Barcode Technology - EAN-13 Barcode               Hide the description

EAN-13 is unique identifiers (barcodes) used to identify new, branded products sold at retail. The products contain

the EAN number or GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) to identify itself.

Valid characters: 0123456789

EAN-13 is one of the many barcode formats currently in use.

A Barcode is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form.

The barcode formats has two categories:

One-dimensional (1D) --- Barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines.

Two-dimensional (2D) --- Using rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns to represented data.

EAN - European Article Number, but is now referred to as The International Article Number. It is a standard

describing abarcode symbology and numbering system used in global trade to identify a specific retail product type, in a specific packaging configuration, from a specific manufacturer. EAN barcodes are used worldwide for lookup at retail point of sale, each retail product has its unique EAN-13 number.

EAN barcodes only represent the digits 0–9, it cannot represent other characters.

The most commonly used EAN standard is the thirteen-digit EAN-13, the less commonly used 8-digit EAN-8 barcode

was introduced for use on small packages, where EAN-13 would be too large. 2-digit EAN-2 and 5-digit EAN-5 are supplemental barcodes, placed on the right-hand side of EAN-13 or UPC. These are generally used for periodicals like magazines or books, to indicate the current year's issue number; and weighed products like food, to indicate the manufacturer's suggested retail price.

The 13-digit EAN-13 number consists of four components:

**  GS1 prefix - 3 digits

The first three digits of the EAN-13 identify the GS1 Member Organization which the manufacturer has joined (not necessarily where the product is actually made). Each manufacturer by the numbering authority indicated by the GS1 Prefix. Some EAN-13 codes which beginning with 0 are actually 12-digit UPC codes with prepended 0 digit.

**  Manufacturer code - variable length

The manufacturer code is a unique code assigned to each manufacturer. EAN-13 uses "variable-length manufacturer codes". Assigning fixed-length 5-digit manufacturer codes, means that each manufacturer can have up to 99,999 product codes. In the publishing industry( ISBN and ISSN), this component is used to identify the language in which the publication was issued and managed by a transnational agency covering several countries.

**  Product code - variable length

The product code is assigned by the manufacturer. The product code immediately follows manufacturer code. The total length of manufacturer code plus product code should be 9 or 10 digits depending on the length of country code (2-3 digits). In ISBN, ISMN and ISSN, it uniquely identifies the publication from the same publisher.

**  Check digit

The check digit is an additional digit, used to verify that a barcode has been scanned correctly. It is computed modulo 10, where the weights in the checksum calculation alternate 3 and 1. In particular, since the weights are relatively prime to 10, the EAN-13 system will detect all single digit errors. It also recognizes 90% of transposition errors (all cases, where the difference between adjacent digits is not 5).

Calculation of checksum digit

The checksum is calculated as sum of products - taking an alternating weight value (3 or 1) times the value of each data digit. The checksum digit is the digit, which must be added to this checksum to get a number divisible by 10 (i.e. the additive inverse of the checksum, modulo 10). See ISBN-13 check digit calculation for a more extensive description and algorithm. The Global Location Number(GLN) also uses the same method.

Human Readable:

Most barcodes display their corresponding values below them, which makes it possible to human read and manually  enter the barcode values into the equivalent system when the barcode label is worn out and cannot be read by the barcode scanner.

The different of EAN and UPC (Universal Product Code):

They are both Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), with the difference being UPCs are one digit shorter (12) and are more commonly used in the United States and Canada.

Advantages:

It's not required to label all articles with the price. The price is stored in the database and can be accessed via the barcode number. There is no need to manually calculate the price of the product. You only need to use the POST system to scan the EAN barcode on each product purchased by a customer. Because each product has its own unique EAN number, the POST system can get the corresponding price of each product in the database and calculate the total amount. It is fast and safe because there is no way to make a mistake.

History:

In 1977 the EAN code was used by 12 countries (all the countries of the European Community). Today, use of the EAN code has spread to all west European countries, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. Today the EAN is called GTIN (Global Trade Item Number).

FAQ About EAN-13 Barcode

What is the historical origin of EAN-13 barcodes?

