Guide  ·  5 types  ·  1 honest answer

Which barcode
do I need?

Five options, one honest guide. Here is what each barcode is for, and where our codes work — so you buy the right thing the first time.

§ 01  ·  Decide

Pick by what you're labelling

Find your product in the first column. The barcode you need is in the second.

What you're labelling Barcode Digits Reads on Buy
A retail product sold in India or worldwidePackaged food, cosmetics, apparel, electronics, anything on a shelf EAN-13 13 Any retail scanner or POS; each marketplace decides From ₹1,150.00
A retail product mainly for the USA or CanadaSame idea as EAN-13, one digit shorter UPC-A 12 US and Canadian retail; also reads worldwide From ₹1,150.00
An outer carton or shipping caseThe box that holds 12 or 24 retail units — made from your EAN-13 ITF-14 14 Warehouses, logistics, distributor receiving Free with every EAN-13
A bookThe barcode is made from the ISBN your national agency assigns — not sold here ISBN-13 13 · 978 Bookshops, distributors, online book retail Not sold — read why
A link, menu, UPI payment, Wi-Fi login or plain textNot for retail checkout QR — Any phone camera On request · enquire
§ 02  ·  Anatomy

What's inside an EAN-13

Ninety-five modules, thirteen digits, one check digit. Scanners read the bars; humans read the numbers underneath.

Fig. 02  ·  Annotated  ·  No. 20012345678931 module = 0.330 mm at 100 %
2 001234 567893 A B C E D D D E
A
Prefix — the first three digitsEvery EAN-13 number we issue opens with the same three digits. A prefix is not a GS1 licence, and our numbers are not registered with GS1.
B
Item reference — 9 digitsUnique to one product variant. Issued once from our ledger and never repeated.
C
Check digit — computedCalculated from the first twelve digits with the standard modulo-10 formula. A misread fails the check instead of ringing up the wrong item.
D
Guard bars — start, centre, endSlightly taller. They tell the scanner where the code begins, splits and ends, so it can be read in either direction.
E
Quiet zonesBlank margins of at least 11 modules on the left and 7 on the right. Our image files do not include them, so leave this white space around the bars on your label.
§ 03  ·  Carton codes

ITF-14 carton codes: free with every EAN-13

The code on the outer carton is made from the code on the product inside it. We make it for you, free, from your own EAN-13.

Fig. 03  ·  ITF-14  ·  No. 12001234567890Specimen
From EAN-13200 123456789 3
Indicator1
Carton code1 200 123456789 0
1
What it isAn ITF-14 goes on the outer carton or case that holds several units of one product. Warehouses, distributors and receiving docks scan it; it is not the code scanned at a shop's till.
2
How it is builtGS1's rule for a carton of a product: a packaging indicator digit, then the first 12 digits of that product's EAN-13, then a new check digit. The picture shows 200 123456789 3 with indicator 1.
3
The indicator digit1–8 = different pack sizes of the same product; use a different digit for each pack size (say 1 for a box of 6 and 2 for a case of 24). One EAN-13 can have up to 8 carton codes. 0 would be the EAN-13 itself and 9 is for variable-measure items, so we offer 1 to 8.
4
Free with every EAN-13Every EAN-13 you buy from us can have its carton codes at no charge: no order, no payment.
5
Where to make oneMy barcodes lists each EAN-13 with a "Carton codes" link. Pick an indicator, add a pack note if you like, and download the PNG or SVG. Carton codes you have made are also in the order's "Download all" ZIP, under barcodes/ITF14/.
6
LimitsA carton code carries your EAN-13's digits, so it is no more registered with GS1 than the EAN-13 is. The image has a bearer-bar frame and blank margins but no printed digits: add the digits and test-scan a printed sample before a full run. An ITF-14 carton-code image, PNG or SVG, is drawn at the standard's full size: narrow bars 1.016 mm wide, wide bars 2.5 times as wide, bars 31.75 mm tall, a 4.8 mm bearer-bar frame and blank margins of 10 narrow bars. Print it at that size. To make it smaller, reduce its width only, never its height, and keep the frame as thick; on corrugated board, do not go below 62.5 % of its width.
§ 04  ·  Books

ISBN-13: we do not sell book numbers

The barcode on a book is made from its ISBN. An ISBN-13 barcode is an EAN-13 built from the 978 prefix, the ISBN's own digits and a check digit. The number means something only because a national ISBN agency assigned it to that title: bookshops, distributors and online book retailers look the ISBN up, not the bars.

