Barcoding ▪️ QR ▪️ Identification ▪️ Labeling ▪️ ScannerApps ▪️ Mobile Data Acquisition

GS1 Barcode System Basics - Part 1 Hello to all readers! In this blog post, we'll dive into the fundamentals of the GS1 barcode system, unraveling the essential basics that make it a cornerstone in various industries. Types of GS1 Barcodes This post series provides a fundamental overview of the used barcode- and 2D code symbologies and explains terms like AI, data identifier, application identifier, or FNC1. The GS1 system employs various barcode types to encode information, tailored to specific applications. These include  EAN ,  UPC ,  GS1-128 ,  GS1 DataBar , ITF-14, and the 2D codes  GS1 DataMatrix  and  GS1 QR Code . The choice of barcode type depends on the application area: EAN and UPC Codes EAN-13 Barcode UPC-A Barcode EAN codes are prevalent in Europe, while UPC codes are commonly found in North America. These codes, prominently used in retail product labeling, help streamline the checkout process at supermarkets. They contain a unique...

https://tec-it.com - TEC-IT published a new video demonstrating how users can create Swiss QR Codes online , without registration and free of charge. The Swiss QR Codes are created according to the standard of the Swiss financial industry for machine-readable QR bills.  QR-BILL OVERVIEW  A QR-bill contains the following information:  a receipt (the counterpart to the payment slips used in the past)  and a payment part with information about the amount to be paid, sender and recipient of the payment, as well as information on the reason for the payment.  In a QR-bill (French QR-facture, Italian QR-fattura, English QR-bill, German QR-Rechnung), the information of the payment part is specified as text and as a machine-readable Swiss QR code. A Swiss QR code differs visually from usual QR codes by a Swiss cross logo (dimensions 7 mm x 7 mm) in the center.  More information is available in the YouTube video Swiss QR Code Generator für QR-Rechnungen : Use the on...

Barcode Studio , TEC-IT's popular  barcode generator for high-quality barcode images , has been currently updated. In addition to other improvements,  bar codes can now be exported as PDF in CMYK color format , which will especially please users from the graphic design, pre-press and printing sectors. What's New? CMYK Support for PDF Export - PDF documents are now exported using CMYK colors - Color overprinting is now supported Dark Mode Support on macOS Mojave Improved dark mode support on macOS Mojave (full support coming soon) Using  TBarCode Library 11.8.1 For more details, see the  Barcode Studio version history . For existing users of Barcode Studio version 15 and for customers with a valid maintenance agreement, this update is free of charge:  Download Barcode Studio V15.12.0 . In case of questions, please  contact us .

Barcodes with embedded control characters are useful to automatically confirm input or to TAB into the next edit field when being scanned with a keyboard wedge barcode scanner. TEC-IT's barcode software offers the possibility to encode placeholders for such control characters utilizing so called "Escape Sequences". Watch the video to learn more about this topic! We appreciate user feedback and enhancement requests! Just get in touch with us via mail to  support@tec-it.com .

Professional Freeware for Making QR Codes +TEC-IT  announces a completely free software  tool for creating  QR code images . The free app is named QR-Code Studio and is available for Microsoft Windows  and  Mac OS X . Countless Applications Post-Processed QR Code QR codes are bi-dimensional codes that can be scanned with most camera equipped smartphones. Besides industrial applications, QR codes are in widespread use in everyday situations: QR codes can be found on advertisements and in marketing campaigns for linking products to web-sites, in sweepstakes, on electronic business cards to encode contact details, on tickets and vouchers, on the new SEPA money transfer slips or on web-sites to provide faster access to smartphone apps. It's a Breeze Using TEC-IT’s freeware QR-Code Studio anyone is able to create QR codes fast and easily. High quality QR code symbols are generated without any special know-how. The user is supported by a data entry wizar...

The More, the Better! +TEC-IT  extends its barcode products with the support of two new 2D symbologies . Both symbologies were officially released by the  AIM , the association of automatic identification and mobility. Han Xin Code Han Xin Code The first two-dimensional symbology is named Han Xin Code and was developed by AIM China. The Han Xin Code is optimized to encode Chinese characters while still being able to encode ASCII and numeric data. Han Xin code is also sometimes known under its old, unofficial name Chinese Sensible. Basic Han Xin Facts The symbology is intended as the main two-dimensional (2D) symbology for applications and paper based communication in China. Variable size, matrix symbology with square modules. Square overall symbol shape (rectangular shapes are not possible). 84 different symbol versions (sizes), ranging from 23x23 up to 189x189 modules. Standard code page is Latin 1, the alternative code page for Chinese characters ...

