10 Quick Tips About Barcodes That You Should Know October 29, 2014My BusinessOff

Based on the role barcodes play in organizations, they are an extremely important part of the way businesses are run today. The barcodes are lines of varying sizes and lengths that determine what a scanned item is. Barcodes are essential in the indexing and organization of information not only related to an item’s identification but also the item’s price. There are countries that have gone a notch higher in the use of barcodes. For example the United States postal service uses barcodes in the delivery of mail. In this they have attained speed and efficiency of service.

That said; here are 10 quick tips about barcodes that you should know.
1. How the barcode works.
On the barcode, the black and white bars represent different text characters. These follow a specific algorithmic set that is specific to the identity of a particular item. A barcode scanner therefore reads this pattern; this is then interpreted as a line text for your computer to understand.

2. The barcode structure.
The barcode has three main parts. First is the margin, which is normally white with nothing printed on it. Second is the barcode symbol, which is the area composed of the black and white bars, and lastly the barcode, which is the symbol together with the right and left margins.

3. Characters in a barcode.
Barcodes are of different types. We have one-dimensional barcodes and two-dimensional barcodes. These are often referred to as 1D and 2D barcodes. 1D barcodes have characters ranging from 20 to 25, whereas the 2D barcodes have up to 200 characters in range.

4. How and where to get barcode printers and scanners.
A good look into the market will provide any retailer with a list of potentials to buy barcode scanners, readers or printers from. Shopify deals with the same and their compelling products are all in range for a good deal, this entails quality and fair pricing.

5. Barcode scanning.
The good thing about barcode scanning is that it does not need any special software to print. Interesting enough is that the scanner uses Bluetooth and though the range of scanning will vary with the model, many barcode scanners will work perfectly well in range of about 250ft.

6. How dangerous is the laser scanner.
When it comes to scanners, the majority of people will tend to grow cold feet. Laser beams are known to be hazardous, however the barcode scanners use class II lasers which are neither harmful to the human body nor the human eyes.

7. Where else are barcodes used.
Apart from the usual retail supermarkets where majority of the population will be very familiar with barcodes, barcodes have been, and are being used in other fields. For example, companies are using barcodes on employee identification cards, making it easier to monitor their entry and exit to work. Barcodes also have been used in delivery mail systems as mentioned earlier by the United States Postal Service. A number of countries have their drivers licenses fitted with barcodes for ease of identification. “Social media is what’s happening; it’s game-changing stuff,” says Erika Brown, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Frost & Sullivan, according to Business Insider.

8. The different kinds of coding for barcodes.
There are different encodings for the barcode. One of which is the magnetic strip, which is popularly known as a swipe card or mag-stripe. This one is read when the card is swiped past a magnetic reading head. Second is the contact smartcard, which provides electrical connectivity to the card. This is comprised of several gold plated pads embedded into a single card. Third we have the contactless smart card, a re-writable smartcard barcode. It is made to communicate via a terminal of radio waves in a specific a range.

9. Creating a barcode.
Perhaps the lingering question will be how one creates barcodes. Interesting enough one can create a barcode using Microsoft Word. Yes, it is that easy.
First one needs to do the tradition of opening Microsoft word.
Then click on the tools icon.
Click again on envelopes and labels.
If it is necessary type the delivery address for the envelope or the label.
Click on options.
After this is done you will check the box for delivery points bar code and finally click ok.
There you will have your barcode. Simple isn’t it. “For frequent visitors, add a spot to sign up for a mailing list or add information about new products or services,” suggests Sadan, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

10. Downloading barcodes.
Some of us will tend to rely on the comfort of a readily available market. Not to worry, this is in no way illegal. One can actually download barcodes fonts to create your own barcodes. But keep in mind that not all barcodes readers will integrate smoothly with these downloaded barcode fonts. Nevertheless, one can easily change these fonts to suit his or her barcode requirements. This is proven evident in Entrepreneur Magazine.

By Simon Davis

Simon Davis has been a full-time business writer for the last four years and has had the privilege of attending some of the most renowned business conclaves held across the world.  When not on business he loves spending time with his girlfriend and a bit of adventure sports.

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