Unlocking the Mystery of Barcodes

Modern Barcoding technology is everywhere the eye can see. However, can the human eye 'see' barcodes? Probably not. In fact, even with a guide, many barcodes can not at all or not easily be decoded by hand. Nonetheless we see barcode use in every industry including: Grocers, Pharmacies, Transportation, Manufacturing, and (of course) direct mailers.

This article will show barcode's historical time-line, glossary, and usage guide:

1. Time-line
2. Glossary
3. Usage
4. The Future of Barcodes

Barcode Usage Example Guide

In order to use the proper barcode with a specific application, it is best to get intimate with the barcodes listed above. Especially those with the check . This indicates the barcodes Northwest Mailing Service uses on a regular basis. Through about 50 years of trial and error we are best fit to serve any application.

Step 1. Pinpoint Applications:

Here are some made-up examples programs where barcodes are used:

• Transactional: Monthly mailing of phone bill.:
• Check Printing: Weekly mailing for Logistics Audit and Pay.
• Advertising: New store opening on your block mailing.
• Membership Program: Music R' Us membership plan program.
• Incentive Program: Employee loyalty Rewards.
• Product Fulfillment: Replacement China Catalog.
• Point-of-Purchase: RadioHuts video game kit.
• Trade Show Marketing: Point Conference Center registration.

A 'Take a step back' approach to the initial design of a program is useful when diagraming the flow of information. For example, take the Point Conference Center Marketing Piece. You want to send the person information concerning their registrations to the show. Furthermore, you would like when they get to the show that they let you know that they have paid and are ok to enter the store. When they travel from booth to booth it would also be helpful to see where they went. After, the show it may be helpful to hear how it went.

Step 2. Describe Elements:

Each of these programs have elements or pieces to be produced. Take each piece and describe what role it plays.

Transactional:

• 2-6 page invoice
• close-face envelope
• Product Ad Flyer

Check Printing:

• Check and Invoice

Advertising:

• Product Announcement
• Coupon
• BRC

Membership Program:

• Welcome Message
• Membership Card

Incentive Program:

• Status Summary
• Incentive Goal Flyer
• Redeem Incentive Coupon
• Incentive Cards

Product Fulfillment:

• Order Form
• BRE

Point-of-Purchase:

• Display Ad
• Tear-One Pads

Trade Show Marketing:

• Show Entry Card
• Booth listing
• BRC

Barcodes can already be useful at this point. Each mailed piece can require a PostNet . To further reporting features a Planet may be added as well. All of the BRE (Business Reply Cards) and BRE (Business Reply Envelopes) require also FIM .

More standard barcodes that already can come into play are OCR , which can tie multiple pieces together into one envelope (even close faced) and OMR allowing the collation of several pieces (like in the case of the invoice).

Step 3. Further Define Single Pieces:

Printablility, Legibility and life-span all place different demands on barcodes. One Barcode may speaker clearer to one requirement than the other. Lets look at some single pieces:

Checks and Invoices are require to be read by the agreed system used in Banks. Therefore MICR barcodes with magnetic properties are required:.

Coupons must be read quickly are effectively. Usually a single user and promotion unique string on numbers can be encoded in the Code 39 (more secure) or the Code 2of5 .

POP items or listings should contain the UPC code:

All of these examples so far are linear barcodes which contain a small string of characters. Typically, systems that use these barcodes must lookup information in a single location (usually a server). What happens when the life span of a barcode is long? It is possible to encode a larger amount of data into 2-D barcodes. Here is the PDF417

Membership or Registry Cards can contain the PDF417 barcode in order to hold all of the user information on one barcode. This is a great way to make this information more portable. As far as life span goes, if part of the barcode is damaged it can still be read because the information is redundent within Barcode. When a different System scans these barcodes this system can be programmed to take only the information needed at that location.

What lies ahead in the future of Barcodes

Many people do not like the appearance of barcodes. In fact, most wish they would go away completely. However, they are popping up everywhere these days. The fact, it remains that barcode are an exstreamly useful way to keep track of things. This may seam surprising to some, but they will be going soon.

Gone!? Where are they going. Northwest is currently researching several technics used in order to reduce barcode usage--or at least make barcode usage less apparent. The best immediatly available is by making barcode more meaningful and useful. This happening naturally as digital printing is being integrated into more Direct Mail products. Where there is digital printing, Barcodes and control marks can more easily and effectively be added. This effective use instead of careless and use is actually reducing the necessity to use a lot of barcodes.

But Gone!? With this digital equipment printing at higher resolutions and improvements in scanners, barcodes dependent on relationships between other pieces of themselves become smaller with more information-- resolutions independent this is called in dynamic graphic creation. Barcodes such as Xerox's Data Glyphs can be hidden entirely within graphics:

Smaller yes, but Gone? The next step is to make these marks invisible to the human eye. Control marks are already being created that are invisible to the human eyes. They are sprayed on and can only be read under black-lights. Another step that will make barcodes invisible will be using radio waves instead of optics to encode pieces of paper with data.

Well, untill they are gone, barcode experts like Northwest Mailing Service will be around to lead you throught the process.

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