Data List with Shortened URLs Version 12 of TEC-IT's barcode maker software will be released shortly. This post introduces the built-in URL shortener capabilities of the Barcode Studio update. The new URL shortening feature provides 3 main benefits: Dramatically Reduced QR-Code Size URL shortening means squeezing a long URL into a shorter one. This is important when creating mobile tagging QR-Codes for vCards, meCards, SPARQcodes, etc. With URL shortening you reduce the amount of data to be encoded. Smaller, better readable, easier-to-share QR-Codes are the result. Free QR-Code Traceability URL shortening providers like Google ( https://goo.gl ) and Bitly ( https://bit.ly ) offer simple and free tracking features. More on this below. Data Import Assistant Batch URL Shortening The data import assistant of Barcode Studio is able to shorten thousands of URLs with a single click. Shortened URLs You are not familiar with shortened URLs? Let me give you a...

Latest TEC-IT Press Release Austria, TEC-IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH ( tec-it.com ), leading vendor of AUTO-ID and bar code software presents a brand new feature for the popular barcode maker software Barcode Studio. “QR codes are becoming more and more popular. Especially the increasing need in marketing and mobile tagging is causing a rise in demand for 2D barcodes. In light of this development TEC-IT is responding with its new version of Barcode Studio.” (Guenter Kriegl, CEO of TEC-IT ) Mobile Tagging, vCard Business Cards and More QR-Code vCard Creating 2D bar-codes for electronic business cards with vCard and meCard formats is simplified dramatically: The brand new assistant leads you through the data input with a multifunctional dialog box, the user just enters the contact details and the assistant takes care of generating the 2D barcode with the correct data formatting. No special knowledge is needed. What’s more, mobile tagging barcodes for events, Android Mar...

A new version of the barcode creator software Barcode Studio is on the way! What’s New? Barcode Studio V11.5 introduces a new data input assistant . This special feature simplifies the creation of 2D codes for mobile tagging and electronic business cards (so-called vCard and meCard barcodes) dramatically. With Barcode Studio V11.5 you are able to create more than 100 different linear, postal, GS1 and 2D barcode symbologies. The barcodes can be printed on simple labels or exported as bitmap or vector image files. Batch barcode creation with external data is supported. 2D Codes for Mobile Tagging vCard Data Input Assistant vCard and meCard QR-codes are used to encode contact details of a business card (like name, address, email, phone-number ...) in a 2D barcode symbol. When scanning such a barcode with a smartphone (camera and suitable scanner software is required of course), the data is automatically entered into the address book of the phone. No manual typing or copy/paste i...

How to Create vCard Business Cards with Barcode Studio Some users of Barcode Studio are unsure regarding the correct data format for creating barcodes for so-called 2D code business cards. Such an "electronic” business card encodes the contact data in a QR-Code or a Data Matrix symbol. These codes can be scanned with your smartphone. The business card data is recognized automatically, you will never need to key in contact data manually! Most camera-equipped mobile phones are able to decode QR-Codes on such business cards (Data Matrix is not in common use until now). The example outlined in this post contains vCard sample data (.xls and .csv files) and a setting file for Barcode Studio . This settings file (*.BCS) can be used immediately to create premium quality QR-Codes with Barcode Studio. Creating a vCard Data Format A vCard barcode must follow certain rules, the different elements of a business cards (e.g. the phone number) are tagged with prefixes. Some sample prefix...

A few days ago TEC-IT published the updated version of the free online bar code generator . The user interface was revised completely and support for complex MeCard/vCard business card barcodes as well as calendar barcodes was added. This online barcode generator provides a very fast and responsive user interface utilizing some AJAX features. TBarCode SDK (a barcode generator software component developed and distributed by TEC-IT) is used on server-side for all barcode creation tasks. Users are able to browse a list of supported barcode categories. Currently the categories linear barcodes, 2D bar codes, EAN / UPC, GS1 DataBar, ISBN bar codes, Postal codes, 2D codes for mobile tagging, MECARD and VCARD barcodes and calendar barcodes are available. After selecting the required barcode symbology the barcode image is displayed immediately. Barcode parameters like module width and output resolution are adjustable. The created bar code images can be downloaded in various image formats....

Interested in adding a  "Create QR-Code Badge"  to your web-site? If yes - please read on! TEC-IT has enhanced it's bookmarking and sharing add-on for web-sites. Besides the "traditional" sharing services for  Facebook ,  Twitter ,  Digg ,  StumpleUpon ,  SlashDot  etc. this web-control now generates and displays a  QR-Code encoding the URL of interest . Such an URL QR-Code can be read with camera-equipped smartphones. The bar code decoder application on the phone forwards the user to this URL immediately - without keying in the URL manually. The bar code looks cool and can be shared via email, via MMS, by embedding it into arbitrary artwork - or simply by printing it. Get in touch with us if you are interested in this QR-Code Badge. It will be  available for free  if you provide a backlink to www.tec-it.com .

