How to Read Hidden Words in Bar Code

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UPC barcodes typically encode an ID assigned to the company that manufactures or sells the product, along with a lawmaking that the visitor assigns to that particular product. In rare cases, you can notice a piffling more than information by reading the 12 digits. Alternatively, impress your friends by learning how to interpret the bars and spaces of a barcode into actual numbers. Have them cut off or hide the numbers at the bottom of the UPC bar lawmaking, and then "read' the numbers past looking at the bars.

1. i

   Look the barcode up online for most 12-digit barcodes. The UPC arrangement encodes only the manufacturer'southward identity and an identification number for the specific product, except in certain cases described in the post-obit steps. More typically, no additional data is included in the UPC system, so in that location is zip to gain by attempting to read the barcode yourself. Instead, look it upward online using free services such every bit GTIN'south, the official U.S. bar code consignment company, or upcdatabase.org, which is a database created past users. Enter the full 12-digit barcode in the "GTIN" or "Search for a product" fields, respectively.

   • At that place are a couple exceptions described immediately below this pace, in which you can discover fractional information.
   • GTIN refers to the data organization UPC is a part of, brusk for Global Trade Item Number.^[1] 12 digit UPC numbers tin exist referred to as GTIN-12, UPC-A, or UPC-E.

2. 2

   Understand bar code basics. While the 12 digit barcode doesn't contain much human-readable information, yous can all the same acquire about how it functions. The showtime 6–x digits of a 12-digit barcode identify the visitor that manufactures or sells the product (either visitor may choose to add a barcode). This code is assigned and sold by a not-profit organization, GS1, upon asking.^[two] The remaining digits, except for the very last one, are invented by that company to describe each of its products.

   • For case, a company might exist assigned the code 123456. It can then impress whatsoever 12-digit barcode that begins 123456, creating one for each product. Compare 2 barcodes from the same company to run across whether you can figure out what the visitor code is.
   • The purpose of the final digit is explained later on in this section.

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3. iii

   Learn how to translate the barcode if the first digit is a 3. Drugs, pharmaceutical products, and occasionally beauty products usually have bar codes beginning with three. The next 10 digits are typically the U.S. National Drug Code number. The process of turning a drug code into a barcode can result in ambiguity, then you may not ever be able to check against a drug code listing. Instead, look up the drug code on an online NDC lookup.

   • This type of 12-digit number is sometimes referred to as a UPN, or Universal Production Number.^[iii]
   • Although drug codes are e'er 10 digits long, they may likewise include hyphens (or spaces), which are not shown in the barcode. For example, 12345—678—xc and 1234—567—890 are different drug codes, merely only i of them can utilize the same sequence of numbers as a barcode.

4. 4

   Empathize barcodes with a kickoff digit of two. These barcodes are for items sold by weight. Typically, the first half-dozen digits, including the ii, identify the product'southward manufacturer, and the side by side five subsequently that are used locally by the store or warehouse to identify the weight of the product, or the price of a particular weight. If y'all take several products from the aforementioned location simply in different weights, you may try to figure out the codes for specific weights. Unfortunately, the system is up to each warehouse or shop, and so in that location is no universal code to interpret.

   • Type the unabridged barcode into GSI'due south company lookup, in the "GTIN" field, to find the manufacturer. This will also show you which part of the barcode is the company prefix (typically the get-go half-dozen digits, but not always). The remaining digits (except for the very last one) should be the lawmaking used to denote weight or price.

5. 5

   Acquire about the final digit. The final digit is called the "check digit," and is automatically adamant past putting the previous eleven digits through a mathematical formula. The purpose of this is to catch printing errors. While simulated UPC barcodes practise be, usually created by companies who don't understand that they need to use for i, it would be easy to include the correct cheque digit, and then this is likely not a reliable method of finding fakes. (For that purpose, expect it upwards in the official database instead.) If yous're curious or bask doing math for fun, you tin enter your barcode into a GTIN-12 check digit computer, or follow the checking formula yourself:

   • Add all the digits in the odd positions together (the 1st, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and 11th digits).
   • Multiply the result by iii.
   • Add to this the sum of the even-positioned digits (the 2nd, quaternary, 6th, eighth, and 10th) - do not include the check digit itself.
   • "Chop off" everything except the terminal digit of your reply, the number in the ones place.
   • If that number is 0, that is the check digit.
   • If that number is whatsoever other digit, subtract it from 10, and the effect is the check digit. For example, if the previous step resulted in an answer of 8, you would summate 10-eight=2. This answer should exist the same as the concluding 12th digit of the barcode.

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1. 1

   Understand this method. Although barcodes are designed to be "read" by scanners and interpreted past computers, it is possible with do to look at a UPC barcode and translate information technology into a 12-digit number. This is rarely useful, especially since the 12 digits are unremarkably printed beneath the bars, but you could larn it every bit a keen trick to show your friends or coworkers.

   • Barcodes using non-UPC systems or dissimilar numbers of digits cannot exist read using this method. Nearly barcodes on products sold in the U.S. and Canada are UPC barcodes, but be wary of compressed 6-digit UPC barcodes, which have a dissimilar, more circuitous encoding organisation.

2. ii

   Notice the 3 sets of longer lines. The barcode should exist divided into three sections past sets of slightly longer lines. Look at the bottom of the vertical bars: some of the lines should extend further downwards than the others. There should be two longer lines at the offset, two in the centre, and two at the end. These are there to help a barcode scanning auto read the bar code, and do non become interpreted as numbers.^[4] Yet, they still accept a purpose in this method: the bars to the left of the central longer lines get read slightly differently than the bars on the correct. This is explained in item below.

