A3"         or "letter" (libpaper is a standard
     component of Debian         GNU/Linux, but may be missing
     elsewhere). The default page         size is your system-wide
     default if libpaper is there, A4 otherwise.

`-u unit'
     	Choose the unit used in size specifications. Accepted values
     are "mm", "cm", "in" and "pt". By default, the program 	will
     check BARCODE_UNIT in the environment, and assume 	points
     otherwise (this behaviour is compatible with 0.92 and
     previous versions). If -u appears more than once, each
     instance will modified the behaviour for the arguments at its
     right, as the command line is processes left to right. The
     program internally works with points, and any size is
     approximated to the nearest multiple of one point. The -u 	option
     affect -g (geometry), -t (table) and -p 	(page size).

`-s'
     	The streaming mode. In this mode, available only for PCL output
     and not for table output, the PCL output can be printed within
     other PCL data. The barcode will be printed aligned with previously
     printed text. After printing the barcode, the position of the
     cursor 	is still the same vertically (y) but it has advanced by
     the width of 	the barcode plus the x margin. The exact
     position of the barcode 	can be fine tuned with option -g,
     xmargin and ymargin. In         streaming mode, no PCL code is
     generated that would change the charset 	encoding and the font.
     This is expected to be done by the surrounding 	PCL code
     generated by a printing application.

     	Use case: A legacy application might generate output like
     Articlename: EAN13START -b761005201696 -g30x10 EAN13END.  	It is
     easy to write a filter which replaces EAN13START...EAN13END
     by the correct PCL code using barcode -s. Add that filter to the
     printer spooling system, and your ancient application can print
     barcodes without having to add barcode printing code to it. You
     can find an example of such a filter in the doc subdirectory of the
     barcode distribution, in the file pclfilter.py.


   %M .SH ENCODING TYPES %M .PP

%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: Supported Encodings,  Next: PCL Output,  Prev: The barcode Executable,  Up: Top

6 Supported Encodings
*********************

The program encodes text strings passed either on the command line
(with -b) or retrieved from standard input. The text representation is
interpreted according to the following rules. When auto-detection of
the encoding is enabled (i.e, no explicit encoding type is specified),
the encoding types are scanned to find one that can digest the text
string.  The following list of supported types is sorted in the same
order the library uses when auto-detecting a suitable encoding for a
string.

EAN
     	The EAN frontend is similar to UPC; it accepts strings of
     digits, 12 or 7 characters long. Strings of 13 or 8 characters
        are accepted if the provided checksum digit is correct.
     I expect most users to feed input without a         checksum,
     though. The add-2 and add-5 extension are accepted for both
     the EAN-13 and the EAN-8 encodings.          The following are
     example of valid input strings: 	"123456789012" (EAN-13),
     "1234567890128" (EAN-13 wih         checksum),  "1234567" (EAN-8),
     "12345670 12345" (EAN-8         with checksum and add-5),
     "123456789012 12" (EAN-13 with add-2), 	"123456789012 12345"
     (EAN-13 with add-5).

UPC
     	The UPC frontend accepts only strings made up of digits (and,
     if a supplemental encoding is used, a blank to separate it).
     It accepts strings of 11 or 12 digits (UPC-A) and 6 or 7 or 8
       digits (UPC-E).

     	The 12th digit of UPC-A is the checksum and is added by the
     library if not specified in the input; if it is specified, it
       must be the right checksum or the code is rejected as invalid.
           For UPC-E, 6 digit are considered to be the middle part of
     the         code, a leading 0 is assumed and the checksum is added;
            7 digits are either considered the initial part (leading
     digit         0 or 1, checksum missing) or the final part
     (checksum specified,         leading 0 assumed); 8 digits are
     considered to be the complete code,         with leading 0 or 1
     and checksum.          For both UPC-A and UPC-E, a trailing string
     of 2 digits or 5 digits 	is accepted as well. Therefore, the
     following are examples         of valid strings that can be
     encoded as UPC: 	"01234567890" (UPC-A)         "012345678905"
     (UPC-A with checksum), "012345" 	(UPC-E), "01234567890 12"
     (UPC-A, add-2) and 	"01234567890 12345" (UPC-A, add-5),
     "0123456 12"         (UPC-E, add-2).          Please note that
     when setting BARCODE_ANY to auto-detect         the encoding to be
     used, 12-digit strings and 7-digit strings         will always be
     identified as EAN. This because I expect most         user to
     provide input without a checksum. If you need to         specify
     UPC-with-checksum as input you must explicitly set
     BARCODE_UPC as a flag or use -e upc on the command line.

