GS1 support

Applies to: BarcoderX Basic and Ultimate

Status: Planned. Nothing is released yet and there is nothing to download. The GS1 commitment below is decided. The checks and the evidence behind them are still to be built.

The goal

GS1 is the organization behind the barcode standards used in retail and logistics. Its industry program known as GS1 Sunrise 2027 expects point-of-sale scanners to read 2D symbols by the end of 2027.

BarcoderX takes this as a product goal. BarcoderX is designed to meet GS1's readiness criteria for 2D barcodes, for the software that creates labels and for the printing of them. Before the first release reaches customers, BarcoderX plans to publish a statement that maps each criterion to a test, together with the evidence.

What is covered

GS1 data

• BarcoderX includes the GS1 Application Identifier dictionary. The dictionary states which release of the GS1 General Specifications it was built from. BarcoderX plans to move to each new GS1 release within one minor version of BarcoderX.
• You can enter GS1 data in the bracketed form or with FNC1 separators.
• Each Application Identifier is validated by its own rules. Check digits are calculated and checked.
• Helpers build and check GTIN and SSCC numbers and complete GS1 element strings, in code and in expressions.

GS1 symbols

BarcoderX plans to support the symbologies that GS1 uses: GS1-128, SSCC-18, the GS1 DataBar family, GS1 Data Matrix (including its rectangular extension) and GS1 QR Code. See Barcodes.

GS1 Digital Link validation

A GS1 Digital Link carries GS1 data in a web address. Before BarcoderX encodes such an address into a QR Code or a Data Matrix symbol, it checks the address against the GS1 Digital Link syntax:

• the uncompressed and the compressed forms;
• the order of the primary key and the qualifiers in the path;
• the Application Identifiers in the query;
• percent-encoding;
• a domain that belongs to the brand.

Each problem is reported as a diagnostic, so you see what to fix before the label prints.

The retail point-of-sale sizing profile

For a 2D GS1 symbol on a label, at the resolution of the selected printer profile, BarcoderX checks two things:

• The X-dimension is inside the range that the GS1 symbol specification table allows. GS1 publishes two tables for this, and the check uses the one that is selected.
• The quiet zone is at least one module wide on all four sides.

A symbol that breaks either rule produces a diagnostic with its own code. How the table is selected will be described when the check is released. The exact figures are confirmed against GS1's standards before they are fixed in the product, so this guide does not repeat them yet.

The retail profile uses Data Matrix sizes from the base Data Matrix standard. The rectangular extension is not part of the retail profile, although it stays available in BarcoderX.

How the evidence is produced

• Tests built from GS1 examples check the data rules for each Application Identifier.
• Tests of dimensions run at 203, 300 and 600 dpi.
• Printed samples are scanned on real printers and scanners. Where a barcode verifier is available, the print quality grade is recorded for each symbology.

What this page does not promise

BarcoderX makes no claim of approval by GS1. The words on this page are about how the product is designed and tested. The published statement will list the criteria, the tests and their results.

BarcoderX is a product of P4 Software.