Generate Code 128, EAN, UPC and other barcode formats. Fast, secure, and completely free. All processing happens in your browser — no data is sent to any server.
A Barcode Generator encodes text or numeric data into a standard linear barcode format — Code 128, EAN-13, UPC-A, and others — producing a printable image that a standard barcode scanner can read back accurately. Each format has its own rules: EAN-13 and UPC-A require a specific number of digits plus a calculated check digit, while Code 128 supports a broader range of characters, which matters when choosing the right format for a specific real-world use case like retail packaging versus internal inventory tracking.
Generating a barcode is a small but exact task — a single wrong check digit means a scanner will misread or reject the code entirely, which is exactly the kind of mistake that's easy to make calculating by hand but is handled automatically here. This is useful whenever you need barcodes without a full inventory system: labeling a small batch of retail products, tagging internal assets for a small business, or producing sample codes for testing a scanner integration during development.
EAN-13 and UPC-A are fixed-length numeric formats used primarily in retail (EAN-13 internationally, UPC-A mainly in North America); Code 128 supports a much wider range of alphanumeric characters and variable length, making it more flexible for internal tracking rather than retail point-of-sale scanning.
Yes, for formats like EAN-13 and UPC-A that require a check digit, it's calculated automatically from the rest of the digits you enter, so you don't need to compute it by hand.
Yes, as long as it's printed at a reasonable size and resolution — very small or low-quality prints can cause scanning issues regardless of how correctly the barcode itself was encoded.
It depends on the format — Code 128 and Code 39 support letters and various symbols, while EAN-13 and UPC-A are strictly numeric formats by specification.
For genuine retail distribution, you typically need an officially registered GS1 prefix for your EAN/UPC codes; this tool is well suited for internal use, testing, and small-scale labeling, but check GS1's registration requirements for official retail products.