3. iii

   Place the four widths of the bars. Each vertical bar (black or white) tin have i of four different widths. Going from thinnest to thickest, these will be described equally widths i, 2, three, or 4 for the residual of this method. Using a magnifying glass if necessary, try to figure out the differences in the line widths. Telling the departure between two lines of similar widths tin be the hardest part of reading a bar code.

   • Don't confuse this for the actual numbers you're trying to find, the numbers 1 through 4 only draw the width of the bars.

4. 4

   Write down the thickness of the left hand bars. Start with the bars on the left hand side, between the longer bars on the left and the longer bars in the center. Begin with the first white bar on the left paw side, and measure the thickness of each bar, black and white. Each digit in the 12-digit number you're trying to find is encoded using four bars. Write down the thickness of each bar, dividing them into four-bar groups. When you attain the extra-long center confined, you'll have vi groups of four digits each.

   • For case, if the showtime white bar after the actress-long lines on the left hand side is the thinnest size, write downward 1.
   • Side by side, if the black bar to the correct is the thickest size, write downward 4.
   • Once y'all've done this for four bars (blackness and white), leave a space before writing down the next bar. For instance, once yous've written down "1422," movement your pen to a new line before writing downwardly the side by side bar width.

5. 5

   Practice the same for the right-paw side, but start with a black bar. Practice not decode the actress-long bars in the center. Starting with the start normal-length black bar to the right of them, use the same technique. This time, each grouping of iv bars (representing i digit) will take a black-white-blackness-white pattern. Stop when y'all have six additional groups of 4 digits each, and do not decode the extra-long bars on the correct.

6. 6

   Decode the bar widths into actual numbers. Now that yous have figured out which bars (of different widths) correspond to each number, all you need is to know the lawmaking that translates these into the actual digits in the 12-digit number. Use the following instructions to do so:^[five]

   • 3211 = 0
   • 2221 = i
   • 2122 = 2
   • 1411 = 3
   • 1132 = 4
   • 1231 = five
   • 1114 = 6
   • 1312 = 7
   • 1213 = 8
   • 3112 = 9

7. seven

   Check your result. If the numbers are printed beneath the bar lawmaking, read them to run across whether you made any mistakes. You tin likewise expect up the production in the GTIN database, typing in the 12-digit barcode you found into the "GTIN" field. This should find whatsoever product from a company that was officially assigned a barcode, although sometimes companies mistakenly impress their own barcodes that aren't added to the system. Yet, nigh of the time, this database should come up with a product proper name that matches the particular you are looking at, if you read the barcode correctly.

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Add together New Question

• Question

  Will a UPC code tell y'all what shop a product came from?

  

  No. Products with the same UPC code are sold at a multifariousness of stores.

• Question

  What information do barcodes contain?

  

  They contain the manufacturer and the item number. When a barcode is scanned, the computer organisation recognizes these numbers and associates them with a product.

• Question

  Can I tell the price of a product just past reading a bar code?

  

  No, but there are smartphone apps that permit you to browse a bar code and compare prices with the same product in other stores. RedLaser and ShopSavvy are two examples of these apps.

• Question

  How exercise I discover an expiration engagement with the bar lawmaking numbers?

  

  UPC barcodes (and most other types) do not include expiration dates. GS-one "DataBars" can encode expiration dates, but each seller may utilise a unlike system, so in that location's no easy way to read them. DataBars wait like extra long barcodes, or 2 codes stacked on top of each other.

• Question

  How do I detect out whether a wine is dry or sweetness?

  

  This information is not on the barcode, but yous may see a "sweetness code" on the bottle, the store shelf, or on online vino databases. The almost common scale ranges from 0/XD (Extra Dry) to 5/S (Distinctively Sweetness).

• Question

  If the bar lawmaking doesn't take whatsoever longer lines, simply they are all parallel, can I still interpret the code without the numbers, as noted in method two?

  

  Yes. Ignore the first 3 and terminal three lines. When you have half-dozen rows of four digits, ignore the next five lines and continue.

• Question

  How can I tell a product's country of origin from the barcode?

  

  Unfortunately, 12-digit barcodes do not include this data. 13-digit barcodes exercise start with a 2 or three digit state code. You can look these up on a "EAN-13" country code chart, but even this just tells you lot where the barcode was assigned, not necessarily where the product was made.

• Question

  Would the serial number of an appliance be on the barcode?

  

  The barcode is just an identification for what sort of product it is, not what production in that series information technology is.

• Question

  Can a barcode tell yous if a production is farm raised or GMO?

  

  This information is not role of a UPC bar lawmaking, but may be encoded in a separate bar code on the packaging. More often than not this information volition exist nowadays in a man readable format if it is required/desired that it exist made known, such every bit on health food products.

• Question

  How do I know the expiration or product date on a U.S. product by its bar code?

  

  This information is not part of a UPC bar lawmaking, but may exist encoded in a divide bar code on the packaging. Generally this data will exist nowadays in a human readable format if it is required/desired.

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• Outside the US & Canada, the similar thirteen-digit EAN bar lawmaking organization is more prevalent. The EAN contains an additional digit used every bit part of a country lawmaking, merely 12 digit UPC barcodes can accept a "0" added in forepart to write them in the EAN system.^{[half dozen]} This "0" is used as the country lawmaking for Canada and the U.S., but note that land codes show the country of auction, not the country of manufacture.

• Type your barcode directly into Google to be directed to upcdatabase.com's costless lookup service.

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Well-nigh This Article

Commodity Summary 10

1. The first 6-x digits identify the visitor.
two. Pharmaceuticals and dazzler products commonly start with 3.
3. Items sold past wait normally beginning with 2.
4. The final digit is adamant by the previous 11 digits.

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