Code 3 of 9 start and stop characters
This is one of those posts that I have to do. Kind of a community service. I saw this question come up so many times when I was working support for barcode scanners. The question was always “I’m printing code 3 of 9 barcodes in my document using a code 3 of 9 font but my barcode scanner can’t read them. Why?”.
First thing to keep in mind is most people call the symbology code 39. Not code 3 of 9. Code 3 of 9 is the official name, but typically the “of” is dropped and the name is shortened to code 39. I’d go into more details on the actual configuration and specifications of the code, but no sense in duplicating what others have already said. Here’s a couple good websites with good details about code 39.
Wikipedia Code 39
IDAutomation Code 39 FAQ
Regarding start and stop characters for code 39. All code 39 barcodes are supposed to start and stop with the same character. That character is an asterisk (*). The asterisk character is not allowed to be used anywhere else in the barcode. Although I have seen people do it. But we won’t go into that now. They did it wrong, so please, no asterisks in your code 39 data string. When you build a barcode with a barcode building program like B-Coder from TAL Technologies, the asterisks are automatically added as the start and stop characters. When you use a code 39 barcode font in a program like Microsoft Word or Excel, the start and stop characters do NOT get added automatically. You need to add them as part of the data string. If I was using Word and wanted to enter the data string 123456, I would actually type it in as *123456*. If you don’t put the asterisks as the first and last characters, no barcode scanner will read your codes. The barcode scanner needs to see the asterisks as the first and last characters.
The first 5 black bars and the last 5 black bars will look the same on ALL code 39 barcodes. Some might be taller and some might be fatter, but the patter will always be the same. If you don’t see a pattern like what I’ve shown in the below image, then your code 39 barcode is generated incorrectly.
You don’t actually see the asterisks as part of the human readable when you use a barcode printing program. But you will see them if you use a code 39 font in Word or Excel.
Always keep this in mind – if you’re printing code 39 barcodes from a barcode font and your barcode scanner won’t read them, there is a 99.9% chance that you’ve left the start and stop characters off the barcode.
 |
3 HAND HELD DUST BROOMS STANLEY HOME PRODUCTS 1950s US $8.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-09-2010 8:58:11 PST | Watch this Item |
 |
Hand Held Products TT8500 Color LCD Terminal-Refurbish US $249.00 Auction Ends: Tuesday Feb-09-2010 11:54:17 PST | Watch this Item |
 |
Bar Code Scanner made by Hand Held Products Inc US $25.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Wednesday Feb-10-2010 10:27:49 PST | Watch this Item |
 |
Hand Held Products Dolphin Battery Charger Model # 7200 US $9.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-11-2010 9:58:28 PST | Watch this Item |
 |
PenWare PW1500 Signature Capture Hand Held Products HHP US $9.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-11-2010 10:57:08 PST | Watch this Item |
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
@Anthony –
Hi Anthony,
I downloaded the same font and tested it in Word 2003. I’m seeing the same problem you are. It almost looks like the font is adding a stop character for a Code 128 symbology and it can’t be deleted. My guess is there is a bug in the font and probably an email should be sent to the author of the font to let him know. But I’m using another free Code 39 font I found a long time ago that does not have the same issue. I will zip it up and email it to the email address you listed in your comment. I will list the subject of the email as Free Code 39 font from Barcodehelponline.
In the meantime I will also see if I can figure out what is wrong with the free font from http://www.barcodesinc.com.
Best regards,
Bill
Bill, I decided to use the latest barcode39 font sent you sent me. I just played around with the Avery label selection and font size, etc. and finally got it to where I was happy with the formatting. Thanks again for all your help!
~cheers!
I am setting up and asset management inventory and I am using a scanner to scan a code 39 sheet that i setup. However, I need to make it so that it doesn’t “tab” or “enter” so that when i am entering in a unique room number it doesn’t forward to the next field.
Hi Tim,
What kind of scanner (make and model) do you have? Let me know and I’ll get the users guide and show you how to remove the tab or enter. Typically it’s just a barcode you scan in the manual that says remove all suffixes. But all scanner manufacturers do it slightly differently.
Regards,
Bill
Bill,
Hi, I downloaded the barcode39 font set from http://www.barcodesinc.com/free-barcode-font/, and my scanner is unable to read it when printing from Word 2007. Upon further research, it was recommended that I disable the autoformat option, which I did, but I’m still unable to read the barcode. I tried printing from Wordpad which worked, and noticed that the barcode was a bit shorter than the one from Word. I then realized that in Word, the cursor itself is actually printing some characters (i.e. open a blank word doc, select barcode39 font, and there will be characters displayed on the page even before I type anything). These characters then get tacked onto the end of *anything* I type. Do you know a way around this?
Thanks in advance.