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Barcode Generator — Complete Feature Guide

Last updated: April 2026

This guide covers every setting in the BatchPrintGTIN barcode generator — from selecting a barcode type and entering your data, to customising appearance, choosing an output resolution, generating an entire product catalogue with the GS1 GTIN Builder, and printing to label sheets with the PDF Page Designer. All settings are explained in full, including when to use each option and what effect it has on the output.

Open the Barcode Generator

Generator Layout

The barcode generator is divided into two panels. The Form Panel on the left contains all configuration settings: barcode type, data input, appearance controls, and download options. The Preview Panel on the right renders the barcode live as you type — every change to any setting is reflected in the preview within a fraction of a second. The barcode rendered in the preview is generated from the same source data as the downloaded file; there is no difference in quality between the preview and the downloaded barcode.

Step 1 — Select Your Barcode Type

The Barcode Type dropdown at the top of the form controls which barcode format is generated. The input validation, character set requirements, and check digit handling all update automatically when you switch formats. The table below covers every supported format:

Format	Input required	Check digit	Primary use
UPC-A	11 digits	Auto-calculated (12th digit)	North American retail — Amazon, Walmart, grocery, pharmacy
UPC-E	6 digits (compressed)	Auto-calculated	Small packaging where full UPC-A width won't fit
EAN-13	12 digits	Auto-calculated (13th digit)	International retail — Europe, Asia, Australia, global e-commerce
EAN-8	7 digits	Auto-calculated (8th digit)	Very small packaging where EAN-13 won't fit
Code 128	Any alphanumeric text (full ASCII)	Built-in, not shown	Shipping labels, warehouse, inventory, Amazon FNSKU
Code 39	Uppercase A–Z, 0–9, and: - . $ / + % SPACE	Optional	Automotive supplier labels (AIAG), US DoD asset labels, legacy systems
ITF-14	13 digits	Auto-calculated (14th digit)	Outer shipping carton / case labels (GS1 logistics)
MSI	Numeric only	Auto-calculated	Retail shelf price tags, inventory control
Codabar	Numeric + A B C D as start/stop	Optional	Blood bank labels, library systems, legacy FedEx waybills
PDF417	Any text up to ~1,850 characters	Built-in	Boarding passes, driver's licences, ID documents

For retail use, the most common choices are UPC-A for products sold in the US and Canada, and EAN-13 for international markets or Amazon non-US marketplaces. For internal warehouse and logistics use without GS1 registration, Code 128 is the default choice for its high density and full character set support.

Step 2 — Enter Barcode Data

Type or paste your barcode value into the Barcode Data field. For UPC-A and EAN-13, enter the number without the check digit — the generator appends the mathematically correct check digit automatically using the GS1 Modulo-10 algorithm, and displays the complete number below the barcode in the preview. For Code 128 and Code 39, enter your complete alphanumeric string.

UPC-A tip: Enter exactly 11 digits. Leading zeros are significant — 01234567890 and 1234567890 are different products. A 10-digit entry will not generate the correct UPC-A — it must be exactly 11 digits before the check digit is appended.

The Barcode Data field shows a validation hint beneath it: a green tick when the input is valid and a red warning with an explanation when it is not. Common validation failures include: entering the wrong number of digits for UPC-A or EAN-13, using lowercase characters in Code 39 (which only supports uppercase), and entering text that contains characters outside the PDF417 supported character set.

Step 3 — Appearance Settings

Bar Colour and Background Colour

The Bar Colour and Background colour pickers support any hex colour code or standard CSS colour name. For retail scanning compliance, bars must be visibly darker than the background. The GS1 specification requires a minimum print contrast of 0.75 reflectance difference between bars and spaces when measured by a barcode verifier. In practical terms, this means black bars on white or off-white background is always safe; any other combination should be tested with a physical scanner before production. Never use reversed-out barcodes (light bars on a dark background) — this fails at almost all retail scanners.

Bar Height

Bar Height controls the vertical size of the barcode bars in pixels. GS1 specifies a minimum bar height for retail barcodes — do not print a UPC-A or EAN-13 below 15mm in the final physical output size. Taller bars provide a larger scan target, which improves read rates at retail checkout and with handheld warehouse scanners. For small shelf labels the default height works well; for shipping carton labels increase to at least 120px to improve scanning at loading dock distances.

Bar Width (X-Dimension)

Bar Width — also called the X-dimension — controls the width of the narrowest bar in the barcode. Higher values produce a physically wider barcode with more generous bar spacing, which is easier to scan at distance and more forgiving of minor print quality issues. The GS1 X-dimension specification for UPC-A at nominal size is 0.33mm. For a barcode exported at 300 DPI and printed at 100%, a Bar Width of 2.0 approximates this correctly. If your printer has known ink spread issues, increase Bar Width to 2.5 or 3.0 to compensate.

