Making barcodes black and white

What is a barcode, is it just a set of lines that magically turn into a price at your local supermarket?  Actually, barcodes can do many different things for you and getting them right is a great way to help your clients and their customers.

There are global standards for barcodes, mostly under the guidance of GS1.

GS1 produce a global standard that details every barcode they support; how to generate them; what they mean; where to use them and far more. When we founded NotaZone and began to work with barcodes I had the pleasure of reading their barcode standards document (not quite entirely!) and still use as a reference when working on technical designs for NotaZone.

As a food producer, what barcodes should you know about?  We are going to try to make this clear in a series of articles, this first giving an overview.

The main barcode variants to be aware of are product barcodes (EANs) and outer packaging barcodes (ITF-14).   Both define what is inside the packet or packaging and rely on a GTIN number, issued by GS1 worldwide through its local country offices.

What is a GTIN?

GTIN is a GS1 specification for a "Global Trade Item Number" and you must use a unique GTIN for each product.  The number is always 12 digits long plus a 13th check digit added to support quick validation. Check digits are calculated using an algorithm from GS1 and can be checked here. 

e.g. with the GTIN 506 038 993 000 the check digit will be 3

GTINs are used throughout global trade to identify products.  It is worth knowing that the first 5-8 digits of a GTIN is a vendor code and identifies the organisation that owns the barcode.

Where do I get GTINs?

There are many places on the internet where you can buy GTINs, some are legitimate broker houses that buy large sets of GTINs and sell them on.  If you only need a few GTINs to start, this is an easy and attractive way to start.  However ...

If you use someone else GTINs the number will track back to them not you, which may damage your brand reputation in the long run.  Also as you grow and add more products, this way of getting GTINs becomes expensive.  If you fail to pay on time, the GTINs you are using can be allocated to someone else, meaning you have to reprint your packaging.

There is another way, by joining your local GS1 branch as a member you are given a Vendor code of your own and a set of GTINs to use.  The cost depends on your turnover and the number of barcodes you need.  As I write this, GS1 UK charge £100 per year for 100 barcodes for business up to £500,000 turnover.

See out next instalment for how to turn your GTINs into a product barcode.