| Recently the Uniform Code
Council (the organization that governs UPC bar codes) announced
that starting in January 2005, they will require that all retailers
and trading partners in the United States and Canada that presently
scan 12-digit UPC bar code symbols be capable of scanning 8
digit EAN-8 and 13 digit EAN-13 bar code symbols as well. Furthermore,
the UCC strongly recommends enhancing systems to accept bar
code data of up to 14 digits in preparation for a new numbering
system called GTIN (Global Trade Identification Numbers) that
will eventually be used to identify products world wide.
There is a great deal of confusion about what this all means
among companies that both print bar codes on their products
as well as with companies that scan bar codes into retail
point of sale or inventory systems. Many people mistakenly
believe that UPC bar code numbers are going to be phased
out altogether or replaced with a new type of bar code called
a GTIN bar code.
A GTIN bar code is not a new type of bar code at all. GTIN
numbers are simply 14 digit numbers that will be used to
identify products. GTIN numbers are fully compatible with
standard UPC-A, EAN-8 and EAN-13 bar code numbers therefore
UPC and EAN bar codes will continue to be used well into
the future.
All that is really going on is that the Uniform Code Council
is recommending that anyone that currently has a system in
place for reading 12 digit UPC bar codes should modify their
bar code databases so that they can accept up to 14 digit
numbers in bar codes used for identifying products. This
will allow existing bar code scanning systems to be used
to read any of the 4 primary types of bar code numbers used
for product identification (UPC-A, EAN-8, EAN-13 and the
newer GTIN numbers).
UPC bar codes will continue to be encoded using the UPC-A
bar code symbology, EAN-8 numbers will continue to be encoded
with the EAN-8 bar code symbology and EAN-13 numbers will
continue to be encoded with the EAN-13 bar code symbology.
The newer GTIN numbers will be encoded using either the Interleaved
2 of 5, the EAN/UCC-128, or RSS14 bar code symbologies. The
Interleaved 2 of 5 and EAN/UCC-128 bar code symbologies have
been in existence for many years and almost all bar code
scanners already have the ability to scan these types of
bar code symbols therefore no changes will need to be made
to existing bar code scanner hardware. All that has to change
is the way that the numbers are stored in a database. The
RSS14 bar code symbology is a relatively new symbology therefore
only a small percentage of the existing installed base of
bar code scanners are capable of reading RSS14 bar codes.
For example, suppose that you have a retail point of sale
or inventory system that stores all bar code data in a database
and the data field that stores the bar code data is restricted
to hold only a 12 digit number (standard UPC-A numbers).
To support the new standard, you would need to modify the
database so that the bar code data field will be able to
accept either an 8 digit, 12 digit, 13 digit or 14 digit
number. If your database already contains existing data that
is shorter than 14 digits in length, they are recommending
that you pad the existing data with leading zeros so that
all numbers will end up being 14 digits in length.
All TAL Bar Code software products including our Bar Code
ActiveX control, our bar code DLLs and B-Coder Professional
have always supported UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, Interleaved
2 of 5, EAN/UCC-128 and RSS14 bar codes therefore you will
be able to continue using the version of B-Coder Pro, our bar
code ActiveX control or our bar code DLLs that you have for
a very long time - even with the changes that are supposed
to occur in 2005.
For more information on the 2005 changes to the bar code world,
please visit
GTIN
Implementation Guide
Preparing
for the 2005 Sunrise Date
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