ISBN
     	ISBN numbers are encoded as EAN-13 symbols, with an optional
     add-5 trailer. The ISBN frontend of the library accepts real
     ISBN numbers and deals with any hyphen and, if present, the
     ISBN checksum character before encoding data. Valid
     representations for ISBN strings are for example:
     "1-56592-292-1", "3-89721-122-X" and "3-89721-122-X 	06900".

CODE 128-B
     	This encoding can represent all of the printing ASCII
     characters, from the space (32) to DEL (127). The checksum
     digit is mandatory in this encoding.

CODE 128-C
     	The "C" variation of Code-128 uses Code-128 symbols to
     represent two digits at a time (Code-128 is made up of 104
     symbols whose interpretation is controlled by the start symbol
     being used). Code 128-C is thus the most compact way to
     represent any even number of digits. The encoder refuses to
     deal with an odd number of digits because the caller is
     expected to provide proper padding to an even number of 	digits.
     (Since Code-128 includes control symbols to switch
     charset, it is theoretically possible to represent the odd
     digit as a Code 128-A or 128-B symbol, but this tool doesn't
     currently implement this option).

CODE 128 RAW
     	Code-128 output represented symbol-by-symbol in the input
     string.  To override part of the problems outlined below in
     specifying code128 symbols, this pseudo-encoding allows the
     used to specify a list of code128 symbols separated by 	spaces.
     Each symbol is represented by a number in the range 	0-105.
     The list should include the leading character.The 	checksum and
     the stop character are automatically added by the 	library. Most
     likely this pseudo-encoding will be used with
     BARCODE_NO_ASCII and some external program to supply the 	printed
     text.

CODE 39
     	The code-39 standard can encode uppercase letters, digits, the
     blank space, plus, minus, dot, star, dollar, slash, percent.
     Any string that is only composed of such characters is
     accepted by the code-39 encoder. To avoid loosing information,
     the encoder refuses to encode mixed-case strings (a lowercase
     string is nonetheless accepted as a shortcut, but is encoded
     as uppercase).

INTERLEAVED 2 OF 5
     	This encoding can only represent an even number of digits
      (odd digits are represented by bars, and even digits by the
      interleaving spaces). The name stresses the fact that two
     of the five items (bars or spaces) allocated to each symbol
     are wide, while the rest are narrow. The checksum digit is
     optional (can be disabled via BARCODE_NO_CHECKSUM).          Since
     the number of digits, including the checksum, must be even,
     a leading zero is inserted in the string being encoded if needed
          (this is specifically stated in the specs I have access to).

CODE 128
     	Automatic selection between alphabet A, B and C of the Code-128
            standard. This encoding can represent all ASCII symbols,
     from         0 (NUL) to 127 (DEL), as well as four special
     symbols, named         F1, F2, F3, F4. The set of symbols
     available in this encoding         is not easily represented as
     input to the barcode library,         so the following convention
     is used.  In the input string,         which is a C-language
     null-terminated string, the NUL char         is represented by the
     value 128 (0x80, 0200) and the F1-F4 characters         are
     represented by the values 193-196 (0xc1-0xc4, 0301-0304).
     The values have been chosen to ease their representation as
     escape sequences.

     Since the shell doesn't seem to interpret escape sequences on the
           command line, the "-b" option cannot be easily used to
     designate         the strings to be encoded. As a workaround you
     can resort         to the command echo, either within back-ticks
     or used         separately to create a file that is then fed to
     the standard-input         of barcode - assuming your echo command
     processes escape         sequences.  The newline character is
     especially though to encode         (but not impossible unless you
     use a csh variant.

     These problems only apply to the command-line tool; the use of
        library functions doesn't give any problem. In needed, you can
           use the "code 128 raw" pseudo-encoding to represent
     code128 symbols by their numerical value. This encoding is
     used late in the auto-selection mechanism because (almost) any
        input string can be represented using code128.

CODABAR
     	Codabar can encode the ten digits and a few special symbols
     (minus, plus, dollar, colon, bar, dot). The characters 	"A",
     "B", "C" and "D" are used to 	represent four different
     start/stop characters. The input 	string to the barcode library
     can include the start and stop 	characters or not include them
     (in which case "A" is 	used as start and "B" as stop). Start
     and stop 	characters in the input string can be either all
     lowercase or 	all uppercase and are always printed as
     uppercase.

PLESSEY
     	Plessey barcodes can encode all the hexadecimal 	digits.
     Alphabetic digits in the input string must either be 	all
     lowercase or all uppercase. The output text is always
     uppercase.

MSI
     	MSI can only encode the decimal digits. While the standard
     specifies either one or two check digits, the current
     implementation in this library only generates one check digit.

