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Overview

BarcoderX Overview

Applies to: BarcoderX Basic and Ultimate

Status: BarcoderX is under development. Nothing is released yet and there is nothing to download. This guide says what is decided and what is planned, and marks which is which. It grows as each capability ships.

What BarcoderX is

BarcoderX is a toolkit for developers, for designing, previewing and printing labels with barcodes, especially on thermal printers. It is built on .NET 10 and has these parts:

  • An SDK for .NET developers. You add BarcoderX to your own application as NuGet packages and create, render and print labels from code.
  • A web API. You call BarcoderX over HTTPS from any programming language.
  • A web label editor. Designers lay out labels in the browser, in real units such as millimeters or inches, and bind them to data. It is delivered as JavaScript packages for React, Angular and Vue, with a .NET wrapper.
  • A print agent. A small program on your own network that carries print jobs from the web to your printers.
  • An API server. You install and run it on your own infrastructure.

Nothing is hosted for you. BarcoderX keeps only your developer account, your license keys, the list of versions that you are entitled to download and a record of your activations (the license ID, a hashed machine fingerprint, the version and the time). No labels, templates, print jobs or other customer data ever reach BarcoderX.

All of them use the same engine. The preview you see, the files you export and the commands sent to the printer come from the same layout, so what you design is what prints.

How the pieces fit explains which part you need for which job.

Who it is for

You areWhat you do with BarcoderX
A label designerDesign labels visually, connect them to data and keep versions.
A warehouse operatorPick a ready template, supply the data or a quantity, print, and reprint when needed.
A developer or integratorGenerate and print labels from your own software through NuGet packages or the REST API.
An administratorSet up and look after the server, the print agent, the printers, the fonts and the images.

What exists today

  • The product is designed in detail, and the main decisions are made: the editions, how the editor is delivered, the GS1 commitments and how licensing works. What's new lists them.
  • The code base is set up, with automatic checks on every change. They run on Windows x64, Linux x64 and Linux arm64. The code base does not contain features that you can use yet.
  • This documentation, in English and Spanish.
  • A public samples repository, with an index of ten planned topics. It holds no sample code yet.
  • The first building blocks, built and tested but not released: a PNG writer, the core of the drawing engine, a font reader, a registry of diagnostic codes in English and Spanish, and the Unicode version that BarcoderX follows (see Text, fonts and pictures).

Not available yet: NuGet packages, the API server, the label editor, the print agent and any download. Every page in this guide describes the plan unless it says otherwise.

What is planned for the first release

  • The label engine: templates, data binding, expressions, text, shapes, pictures and barcodes.
  • The first group of barcode symbologies, the ones used most in logistics and retail. See Barcodes.
  • Printing in two printer languages, ZPL and EPL, over the connections listed in Printing, including the print agent.
  • Output as PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, PCX and HTML. See Output formats.
  • The API server and the label editor. See Web API and The label editor.
  • Licensing, with a free evaluation. See Editions and licensing.
  • Documentation in English and Spanish.

What comes after the first release

  • The remaining barcode symbologies, in two further groups that are added in separate releases.
  • EPS output, and two packages for showing barcodes in ASP.NET Core and Blazor applications.
  • Four more printer languages: ESC/POS, Fingerprint, Direct Protocol and PCL.
  • Later again: fonts with CFF outlines, shaping for Indic and other complex scripts, a customer license portal, and printing from macOS. See Platforms and requirements.

What BarcoderX does not do

  • It does not read barcodes. It is not a scanning product.
  • It has no dark mode. The interface is light only.
  • It does not run on .NET Framework, .NET Standard, Xamarin, Mono or UWP. Other platforms use the web API.
  • It does not use fonts installed on the computer, and it does not bundle third-party fonts. See Text, fonts and pictures.
  • It does not print from a browser straight to a local port. Printing from the web goes through the print agent.

Editions

The SDK and the server come in two editions, Basic and Ultimate. They differ only in the barcode symbologies they include. Everything else is identical.

EditionBarcode symbologies
BasicLinear (1D) and postal symbologies, including every GS1 DataBar variant.
UltimateEverything in Basic, plus the PDF417 family (PDF417, Compact PDF417, Macro PDF417 and MicroPDF417), Code 16K, Code 49, Codablock-F, every matrix symbology, MICR and composite symbologies.

The web label editor is sold as an add-on to the SDK or the server. It has a single edition. Details are in Editions and licensing.

Updates and support

Every perpetual license includes two years of updates and support. Renewal is optional and adds one more year each time you renew. You can evaluate BarcoderX free of charge. Evaluation output is marked.

Prices are published on barcoderx.com.

Guides

BarcoderX is a product of P4 Software.

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