Printing barcodes from Navision

scott
scott Member Posts: 76
edited 2001-12-07 in Navision Financials
I could print barcodes from Navsion using both 3 of 9 and 128 fonts, but I could not read 128 barcodes using my WandReader, even if I added * to the beginning and the end of the data. 3 of 9 barcodes could be read but they don't look good. The height is too short and the width is too long.

Please help.

Comments

  • scott
    scott Member Posts: 76
    I was able to use codeunit to calculate checksum character and add prefix and sufix for code 128 barcodes, and the barcodes were successfully printed and read by WandReader.

    Code 128 is much more dense than code 39, but I am still not able to control the height and the width, indepent of each other. It is limited to the fonts available. I really want to strech the height of the barcodes as much as possible for easy readability.

    What should I try next?
  • JohnP
    JohnP Member Posts: 56
    Code 128 & Code 3of9 differ significantly in their structure. 3of9 uses the * as the start and stop symbol so it simply becomes a matter of taking the string you want to encode, calculate the optional checksum character if necessary and then sticking a * and either end.

    Code 128 on the other hand has three different start codes depending on which mode you are using (A=alphanumeric & control characters, B=alphanumeric with lower case letters, C=double density numeric only). To make matters worse, you can even mix these modes within one barcode to reduce the length. Fortunately, there is only one stop code but it is different to the start codes.

    The width of the bars/spaces in relation to each other is fixed by the barcode specification (e.g. in 3of9 the thick elements must be between 2.2 & 3 times the width of the thin elements). I assume that you are using a TrueType font so the width/height ratio is fixed. As the width increases, the height remains in the same proportion.

    I suggest that you simply print the same barcode twice immediately above each other. Most barcode fonts come with and without human readable characters underneath. Use the non human readable one for the upper code and they should look like one continuous code.

    If you are using fonts from Datascan (www.datascan.co.uk) then I have a codeunit that can do all the string coding, checksum calcs etc.

    Cheers,

    John
  • scott
    scott Member Posts: 76
    John,

    Your suggestion of simply printing the same barcode twice immediately above each other is a briliant idea. It is really simple and should work.

    Thank you very much.

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