UPC Bar Codes

UPC barcodes are the barcodes you see on everything headed toward the checkout line. If it makes a cash register "beep", it's probably a UPC barcode.

UPCTools, barcode software that prints UPC, ISBN-13 (Bookland), EAN, JAN, and ISSN barcodes, can be purchased online and downloaded right away. UPCTools is available for Windows, the Macintosh, Linux, UNIX, and other platforms.

UPC barcodes are used in package design, shipping labels, invoices, and elsewhere in the global supply chain. Manufacturers and distributors as well as the retail channel rely on UPC barcodes and related technologies like ISBN-13 barcodes (formerly known as Bookland barcodes) on books, EAN-13 and EAN-8 barcodes used in Europe, and JAN-8 and JAN-13 barcodes used in Japan.

In the US, UPC barcodes are regulated by GS1 US. They publish UPC specifications and UPC printing guidelines. They also administer company prefixes, which are assigned to individual companies to maintain order and uniqueness among UPC barcodes.

The first thing a company needs to do when they need to make UPC barcodes is obtain their own company prefix from GS1 US. This number is used as the first part of every item's unique 11-digit number. (The 12th digit in the lower-right corner of a UPC barcode is the check digit.) Software like UPCTools calculates the UPC check digit for you.

UPC barcodes are part of the GTIN (Global Trade Identification Number) numbering scheme. UPC barcodes are GTIN-compliant. The 12 digits you see in a UPC barcode are to be stored as 14-digit strings in your database.