This font is provided as shareware. There is no explicit charge for using this font if you are an individual or an educational institution, but a registration fee of $10.00US is encouraged to support ongoing development of new fonts. The $10.00US registration fee is mandatory for commercial use and distribution. Furthermore, distribution is permitted only if the font is not altered in any way and is accompanied by this readme file.

WARNING:

This font contains only the glyphs to BUILD UPC-A barcodes, which must be assembled manually or through software to obtain the final mechanicaly readable product. In order for a barcode reader to properly recognize the barcode, the following instructions must be followed exactly.

EAN Codes:

The EAN Codes encode either 13 or 8 characters.  The 13 character version is a superset of the UPC A code. The 8 character version is for printing on smaller packages.

EAN 13:

EAN 13 is used to encode thirteen characters. The first two characters are the flag characters that identify the country of origin, the next ten characters are the data characters, and the last character is the check character.

NOTE

The UPC-A symbol is a subset of the EAN 13 symbols. A UPC-A symbol is an EAN 13 symbol with the first flag character set to zero.

The physical structure of the EAN-13 is as follows:

    Left hand guard bars, encoded 101
    Second flag character, encoded as in the following tables
    First five data characters, encoded as in the following tables
    Center guard pattern, encoded 01010
    Last five data characters, encoded as right hand characters
    Check character, encoded as a right hand character
    Right hand guard bars, encoded 101

    Nominal module bar/space width = 0.013 in (0.33 mm)
    Worst case module width = 0.009 in. (0.23 mm)

The thirteenth digit (First Flag Character) is encoded in the pattern of parity in the second flag character and the first five data characters. The left hand A and the left hand B character sets are used.

EAN Character Set:

Data  Left Hand A  Left Hand B  Right Hand

  0     0001101      0100111      1110010
  1     0011001      0110011      1100110
  2     0010011      0011011      1101100
  3     0111101      0100001      1000010
  4     0100011      0011101      1011100
  5     0110001      0111001      1001110
  6     0101111      0000101      1010000
  7     0111011      0010001      1000100
  8     0110111      0001001      1001000
  9     0001011      0010111      1110100

First Flag Character Encodation for EAN 13

First Flag  Second Flag	Data Characters
Character   Character   1  2  3  4  5

    0          A        A  A  A  A  A
    1          A        A  B  A  B  B
    2          A        A  B  B  A  B
    3          A        A  B  B  B  A
    4          A        B  A  A  B  B
    5          A        B  B  A  A  B
    6          A        B  B  B  A  A
    7          A        B  A  B  A  B
    8          A        B  A  B  B  A
    9          A        B  B  A  B  A

Check Characters:

The check character for the UPC/EAN codes is generated by the following method:

1 - Designate the rightmost character odd.
2 - Sum all of the characters in the odd positions and multiply the result by
    three. (Remember to include the Number System Character)
3 - Sum all of the characters in the even positions
4 - Add the odd and even totals from steps two and three.
5 - Determine the smallest number that when added to the result from step
    four, will result in a multiple of 10. This is the check character.

EAN 13 Example

Flag characters =       20
Message characters =      0123456789
Position =              EOEOEOEOEOEO
Sum of odd positions =  0 + 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25
Odd positions X 3 =     25 x 3 = 75
Sum of even positions = 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 = 22
Sum of even and odd =   75 + 22 = 97
Check character =       3
Tag to be encoded =     2001234567893

Left Hand A barcode glyphs 0 to 9 are located at characters 48 (0x30) to 57 (0x39) and Left Hand B barcode glyphs 0 to 9 are located at characters 64 (0x40) to 73 (0x49). Right Hand barcode glyphs 0 to 9 are located at characters 80 (0x50) to 89 (0x59). The First Flag Characters 0 to 9 are at 33 (0x21) to 42 (0x2A). The Secong Flag Characters 0 to 9 are at 96 (0x60) to 105 (0x69). The 'Check Characters' are located at 112 (0x70) to 121 (0x79). The 'Center Guard' glyph is at character 124 (0x7C). The Second Flag Characters and Check Characters also include the Left and Right Hand Guard Bars.


Please submit the registration fee to the address below in your local currency, US or Canadian dollars. Include your company information and a return E-MAIL address where the registration information will be sent.


Chaos Microsystems Inc.
22-5330 Canotek Road
Gloucester, ON, Canada
K1J 9C3