CODE 93
     The code-93 standard can natively encode 48 different characters,
         including uppercase letters, digits, the blank space, plus,
     minus,       dot, star, dollar, slash, percent, as well as five
     special       characters:  a start/stop delimiter and four "shift
     characters" used       for extended encoding.    Using this
     "extended encoding" method, any       standard 7-bit ASCII
     character can be encoded, but it takes up two       symbol lengths
     in barcode if the character is not natively supported       (one
     of the 48).        The encoder here fully implements the code 93
     encoding standard.        Any characters natively supported (A-Z,
     0-9, ".+-/$&%") will be       encoded as such - for any other
     characters (such as lower case       letters, brackets,
     parentheses, etc.), the encoder will revert       to extended
     encoding.        As a note, the option to exclude the checksum
     will eliminate the       two modulo-47 checksums (called C and K)
     from the barcode, but this       probably will make it unreadable
     by 99% of all scanning systems.        These checksums are
     specified to be used at the firmware level,       and their
     absence will be interpreted as an invalid barcode.

CODE 11
     The code-11 standard (also known as USD-8) is able to encode the
       decimal digits and the dash symbol (-).       It is used
     primarily in labeling telecommunications equipment.       As
     recommended by the standard the current implementation adds
     by default a checksum digit. An additional checksum digit is added
         for messages that contain 10 or more characters.


   %M .SH PCL OUTPUT

%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: PCL Output,  Next: Bugs and Pending Issues,  Prev: Supported Encodings,  Up: Top

7 PCL Output
************

While the default output is Postscript (possibly EPS), and Postscript
can be post-processed to almost anything, it is sometimes desirable to
create output directly usable by the specific printer at hand.  PCL is
currently supported as an output format for this reason.  Please note
that the Y coordinate for PCL goes from top to bottom, while for
Postscript it goes from bottom to top. Consistently, while in
Postscript you specify the bottom-left corner as origin, for PCL you
specify the top-left corner.

   Barcode output for PCL Printers (HP LaserJet and compatibles), was
developed using PCL5 Reference manuals from HP.  That really refers to
these printers:
   * LaserJet III, III P, III D, III Si,

   * LaserJet 4 family

   * LaserJet 5 family

   * LaserJet 6 family

   * Color LaserJet

   * DeskJet 1200 and 1600.


   However, barcode printing uses a very small subset of PCL, probably
also LaserJet II should print it without problem, but the resulting
text may be horrible.

   The only real difference from one printer to another really depends
on which fonts are available in the printer, used in printing the label
associated to the bars (if requested).

   Earlier LaserJet supports only bitmaps fonts, so these are not
"scalable". (Ljet II ?). Also these fonts, when available, have a
specified direction, and not all of them are available in both Portrait
and Landscape mode.

   From LaserJet 4 series on (except 4L/5L which are entry-level
printers), the "Arial" scalable font should be available, so it's the
"default font" used by this program.

   LaserJet III series printers (and 4L, 5L) don't feature "Arial" as a
resident font, so you should use BARCODE_OUT_PCL_III instead of
BARCODE_OUT_PCL, and the font used will be "Univers" instead of "Arial".

   Results on compatible printers may depend on consistency of PCL5
compatibility. In doubt try BARCODE_OUT_PCL_III.

   PJL commands are not used here, as it's not very compatible.

   Tested Printers:
   * Hp LaserJet 4050

   * Hp LaserJet 2100

   * Epson N-1200 emul PCL

   * Toshiba DP2570 (copier) + PCL option

   * Epson EPL-7100 emul. HP LaserJet II: bars print fine but text is
     bad.

   %M .SH BUGS

%##########################################################################


File: barcode.info,  Node: Bugs and Pending Issues,  Prev: PCL Output,  Up: Top

8 Bugs and Pending Issues.
**************************

The current management of borders/margins is far from optimal. The
"default" margin applied by the library interferes with the external
representation, but I feel it is mandatory to avoid creating barcode
output with no surrounding white space (the problem is especially
relevant for EPS output).

   EAN-128 is not (yet) supported. I plan to implement it pretty soon
and then bless the package as version 1.0.

   %M .SH "SEE ALSO" %M \fBbarcode(3)\fP %M %M .SH AUTHORS %M
Alessandro Rubini <rubini@gnu.org> (maintainer) %M .PP %M Leonid A.
Broukhis <leob@mailcom.com> (several encodings) %M .PP %M Andrea
Scopece <a.scopece@tin.it> (PCL output) %MANPAGE END



Tag Table:
Node: Top148
Node: Overview670
Node: The Barcode Object1626
Node: The Field List3197
Node: The Intermediate Representation7086
Node: Supported Flags8942
Node: The API12068
Node: The barcode Executable15749
Node: The Command Line16684
Node: Supported Encodings23549
Node: PCL Output33987
Node: Bugs and Pending Issues36402

End Tag Table
