Barcode Dictionary

ABC Symbol — The American Blood Commission (ABC) developed this symbol as a bar code standard for automated systems in the blood service community. The particular symbology used for the ABC symbol is Codabar.

AIM International (AIMI) is a global affiliation of trade associations whose member companies are involved with application of automatic identification technology. For more information access http://www.aimi.org.

AIMI MISSION: The mission of AIM International, Inc., is to grow the worldwide market for Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) products and services. We accomplish this through concerted action to set international standards, increase global awareness of AIDC solutions and identify and educate current and potential new users on the effective application of the technology.

ANSI — American National Standards Institute has served in its capacity as administrator and coordinator of the United States private sector voluntary standardization system for 78 years. Founded in 1918 by five engineering societies and three government agencies, the Institute remains a private, nonprofit membership organization supported by a diverse constituency of private and public sector organizations. For more information access http://www.ansi.org/.

Aperture Size — The dimension of the opening through which the scanning beam passes. Normally used in conjunction with a wand (pen) type bar code scanning device. The aperture size will determine the bar code density which may be read with the scanning device.

ASCII — The character set and code described in American National Standard Code for Information Interchange between data processing systems, communication systems and associated equipment. The ASCII set consists of both control and printing characters.

Aspect Ratio — The numeric ratio of the bar's height to the symbol's length.

Background — The area surrounding a printed symbol, including the spaces and quiet zones. Also referred to as the Substrate.

Bar Code Character — A group of bars and spaces that represent an individual character (alpha, numeric or other ASCII character).

Bar Code Density — A measure of the number of characters which may be printed per lineal inch. This measure normally does not include the space required for the "Quiet Zone".

Bearer Bars — A minimum of two parallel bars running the length of the top and bottom edge of a bar code. Bearer bars, if used, reduce the probability of a misread when a skewed scanning beam enters and/or leaves the symbol through the top or bottom.

Bi-Directional — Characteristic of most bar code symbologies which permits scanning of the bar code symbol in either the left-to-right or right-to-left direction.

Character Set — The set of characters permitted within a particular bar code symbology type.

Check Character — A character used to check the integrity of the preceding bar code symbol. A check character is normally found at the end of the data encoded within the bar code.

Clear Area — The area which precedes the first printed bar of the start character, and follows the last printed bar of the stop character. This area should be free from any printing, and should be of the same color and reflectance as the background of bar code symbol. The clear area should be ten times the width of the narrowest element in the bar code, or 0.25 inch minimum. Clear Area is also known as Quiet Zone.