Professional PDF417 Barcode Generator
PDF417 is the long, stacked code you have almost certainly carried in your wallet. The name stands for Portable Data File, and the format is built to hold a lot of information on its own, without needing a database to look anything up.
Where it shows up
Turn over a US driver's license or state ID and the dense rectangle on the back is PDF417, encoding the holder's details in the AAMVA-standard layout. Airline boarding passes use it (the IATA BCBP standard), and carriers like FedEx put it on shipping labels — anywhere the scan has to work even when the network does not. That is the format's whole philosophy: the document carries its own data.
How the stacking works
Technically PDF417 is a stacked linear code: 3 to 90 rows of bar-and-space patterns read like miniature barcodes piled on top of each other. Each row's codewords come in groups of 4 bars and 4 spaces spanning 17 modules — that is the "417". Because the rows are linear patterns, a raster laser scanner can read PDF417 by sweeping down the symbol, which QR and DataMatrix cannot offer; older logistics fleets rely on exactly that.
Technical specification
| Standard | ISO/IEC 15438 |
| Capacity | Up to 2,710 digits, 1,850 ASCII characters, or 1,108 bytes |
| Structure | 3–90 stacked rows; width and aspect ratio are configurable |
| Error correction | Reed–Solomon, selectable levels 0–8 (2 to 512 codewords) |
| Quiet zone | 2× X-dimension on all sides |
Printing notes
PDF417 grows fast: every extra hundred characters adds visible rows, and a symbol that is too tall for the label is the most common layout failure. Keep the row height at least 3× the X-dimension, raise the error-correction level for documents that will be folded or laminated, and — as with every dense symbology — print from vector output only.
Frequently asked questions
PDF417 or QR for my application?
QR stores the same data in less area and every phone reads it — default to QR for anything consumer-facing. PDF417 wins when a spec requires it (IDs, boarding passes), when legacy raster-laser scanners must read it, or when the label is wide and short rather than square.
Can I decode what is on a driver's license?
The AAMVA layout is publicly documented and most 2D scanner apps will dump the raw text. Note the data is not encrypted — which is exactly why bars, car rentals, and age-check apps can scan it.
How much data is realistic on a label?
The theoretical maximum (~1.8 KB) assumes a large, pristine symbol. On a 4×2" thermal label at 203 DPI, plan for a few hundred characters with mid-level error correction. Beyond that, split the data or switch to a lookup key in a database.
Comparing 2D options? Start with QR vs traditional barcodes and laser vs image scanners to match the code to the hardware that will read it.