Code 128

Code 128 is a barcode that was developed in 1981 by the company Computer Identics.

It is an alphanumeric code, consisting of lower and upper case letters and numbers. Code 128 can represent all 128 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters.

Since Code 128 has a very high information density and can encode numerous characters, it is used in many areas.

Its main area of ​​application is logistics, where it ensures that all transport and storage units can be clearly and automatically recorded using a barcode scanner.

There are three character sets for Code 128, which encode different characters:

• Code128A à, which contains capital letters and special characters.
• Code128B à, which includes upper and lower case letters.
• Code128C à, which is specially optimized for the representation of digits. Numbers can be specified in pairs (00 to 99).

Code 128 consists of the following elements:

• A quiet zone (white area before or after the barcode, which clearly separates the code from other information).
• A start character. This character shows the scanner the beginning of the barcode and which character set - A, B or C - should be used for decoding.
• A series of information.
• A check character, which ensures the correctness of the barcode and is only used for checking during the reading process. Since the check character is not part of the value, it is not displayed as a readable character below the barcode.
• A stop character that indicates the end of the barcode.
• A second quiet zone.

The GS1-128 barcode (formerly EAN 128)is an application standard using the Code 128 barcode specification. Similar to what happens with Code 128, the GS1-128 can encode various information in one code.