Bar-Code Confusion

Manufacturing Engineering, Mar 2009

Dirk Vanderloop, a sharp-eyed reader, noted that our item "Who Made That?," on page 24 of our Jan- uary 2009 issue, was not clear on a cou- ple of points. We apologize for any con- fusion this may have caused, but the bar code issue is complex. There is the Uni- versal Product Code (UPC), commonly used in the US, and the European Article Number (EAN) that the Europeans prefer. To further confuse the explanation, the Japanese have their own version.

The UPC barcode was the first widely adopted version used to identify a product and its cost by scanning a grouping of bars printed on the product. Its birth is usually set at April 3, 1973, when the grocery industry formally established UPC as the standard bar-code. Foreign interest in UPC led to the adoption of the EAN code format, similar to UPC, in December 1976.

Here's more information, based on the site, "All About UPC Barcode & EAN Barcode, Bar Code 1," from Adams Communications.

"There are five versions of UPC and two versions of EAN. The Japanese Article Numbering (JAN) code has a single version identical to one of the EAN versions.

UPC A symbols, the version usually seen on grocery store items in the US, have 10 digits plus two overhead digits, while EAN symbols have 12 digits and one overhead digit. The first overhead digit of a UPC Version A symbol is a number related to the type of product, while an EAN symbol uses the first two characters to designate the country of the EAN international organization issuing the number. The bar-code number indicates the country that issued the code, not the country of product origin.

"Scanners equipped to read EAN symbols can read UPC symbols as well. However, UPC scanners will not necessarily read EAN symbols."

For even more information, check: http.7/www.snopes.com/politics,business/barcodes.asp