Expert guides and insights on barcode technology, industrial printing, and logistics optimization.
TL Written and maintained by Tomasz Lichosik
Plenty of guides tell you how to build an inventory system. Far fewer tell you what to do on the morning you actually have to count everything — with a borrow...
Read full articleSomewhere in your customer's routing guide there is a sentence like this: "Each pallet must carry a GS1 logistics label with a unique SSCC." If that sentence...
Read full articlePut a GS1-128 label next to a plain Code 128 label and you will not spot the difference. Same bars, same widths, same human-readable line underneath. Scan both...
Read full articleFinish writing a book and a strange new problem appears somewhere between the final proofread and the print run: the back cover needs a barcode, and nobody on t...
Read full articleSunrise 2027 is the biggest shift in retail scanning since the barcode was invented. Here's what GS1 Digital Link actually means for your business — explained without the jargon.
Read full articleA disorganised warehouse is one of the most expensive leaks in a supply chain. When staff hunt for products or guess where an incoming pallet should go, accurac...
Read full articleHow barcodes actually work, what each symbology can and cannot hold, how to size them, and how to pick one — with the arithmetic worked out.
Read full articleAvery 5160 is the most popular label size for small businesses. Learn how to generate barcodes that fit these sheets perfectly without wasting expensive label paper.
Read full articleSetting up a barcode system for your e-commerce store is easier than you think. Learn how to generate, manage, and print barcodes for Shopify and WooCommerce.
Read full articleYour first shipment to a fulfillment center feels like a milestone — and it is exactly where a lot of new sellers trip over the same wire: barcode compliance. G...
Read full articleSooner or later, anyone digitising their asset tracking — laptops in an office, pallets in a warehouse, equipment in a clinic — runs into the same question: bar...
Read full articleSay "2D barcode" and most people picture a QR code — it is on menus, posters, and packaging everywhere. But in manufacturing, aerospace, and electronics, a quie...
Read full articleIn most industries a barcode mistake is a logistics headache. In a hospital it can be a clinical one. A scan checks the medication against the patient before it...
Read full articleCode 39, Code 128, EAN-13, UPC-A, ITF-14, DataMatrix — the names alone are enough to make the whole thing feel more complicated than it is. The good news is you...
Read full articleYou print your codes, ready the scanner, pull the trigger — and nothing. Or worse, it works "sometimes." The instinct is to blame the barcode, and occasionally...
Read full articleYou spend an afternoon designing and printing labels, walk over to the scanner, and — nothing. No beep, no data. It is one of the more aggravating ways to lose...
Read full articleFour printing faults, each with the measurement that proves it and the arithmetic behind the fix — including why a barcode at 90% magnification can print worse than one at 80%.
Read full articleOnce a company passes about ten people, the same pattern shows up: laptops drift home and never come back, monitors migrate between desks, and the "master list"...
Read full articleYou can generate a flawless, high-resolution barcode and still end up with a label that refuses to scan — because where a code sits on the packaging matters alm...
Read full articleGet ready to put a product on a shelf and two acronyms show up fast: UPC and EAN. For a first-time seller they look like the same thing with different names, an...
Read full articleYour desktop printer can produce codes that scan perfectly — but its resolution sets a hard floor on how small they can go. Here is the arithmetic.
Read full articleYou set out to organise a warehouse, a parts bin, or a document archive, decide barcodes are the way to do it — and then run headfirst into GS1 and its paid com...
Read full articleA spreadsheet and a scanner will run your stock — but only after you stop Excel silently rewriting the codes you scan into it. The formulas here have been executed, not just typed.
Read full articleLearn the fundamental differences between 1D linear barcodes and 2D QR codes to choose the best technology for your business inventory and marketing.
Read full articleEvery symbology demands a different blank margin, measured in multiples of its narrowest bar. Here are the actual numbers, in X and in millimetres.
Read full articleGenerating barcodes one at a time stops scaling fast. Here is the complete bulk workflow — from spreadsheet to print-ready PDF — including the traps that ruin whole label runs.
Read full articleIf you want your product in Amazon, Walmart, or Tesco, you cannot just slap any barcode on the box. Those retailers expect officially registered numbers from GS...
Read full articleThe GTIN-14 structure, the check-digit formula that is correct here and silently wrong one packaging level down, and the measured reason bearer bars exist — plus what an ITF-14 actually measures once a printer rounds it to the dot grid.
Read full articleDownload a barcode and you are usually offered raster formats like PNG and vector formats like PDF and SVG. For anything you intend to scan, raster is almost al...
Read full articleEverything about thermal barcode printing in one place: printer types, DPI and barcode sizing, darkness and speed calibration, printhead maintenance, and a troubleshooting table.
Read full articleSet up a barcode system for a warehouse or a logistics chain and one of the first forks in the road is Code 128 versus Code 39. Both are linear, both handle let...
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