Why we stopped selling them. A number minted by anyone other than an ISBN agency is not an ISBN. It would scan, but no bookshop or distributor lookup would find your title behind it, and it could be the same as a number already assigned to another publisher's book. We would rather not sell that, so we do not.

If you publish a book, apply to your national ISBN agency. In India the Raja Rammohun Roy National Agency for ISBN issues ISBNs free of charge; once you have one, any barcode tool, including your printer's, draws the EAN-13 from it.

If you only need a retail barcode — a planner, a workbook, a boxed set or any book-shaped product sold through your own store or a retail till — an ordinary EAN-13 from us works like it does on any other product. It is not an ISBN, and we never describe it as one.

§ 05  ·  Process

How it works

From choosing a pack to a scannable label in about two minutes.

01/03

Choose a type and a pack

One code per variant. A T-shirt in three sizes and two colours needs six codes; a 10 + 1 pack covers it with room to grow.

Pack page · per-code price shown incl. GST
02/03

Pay

Razorpay's secure checkout. The GST invoice for your paid order shows the 18 % separately.

Razorpay · GST invoice · no login wall to browse
03/03

Download and print

My Barcodes gives you the image files and a number list. Add the printed digits and the white margins when you design your label, and test-scan a printed sample before a full run.

Re-download any time
§ 06  ·  Fit check

Our codes are a great fit if…

  • You run a shop, supermarket or restaurant with your own POS and want scannable product labels.
  • You're a wholesaler or distributor tagging stock for your warehouse.
  • You're a manufacturer labelling products, cartons or internal SKUs.
  • You use inventory or billing software (Vyapar, Tally, Zoho, Marg and similar) that needs a unique scannable code.
  • You sell on a marketplace that accepts a correctly formed barcode number without checking it against the GS1 registry.
Before you buy

Check first if…

  • A specific marketplace or retail chain has told you they verify GS1 membership.They will need a GS1-registered code. We'll tell you straight.
  • An export buyer requires proof of a GS1 company prefix.
  • You're joining a brand programme that asks for GS1 ownership.
  • You need the code recorded against your company name in the global GS1 database (GEPIR).Ours are recorded in our own ledger, not in GS1's. In those cases a GS1 membership is the right route.
  • You list products on Google Shopping or another service that checks a number's prefix against GS1's register.Some services, such as Google Merchant Center, may flag numbers that are not registered with GS1.
§ 07  ·  Background

Why is there a difference at all?

GS1 is the global body that licenses company prefixes. When you join, you pay a joining fee and an annual membership, and the numbers you create are registered to your company in GS1's database. Some large retailers and a few marketplace programmes look numbers up in that database.

A PurchaseBarcode code is the same 13-digit EAN-13 structure, built with the same check-digit arithmetic, issued once and recorded in our own sold-to-you ledger. A scanner cannot tell the two apart — both encode a valid number. What differs is who holds the registration and whether a given channel checks it.

That's the whole difference. If nobody in your sales channel verifies GS1 membership, you are paying a membership for a lookup nobody performs. If somebody does, you need GS1 — and we would rather tell you now than sell you the wrong thing.

Two things worth understanding. A barcode is really two parts: a number in a valid format that any scanner can read, and a GS1 registration that records the number against a specific company in the global GS1 database. Our numbers are the first — correctly formed and scannable — but they are not registered to you with GS1.

1. Some channels verify against GS1. A standard retail or POS scanner reads a correctly formed number, so the code scans. A marketplace or large retailer may go further and look the number up in the GS1 registry, and then require a GS1-issued one. We never promise acceptance on any specific marketplace, and we do not claim how many channels accept ours.

2. Uniqueness is within our own pool. Every number we sell is generated once and never issued to another of our customers. We cannot, however, guarantee a number has never been registered by someone else in the wider GS1 space, so in rare cases a code could coincide with one already in circulation. Tell us your use before buying and we will help you choose.

Still not sure?

Ask us before you buy

Tell us what you sell and where. We'll answer in plain words — including when the honest answer is "get a GS1 code". We'd rather talk you out of a wrong purchase than take a sale we can't refund.

Ask us before you buy contact@purchasebarcode.com  ·  +91 9650782442