The time has come -  QR-Codes  will be really in the wild in a few days. As of today  Facebook  offered a  QR-Code generator feature  for each page. Below the page logo a link enabled the user to create a QR-Code image encoding the URI of the facebook page. It was also possible to download the QR code as PDF, but I was not able to try it. The mentioned features were online for a few hours until they disappeared. But I assume QR-codes will be an integrated part of facebook in the very near future. For Japanese people, insiders and interested people around the world QR-codes and their amazing capabilities (mobile tagging, mobile marketing, geotagging, ticketing, advertising, and so on) are well known. But for the broad public QR codes and their features are still miracles. This will change very very fast, facebook has a huge amount of users and the visibility of the QRCode generator feature is unbeatable. Quite interesting how this stor...

Today, TEC-IT has launched a new video which explains how to create QR Code business cards - online and for free. In just five steps you get your personal business card. It's Simple and Easy Just select a predefined business card template, enter your contact data, generate a PDF, print it and scan the bar codes with your the barcode reader of your smartphone (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, ...). That's it! You will never need enter contacts or URLs manually! Most camera-equipped mobile phones are able to decode the QR-Code (meCard, vCard, URL 2D barcodes) on these business cards. Common (and most likely free) bar code reader applications are i-nigma, beetagg, QuickMark, NeoReader, UpCode, Snappr, Camclic, 2d sense, codescan, ZXing, optiscan, semacode etc. Try it and visit TEC-ITs Free Business Card Generator Service !

TEC-IT has launched a free online business card printing service on www.tec-it.com! It's Free! Using this free service the creation of business cards with QR-Code or DataMatrix 2D codes has never been easier! It's Simple! Launch the online business card creator from TEC-IT and choose one of the pre-defined business card templates. Now enter your data like name, email-address, phone number, etc. That's all you need - and you will receive a full-colored PDF file which can be printed immediately. QR-Codes - ready for mobile bar-code readers - are included automatically . It can be Personalized! If you wish to design your own layout, create it with the label and reporting software TFORMer Designer. Use the free demo version for this purpose (download it here: label design software ). If you have finished your layout, send it via email to webmaster@tec-it.com . TEC-IT approves the layout and publishes it for future use. One note: if you would like to embed your own logo in a...

The new version of TBarCode/Direct V2.1 (SAP barcode software) comes now with QR-Code 2D barcode support. TBarCode/Direct is a smart, platform independent software solution for printing linear and 2D bar-codes (DataMatrix, QRCode) in SAP® ERP, SAP® R/3® and mySAP® ERP. This bar code solution works completely without any middleware and can be used with all PostScript® enabled printers (e.g. Laser Printers or MFPs)! The main advantage - TBarCode/Direct is installed within the SAP system only: No additional software, no system level installation and no additional hardware is required. Read more about our SAP 2D Barcode Printing Solution .

In Japan more or less every square-millimeter of space is covered with QR-Codes. Japanese companies are using the 2D codes for marketing purposes as well as for really useful applications (e.g. public transport schedules with ticketing possibilities). In Austria this technology is arriving very tentatively. The printed version of an Austrian newspaper ( www.derstandard.at ) is publishing ads of an European car manufacturer (I think it is Renault or Peugeot). These ads contain a 2D code . When scanned with a mobile you will be forwarded to some stylish web-page. Maybe I am able to upload a picture in the near future. Another example of "trying" out this technology is Austrian Airlines (now part of Lufthansa). They are giving away stickers (see picture) with some slogan and a QR-code . When decoding them you will be forwarded to the booking page. I assume that this specific marketing campaign is just a test-run. The slogans are not bad, but they do not provide enough informati...

Because we receive numerous requests for available mobile bar-code reader applications we list some free barcode decoders . Please note: The list is not complete and it is not a recommendation. If you think a reader application should be mentioned in this list please let us know! We would be glad to maintain the overview regularly. Barcode readers we have tried ourself: Beetagg Reader: http://www.beetagg.com/ Kaywa Reader: http://reader.kaywa.com/ QuickMark: http://www.quickmark.com.tw/ i-nigma Reader: http://www.i-nigma.com/i-nigmahp.html Neo Reader: http://www.neoreader.com/ Barcode Scanner "ZXING" for Google Android: See Android Market Other readers (incomplete) UPCode: http://www.upc.fi/en/upcode/instructions/download/ Reader: http://mobile-tagging.blogspot.com/2008/07/readerdownload.html Also check out this overview: http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-resources/qr-code-readers.html Hope this helps!

The site www.mobyware.ru tags its download pages with QR-Codes created by the web-based barcode generator of TEC-IT. This QR-code tags makes downloading and sharing of software really easy: Just decode the barcode with reader software for your mobile phone (e.g. barcode Scanner for Google G1) and navigate to the URL which is encoded in the symbol. Never type URLS again ;-)

As already announced in a previous post, TEC-IT released the new version of the barcode generator software component TBarCode (Version 9). TBarCode V9 introduces support for Micro QR-Code, a full Aztec barcode implementation and the support for HIBC bar-codes (linear and 2D barcode variants for LIC and PAS encoding). In total TBarCode generates now more than 100 different barcode symbologies! More details are available here . The demo version of TBarCode can be downloaded for free from www.tec-it.com . Try it - and let us know if there are some features missing!