Home > Bar Code 128 > Make a bar code
| This utility converts your bar code 128 data into actual bar codes. Select the subset and options you need including SCC-14 or SSCC-18. Then click Make a bar code to add the appropriate start and stop codes and to calculate your checksum. Use this utility to build bar codes and then to copy and paste them into other Windows programs for printing. Click on any orange circle below to view a description of exactly what that control does. Bar codes can be copied into Word for label printing, or into a desktop publishing program to display a bar code on your packaging. These bar code fonts are compatible with virtually any Windows program. For Microsoft programs like Excel and Access see the package documentation for details on using our Visual Basic macros directly inside of those programs. |
Type of bar code
Select the subset of bar code 128 to use. Subset A allows the use of upper case letters, numbers, control characters, and symbols. Subset B allows the use of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Subset C is a high density numeric only encoding method. You must have an even number of digits when using Subset C. SCC-14 produces Shipping Container Codes and SSCC-18 produces Serial Shipping Container Codes.
Bar code options
Basic bar code 128 options. Switch between human readable and standard bar codes. Human readable bar codes print the data in the bar code below the bar code patterns. Turn UCC/EAN 128 bar coding on or off. EAN 128 bar codes add an FNC1 character after the Start code and typically use subset C.
Change bar code height
Modify the height of a bar code without changing the width.
Change bar code width
Scale the bar code width up or down by increasing or decreasing the point size.
Bar code 128 options summary
This window provides a summary of all of the bar code 128 options you have selected.
Bar code data entry
Type in the data you want to convert to a bar code here. This program will add the selected Start code to the beginning of your bar code, calculate the checksum for you and append it after your data, and then add the Stop code at the end of your bar code.
Make a bar code
Click this button to make a bar code from your data.
Copy to clip board
Copy your completed bar code to the Windows clip board. (The Windows clip board is invisible- don't worry about where it is or how it works.) You can then paste this bar code directly into virtually any Windows program by pressing Ctrl-V or using the Edit, Paste menu in your program.
Display converted bar code data
This is the string of characters to use with our bar code fonts. Note you can not just type in the bar code 128 fonts. Your bar code data is converted into a data string and this data string must be used with our bar code 128 fonts. Also note that subset C uses a different set of fonts from subsets A & B.
This is your 128 bar code
This is a sample of what your bar code will look like. Note that Windows screen resolution is fairly low, so the bar code displayed on screen may not exactly match what will be printed.
Insert a control character
All bar code 128 subsets allow the entry of some kinds of characters that can not be typed from a Windows keyboard. To enter one of these special characters, select the character you want to enter from the drop down box on the right. (Like FNC1) Then click the Insert key to enter that character into your bar code.
Print a sample bar code sheet
Print a sample page of your bar code to see just what it will look like. This sample page shows your bar code in a number of different sizes.
Show a Tip of the Day
Display the next program Tip of the Day. From this display you can page forwards or backwards through the list of all available tips.
Program information
Display program and contact information including the version number of this software.
Help
Launch the Windows Help application. The Help form will give you detailed answers to most questions about the program.
Tip of the Day
Display the next Tip of the Day on each start up when this is checked. Uncheck the box to stop this start up behavior.
Display sum and checksum data
This option displays the sum and checksum values our utility calculated for your bar code. You only need this information if you are developing your own software to calculate a checksum. You can compare your results to ours to see if your software is correct.
Program details
Display this help screen.
Do not use the quote character
Bar code 128 uses every character on your keyboard, plus a number of additional high-ASCII characters. Some Windows programs (Word in particular) do not want to see the quote character (") inside data. Selecting this option converts all quote characters in your bar codes into a duplicate bar code pattern located in a different character position.
Check for updates
Check the web for a program update. You must have an active internet connection running. A web page will be displayed with information about the current version of this program and whether or not you need to update.