Symbology Standards in Industry
In the 1970s, barcode and scanner technology began to come into widespread use, and many companies were issuing their own codes and equipment for their own specialized applications. However, because there were no commonly accepted standards industry-wide, problems arose when, for example, a manufacturer used a symbology that was printed in such a way that the retailer's scanner could not scan it. The need for uniformity, precision, and accuracy became paramount. Industry standards provide a way to communicate business data quickly, efficiently, and accurately among business partners.
The word "standard" has different meanings. This topic describes the differences between technical standards and application standards.
Technical standards include the technical specifications of an item. They do not describe how the technology is used but how it works.
Every barcode symbology has a specific set of rules about how it is to be used to encode data. Symbology specifications are documents that enable the user to know what these rules are. These specifications also indicate the size and placement of the human readable interpretation (if any), and the maximum and minimum symbol width and height. Examples of symbology specification standards include the following:
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CSN EN 12323 AIDC technologies - Symbology specifications - Code 16K
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CSN EN ISO/IEC 15438 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - PDF417 bar code specifications symbology
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DIN EN 841 Bar coding - Format description for symbology specifications
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DIN EN 12323 AIDC technologies - Symbology specifications - Code 16K
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ISO/IEC 16022 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - Data Matrix bar code symbology specification
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ISO/IEC 15438 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - PDF417 bar code symbology specification
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ISO/IEC 16388 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - Code 39 bar code symbology specification
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ISO/IEC 16390 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - Interleaved 2 of 5 bar code symbology specification
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ISO/IEC 15417 Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - Code 128 bar code symbology specification
Application standards describe data content, structure, and syntax for barcodes and usually give additional guidance about symbol size, shape, formatting, placement, durability, and so on. They do not describe how the technology works but how it is used.
Applications standards are independent of technical standards, although they may refer to them or define a subset of a technical standard for a limited, specific use. The GS1 Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) is an example of an application standard that is independent of a technical specification because it can be applied regardless of whether barcode, RFID, or human-readable characters are used to represent it.
Examples of application standards include the following:
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GS1 General Specifications
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Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 21
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US military standard MIL-STD-130
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Air Transport Association of America (ATA) Spec 2000
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National Drug Code (NDC)