EAN-13, short for European Article Number, is a barcode protocol and standard used in supermarkets and other retail industries.

EAN-13 is established on the basis of the UPC-A standard developed by the United States to meet the needs of international applications.

EAN-13 consists of a prefix code, manufacturer identification code, product item code and check code, with a total of 13 digits. Its encoding follows the principle of uniqueness and can ensure that it is not repeated worldwide.

Why use EAN-13 barcodes?

The EAN-13 barcode is a universal commodity barcode that can encode a relatively large amount of data in a small area and ensure that it is not repeated worldwide. The advantage of EAN-13 barcodes is their flexibility to accommodate products or assets of different sizes and shapes.

Who developed the EAN-13 barcode standard? Why develop this standard?

The EAN-13 barcode standard was formulated by the International Commodity Barcode Association. It is a world-wide commodity barcode system that is designed to facilitate the identification and circulation of commodities. The EAN-13 barcode standard regulates the structure, encoding method, and printing requirements of barcodes.

EAN International (EAN) is a non-profit international organization founded in 1977 and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium1. Its purpose is to formulate and improve a globally unified commodity barcode system and provide value-added services for optimizing the supply chain management of enterprises. Its member organizations span the globe.

What is the difference between EAN-13 barcode and UPC-A?

The EAN-13 barcode is formulated by the International Article Numbering Center and is universal throughout the world. The code length is 13 digits, and the first two digits represent the country or region code.

The UPC-A barcode is produced by the United States Uniform Code Committee and is mainly used in the United States and Canada. The code length is 12 digits, and the first digit indicates the numeric system code.

EAN-13 barcodes and UPC-A barcodes have the same structure and verification method, and both have grooves. The EAN-13 barcode is a superset of the UPC-A barcode and is compatible with the UPC-A barcode.

The EAN-13 barcode has one more country/region code than the UPC-A barcode. In fact, the UPC-A barcode can be regarded as a special case of the EAN-13 barcode, which is the EAN-13 barcode with the first digit set to 0.

How to convert UPC-A to EAN-13 barcode?

UPC-A barcodes can be converted to EAN-13 barcodes by adding a leading 0. For example, the UPC-A barcode 012345678905 corresponds to the EAN-13 barcode 0012345678905. This will not only ensure compatibility with UPC-A barcodes, but also enable your barcodes to cope with international exchanges.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of EAN-13 barcodes?

Its advantage is that it has strong applicability and can be used in supermarkets and retail industries. Its disadvantage is that it takes up a lot of space and requires high print quality and scanning accuracy.

In what industries is EAN-13 barcode widely used?

The EAN-13 barcode is mainly used in supermarkets and other retail industries and is a very common product barcode.

Please list some application examples of EAN-13 barcodes.

Used in POS systems to quickly scan product information and prices to improve checkout efficiency and accuracy.
Used for inventory management, tracking the incoming and outgoing goods, and preventing shortages or excesses.
Used for market analysis, collecting product sales data, and understanding consumer needs and preferences.

How many types of EAN barcodes are there?

SEAN-13: The original 13-digit format, suitable for countries around the world except the United States and Canada, which use UPC barcodes.

EAN-8: 8-bit compressed version suitable for small products.

EAN-5: A 5-digit extension appended to the EAN-13 or UPC-A barcode to indicate currency and price.

EAN-2: A 2-digit extension appended to an EAN-13 or UPC-A barcode to indicate the issue number of magazines and newspapers.

Why don't the US and Canada use EAN-13 barcodes?

The reason why the United States and Canada do not use EAN-13 is because they early adopted the UPC-A barcode as the standard for product barcodes. The UPC-A barcode was produced by the United States Uniform Code Committee.

 The coding length is 12 digits and only supports 0-9 number. The EAN-13 barcode was later developed by the International Article Numbering Center. The code length is 13 digits and only supports numbers 0-9, but it has an additional country/region code.

In fact, the UPC-A barcode can be seen as a special case of the EAN-13 barcode, that is, the EAN-13 barcode with the first digit set to 0. Therefore, EAN-13 barcodes and UPC-A barcodes are compatible as long as the scanning device can recognize both types of barcodes.

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