Barcode Sizes

Barcode sizes are very important if they are to read successfully by scanners. Each type of barcode is defined using the following size parameters:

Density

A mil is used to specify the barcode density.

1 mil = 1/1000 inch

Module

Module parameter ("Module", sometimes referred to as the "X dimension") indicates the narrowest bar of a barcode. This parameter is connected with the printing resolution of a barcode and the barcode density. For example, if the narrowest bar is 10 mils it is said that the barcode is printed with 10 mil resolution or that the density of the barcode is 10 mil.

Density

There are two elements of density - the graphics density and information density of a barcode.

Information Density

The information density is the number of characters that can be encoded per inch given a certain X value. The smaller the value of X, the more characters can be encoded in an inch and, thus, the density rises. The information density of a bar-code depends on the character encoding. The less the number of bars and spaces required to encode one symbol the higher the information density of the bar-code.

Graphics Density

The graphics density of the barcode is connected with the bar-code size. The classification of graphic linear barcodes is shown in the table below:

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Width

The barcode width depends on the graphic and information density. The density is limited by the resolution of the printer and scanner, but the barcode width depends on the information density of the symbolic. Different symbolics may have different barcode widths even if their graphic density is the same.

Height

The height of the barcode is needed only to allow scanners to easily read it. Usually the best barcode length is based on the ratio of height to width of around 1:5-6.

Spaces

This is a very important attribute, especially for linear barcodes. Spacing is the light regions at the start and the end of the bar-code. They are required for the scanner to identify the bar-code measurements.