Introduction to Barcodes

Barcodes have been a feature of the supply chain landscape for more than 40 years. Over that time, many types of barcodes have been developed and put into use in many industries all over the world.

Barcodes work by encoding data into a binary system that can be scanned and then decoded by specialized readers. A symbology is a set of rules that govern what kind of data is encoded and how. Hundreds of symbologies exist, having been developed and refined over decades as technology improves. Some symbologies have also been customized to meet the needs of a business or to conform to industry standards.