Barcode Length
Posted by Tom Graham on
Fixed or Variable Length
Barcodes can be either fixed or variable in length.
Fixed Length
- symbology must encode a certain number of data characters
Variable Length
- symbology can encode variable number of data characters
We talk about fixed length if symbology must encode a certain number of data characters - for example 13 characters in EAN 13 symbology.
If symbology can have various lengths of encoded data characters, we talk about variable length. On the screen you can see two examples of Code 128 barcodes - one with the length of 10 characters and the other of 16 characters.