MicroPDF417
MicroPDF417 is a two-dimensional, variable-length stacked symbology that is designed to encode a moderate amount of data in a very small space. It is based on PDF417 and shares several of its features.
MicroPDF417 is defined in ISO/IEC 24728 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - MicroPDF417 bar code symbology specification.
The symbol comprises the following elements per row:
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Leading quiet zone
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Left row address pattern
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Data codewords and center row patterns as follows, depending on the version:
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One-column version: One codeword
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Two-column version: Two codewords
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Three-column version: One codeword, a center row address pattern, two codewords
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Four-column version: Two codewords, a center row address pattern, two codewords
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Right row address pattern
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Stop bar
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Trailing quiet zone
Each MicroPDF417 symbol contains between 4 and 44 rows and from one to four columns. Only certain combinations of rows and columns are allowed, as specified in the following table.
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Number of columns
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Allowed number of rows
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1
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11, 14, 17, 20, 24, 28
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2
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8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26
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3
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6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44
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4
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4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44
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Each codeword consists of four bars and four spaces made up of 17 rectangular modules in one row. Row height is variable and adjustable. For a list of the available codewords, see the ISO/IEC 24728 standard.
You can include Macro 05 and Macro 06 characters in a MicroPDF417 barcode to abbreviate an industry-specific prefix and suffix into one character to reduce the number of characters that you need to encode data.
This symbology supports all 256 ASCII characters and 8-bit binary data.
MicroPDF417 uses data compaction schemes to enhance encoding efficiency. The following modes are used to map between user-defined data and codeword sequences:
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Text Compaction mode
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Byte Compaction mode
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Numeric Compaction mode
It is possible to switch between modes in a symbol.
MicroPDF417 uses the Reed-Solomon algorithm for error correction. The number of error correction codewords is fixed for each symbol version.
MicroPDF417 symbol dimensions depend on the amount of data that is entered. The height of any MicroPDF417 symbol can range from 4 to 44 rows, and the row height can range from 1X to 10X, where "X" is the current X dimension. The width of a symbol can range from 40X to 101X. A minimum quiet zone of 1X is required on all sides.
Symbol Structure