Flat Mode

Flat Mode removes the small vertical extensions on the guard bars (start, middle, and stop bars) of UPC-A, EAN-13, and EAN-8 barcodes. These extensions are part of the GS1 standard specification and exist for historical reasons related to the omnidirectional scanners used in grocery checkout. In flat mode, the barcode remains fully scannable by all modern scanners. Use flat mode for modern packaging design where the extended guard bars create a dated visual aesthetic, or for label sizes where the extensions would extend into the quiet zone.

Transparent Background

Transparent Background exports the PNG without the white background fill — the bars float over transparency. Use this when placing the barcode over coloured or patterned packaging artwork in design software (Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Canva) so the background colour of the artwork shows through instead of a white rectangle. Note: transparent background is only meaningful for PNG downloads. SVG barcodes produced by this tool already have no background fill by default.

Caution with transparent backgrounds: placing a barcode directly over a patterned or coloured background without adequate contrast will cause scan failures. If you use transparent background, ensure the area of the artwork behind the barcode bars is uniformly light-coloured with high contrast against the bar colour. Verify with a physical scanner before production.

Step 4 — PNG Resolution and Output Size

The four resolution chips in the Preview panel control the pixel dimensions of the downloaded PNG. These are multipliers applied at download time — they do not affect the live preview, and each download re-renders the barcode from the original vector source data at full resolution. No upscaling or interpolation occurs.

Resolution chip	Typical output width	Best for
1× Draft	~400 px	Screen display, low-resolution web images, digital-only use
2× HD	~800 px	General label printing, desktop laser or inkjet printers
300 DPI	~2,500 px (typical 80mm label)	High-quality label printing, thermal printers — recommended for retail
600 DPI	~5,000 px	Commercial offset printing, large-format packaging artwork

SVG is always the best format for print production. Use SVG for design software (Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape, CorelDRAW) and commercial packaging work. SVG is a true vector format that scales to any print size with zero quality loss — a 1cm label or a 1-metre billboard use the same source file. Use PNG for word processors, spreadsheets, and online product listings where SVG is not accepted.

DPI Preset and Print Size

Below the resolution chips, the optional DPI Preset dropdown lets you target a specific printer resolution directly instead of choosing a multiplier manually. Select a preset (300, 600, or 900 DPI) and enter a Print Size in inches — the generator calculates exactly how many pixels the PNG needs to be to hit that DPI at that physical size, and overrides the resolution chip accordingly. A live hint confirms the result, for example: "300 DPI @ 2 in = 600 px."

The Embed DPI checkbox writes the target DPI value into the downloaded PNG file's metadata. Design applications, label software, and printers that read PNG DPI metadata will automatically place the image at the correct physical size without you needing to manually resize it. Leave this unchecked if your workflow ignores PNG metadata or if you are uploading to a platform that reprocesses images.

Step 5 — Download

Three download buttons appear below the Preview panel once a valid barcode is generated. All three re-render from source data at the time of download — the preview canvas is not used as the download source, which means downloaded files are always at full quality regardless of how the preview is displayed on screen.

SVG — vector file, scales to any size without quality loss. Preferred for packaging artwork, design software, and commercial printing. Send this file to your packaging designer or label supplier.
PNG — pixel image at the resolution set by the chip selection or DPI preset. Use for word processors, spreadsheets, product listings, and label software that does not support SVG.
PDF / Page Designer — opens the Page Designer overlay for arranging barcodes on label sheets and exporting a print-ready multi-page PDF. See the PDF Page Designer Guide for full details.

Label Text Settings

The Label Text field adds a custom text line printed below the barcode image — separate from the auto-generated barcode number digits. Common uses are product names, SKU descriptions, price information, or instructions on label stock. The label text is embedded directly into the downloaded PNG, SVG, and PDF — it is not a separate element; it is part of the barcode image itself.

When you enter label text, two additional sliders appear. Label Font (range 6–28px, default 11px) sets the font size for the custom label line independently of the barcode number text. Gap Below (range 0–30px, default 4px) sets the pixel space between the bottom of the barcode content and the top of the custom label line. Increase Gap Below for visual breathing room on labels where the barcode number and label text would otherwise appear too close together.

Batch CSV Generation

The Batch tab generates hundreds of barcodes simultaneously from a CSV spreadsheet. All appearance settings from the single barcode generator apply to batch output. The CSV format expects three columns: data (required — the barcode value for each row), label (optional — a text label printed below each barcode), and type (optional — overrides the default barcode type for that specific row, allowing a single CSV to produce a mixed batch of UPC-A, Code 128, and other formats simultaneously).

