Bar Code Standards

In the world of barcode symbologies, standards are important. You need to know that there is a standard way of creating and decoding those bars and spaces.

The original creator of barcode standards was AIM Global. In more recent years, after a symbology has reached a certain level of popularity, AIM has submitted the symbology to be standardized at ISO.

Linear – there are ISO standards for:

• GS1 Databar (Reduced Space Symbology)
• Micro PDF
• Code 39
• Code 128
• I 2/5
• EAN/UPC

There are also standards published by AIM Global for the following linear symbologies:

• Codabar
• Code 93
• Code 93i
• Channel Code
• Telepen
• PosiCode A
• PosiCode B

2D – there are ISO standards for:

• EAN.UCC Composite
• Aztec Code
• QR Code
• PDF 417
• Data Matrix
• MaxiCode

AIM Global also publishes standards for:

• Dot Code
• DotCode A
• Code One
• Datastrip 2D
• Grid Matrix
• Code 40
• Code 16K
• SupeCode

As well as symbology standards, ISO has also published standards to help define the quality of symbols. The following standards can be purchased from ISO:
• ISO/IEC 15415:2004: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code print quality test specification — Two-dimensional symbols
• ISO/IEC 15415: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code print quality test specification — Two-dimensional symbols
• ISO/IEC 15416:2000: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code print quality test specification — Linear symbols
• ISO/IEC 15419:2009: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code digital imaging and printing performance testing
• ISO/IEC 15421: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code master test specifications
• ISO/IEC 15423:2009: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code scanner and decoder performance testing
• ISO/IEC 15426-1:2006: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code verifier conformance specification — Part 1: Linear symbols
• ISO/IEC 15426-2:2005: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code verifier conformance specification — Part 2: Two-dimensional symbols
• ISO/IEC 19782:2006: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Effects of gloss and low substrate opacity on reading of bar code symbols
• ISO/IEC 24720:2008: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Guidelines for direct part marking (DPM)
• ISO/IEC 29158: Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Direct Part Mark (DPM) Quality Guideline