Free Barcode Generator

How to generate a barcode

Step 1 — choose the symbology. Code 128 accepts any letters, numbers and symbols and is the usual pick for internal and logistics labels. EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E are the fixed-length retail formats. ITF suits carton and case labels, ISBN covers books.

Step 2 — enter the value. The field validates as you type, so an EAN-13 that is the wrong length or has a bad check digit is flagged before you export anything.

Step 3 — adjust the rendering. Set the bar width and height, the margin around the symbol, whether the human-readable text is shown, and the foreground and background colours.

Step 4 — download. Export PNG for screens and everyday labels, SVG when the artwork will be scaled or sent to a printer, or PDF for a ready-to-print sheet.

Barcode formats supported

Code 128 — variable length, full ASCII, very dense. The default choice for shipping labels, asset tags and warehouse work.

Code 39 — uppercase letters, digits and a few symbols. Older and less dense than Code 128, but still common in automotive and defence supply chains.

EAN-13 and EAN-8 — the retail standard outside North America. EAN-13 carries 13 digits including a check digit; EAN-8 is the compact version for small packs.

UPC-A and UPC-E — the North American retail equivalents, 12 digits and a zero-suppressed short form.

ITF — Interleaved 2 of 5, digits only and always an even count. Printed on shipping cartons where the surface is rough.

ISBN — the book format, rendered as an EAN-13 with the ISBN prefix.

Printing barcodes that actually scan

Print at 100% scale. Shrinking a barcode in a page-layout tool narrows the bars until a scanner can no longer separate them — set the size in the generator instead and place the export at full size.

Keep the quiet zone. The blank margin either side of the symbol is part of the barcode. A rule of thumb is at least ten times the narrow bar width on each side.

Use real contrast. Black bars on a white or light background read best; scanners struggle with red bars, light-on-dark inversions and busy backgrounds.

Mind the direction. Bars should run across the direction of a curved surface, and labels on bottles or tubes need extra height so a handheld reader can find a clean scan line.

Common mistakes and troubleshooting

Wrong length or bad check digit — the fixed-length retail formats reject values that do not add up. Check the digit count first: 13 for EAN-13, 12 for UPC-A, 8 for EAN-8.

A retail barcode that is not yours — EAN and UPC numbers for products sold in shops are issued through GS1. Generating the image is free, but the number itself has to be allocated to you.

Blurred bars — a low-resolution PNG stretched onto a label smears the edges. Use the SVG export whenever the printer accepts it.

Nothing scans at all — test the image with the barcode scanner before committing to a print run, and try a second reader if the first fails.