EAN-13 Specifications

The following provides a guideline for the size you should print the barcode on your product. This is very important if you need barcode verification. It is also a good guide for making sure that your barcode scans correctly. If possible it’s very important to keep your barcode size within these standards. If you go outside these standards, you barcodes might be accepted by some retailers but be rejected by others.

Magnification

The specified magnification range for an EAN-13 Bar Code Symbol being scanned at retail point of sale is 80% – 200% (X-dimension 0.26mm-0.66mm).

An acceptable minimum magnification of 75% (X-dimension 0.25mm) is applicable only to on demand (e.g. thermal) print processes. In this case, the bar height should never be reduced below the minimum required height for an 80% magnification barcode symbol.

Where an item may also be scanned in a General Distribution Scanning environment (automated scanning), the allowable magnification range is 150% to 200% (X-dimension 0.50mm – 0.66mm).

 

Human Readable Interpretation

The Human Readable Interpretation should be printed beneath the bar code symbol.

The recommended typeface for the Human Readable Interpretation is OCR-B at a height of 2.75mm at nominal size (100% magnification, X-dimension 0.33mm). This typeface is only a recommendation and other type fonts and character sizes are acceptable provided the digits are clearly legible.

Dimensions (All measurements are in millimetres)

Magnification	X-dimension	Width	Bar height	Left Quiet Zone	Right Quiet Zone
0.80	0.26	25.08	18.28	2.90	1.85
0.85	0.28	26.65	19.42	3.09	1.96
0.90	0.30	28.22	20.57	3.27	2.08
0.95	0.31	29.78	21.71	3.45	2.19
1.00	0.33	31.35	22.85	3.63	2.31
1.05	0.35	32.92	23.99	3.81	2.43
1.10	0.36	34.49	25.14	3.99	2.54
1.15	0.38	36.05	26.28	4.17	2.66
1.20	0.40	37.62	27.42	4.36	2.77
1.25	0.41	39.19	28.56	4.54	2.89
1.30	0.43	40.76	29.71	4.72	3.00
1.35	0.45	42.32	30.85	4.90	3.12
1.40	0.46	43.89	31.99	5.08	3.23
1.45	0.48	45.46	33.13	5.26	3.35
1.50	0.50	47.03	34.28	5.45	3.47
1.55	0.51	48.59	35.42	5.63	3.58
1.60	0.53	50.16	36.56	5.81	3.70
1.65	0.54	51.73	37.70	5.99	3.81
1.70	0.56	53.30	38.85	6.17	3.93
1.75	0.58	54.86	39.99	6.35	4.04
1.80	0.59	56.43	41.13	6.53	4.16
1.85	0.61	58.00	42.27	6.72	4.27
1.90	0.63	59.57	43.42	6.90	4.39
1.95	0.64	61.13	44.56	7.08	4.50
2.00	0.66	62.70	45.70	7.26	4.62

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terms:

– Bar Width = width of barcode symbol excluding Quiet Zones

– Bar Height = height of bar excluding guard bar patterns

– Quiet Zone = Area of white space on either side of the bars

It is recommended that you allow for more quiet zone space than is strictly required in case of ink spread or printing inaccuracies

 

If you are uncertain about any of our terms used here and they are not in our glossary, please contact us.

If you need to arrange barcode verification, this can be bought here.

 

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