CC-C follows the definition that is specified in ISO/IEC 15438 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - PDF417 bar code symbology specification with some differences, which include the following:

• The first codeword must be 920.

• CC-C is limited in size to 2,361 digits and characters.

• The Reader Initialization codeword 921 must not appear.

• No quiet zone is required above the CC-C component, and a separator bar must appear below it.

For more information about other restrictions, refer to the AIM GS1 Composite Symbology Specification document.

This symbology supports the following characters:

• All numeric digits (0-9)

• All uppercase and lowercase letters (A-Z and a-z)

• Special function character (FNC1)

• Vertical bar (|) between the primary and secondary data

• Special characters:

  • Exclamation point (!)

  • Quotation marks (")

  • Percent sign (%)

  • Ampersand (&)

  • Apostrophe (')

  • Opening parenthesis (()

  • Closing parenthesis ())

  • Asterisk (*)

  • Plus sign (+)

  • Comma (,)

  • Hyphen (-)

  • Period (.)

  • Slash mark (/)

  • Colon (:)

  • Semicolon (;)

  • Left angle bracket (<)

  • Equal sign (=)

  • Right angle bracket (>)

  • Question mark (?)

  • Underscore (_)

  • Space character

The row height of a CC-C symbol is a minimum of 3X, where "X" is the current X dimension (which must be the same as the X dimension of the one-dimensional component). A minimum quiet zone of 1X is required on the left and right.