Download the template CSVs from the Batch tab header to get the correct column structure instantly. Template variants are provided for common use cases: retail UPC generation, warehouse Code 128 labels, and mixed-format batches.

GS1 / GTIN Builder Tab — Auto-Generate Sequential UPC-A Barcodes

The GS1 / GTIN tab is a specialist tool for brand owners with a GS1 Company Prefix who need to assign and print sequential UPC-A barcodes for a new product range. It eliminates the spreadsheet work of manually constructing each 12-digit GTIN number and calculating check digits one by one.

Enter your GS1 Company Prefix — the 6 to 10-digit number assigned to your company by GS1 US or GS1 Canada. The Builder immediately shows how many digits remain for your item reference numbers and how many unique GTINs your prefix can support in total. You can add items in two ways: manual entry (type or paste individual item reference numbers one at a time, each validated against your prefix length), or bulk paste / auto-sequence (enter a start number and count to generate an entire sequential range in one operation).

The GS1 Builder exports three formats: a CSV spreadsheet containing the full 12-digit UPC-A, Company Prefix, Item Reference, Check Digit, and Label for each product (suitable for import into GS1 Activate, Walmart Supplier Portal, or Amazon Brand Registry); a ZIP of PNG barcode images; and a ZIP of SVG barcode images for print production. The GS1 / GTIN tab generates UPC-A (GTIN-12) format only. For EAN-13 or other formats in batch, use the CSV Batch tab.

Barcode Scan Troubleshooting

If a generated barcode fails to scan, work through these checks in order before assuming the generator produced an error:

Verify the data is correct for the format. UPC-A requires exactly 11 digits as input. EAN-13 requires exactly 12 digits. Entering the wrong count is the most common cause of check-digit mismatch failures.
Check print resolution. Download at 300 DPI minimum. At 1× standard resolution on a consumer printer, individual bars can be too narrow to scan reliably. Use 2× HD or higher for all physical label printing.
Check print size. The minimum scannable width for a retail UPC-A is approximately 29.8mm (80% of GS1 nominal). If your label is smaller than this, the barcode cannot meet GS1 minimum specifications.
Check the quiet zone. The white space on each side of the barcode (quiet zone) must be at least 3mm wide on physical labels. Any text, border, or graphic encroaching into the quiet zone causes scan failures.
Use SVG for print production. PNG files printed at low resolution can develop ink spread or edge fuzziness. SVG-sourced barcodes are rendered sharply at any print size.
Test on the actual scanner. Smartphone camera apps can read most barcodes. A retail checkout scanner may have tighter tolerances — always scan with the type of scanner that will be used commercially before committing to a print run.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I generate an EAN-13 barcode from my existing UPC-A number?

Select EAN-13 as the barcode type and enter 12 digits — prepend a zero to your 11-digit UPC-A input. For example, if your UPC-A input is 06141410001, enter 006141410001 in the EAN-13 field. The generator appends the check digit (which is identical to the UPC-A check digit) and produces a fully valid EAN-13. The resulting barcode scans at North American retail as a UPC-A and at international retail as an EAN-13.

What barcode type should I use for Amazon FBA FNSKU labels?

Select Code 128 (or the FNSKU preset if shown). Enter your FNSKU code exactly as Amazon provides it — for example, X001AB12CD. Use the PDF Page Designer to format labels for Avery 5160 stock (1″ × 2⅛″, 30 labels per sheet). Set bar height to 50–60px and bar width to 1.8–2.0 for a good fit. Download at 300 DPI minimum and print on a laser printer. See the Amazon FBA guide for full FNSKU labelling requirements.

What is the difference between Bar Width and Bar Height?

Bar Height is the vertical dimension of the barcode bars — making it taller gives scanners a larger target and is especially important for omnidirectional scanners at retail checkout. Bar Width (the X-dimension) is the horizontal width of the narrowest bar — making it wider produces a physically broader barcode and is important for scan reliability at distance and on lower-resolution printers. For retail barcodes, both should remain within GS1's tolerance range: height at least 15mm in the final printed size, and X-dimension between 0.26mm and 0.66mm at nominal scale.

Can I batch-generate barcodes with different formats in the same CSV?

Yes. Add a type column to your CSV and specify the format for each row — for example, upc, EAN13, CODE128, or ITF14. Rows without a type value use the Default Barcode Type set in the Batch panel. This lets a single CSV produce a mixed batch of retail UPC-A labels and internal Code 128 shelf tags in one operation, packaged together in one ZIP download.

Why does my barcode look correct on screen but fail to scan when printed?

The most common cause is insufficient print resolution combined with a bar width that is too narrow at the printed size. Download at 300 DPI (or higher) using the DPI Preset field rather than relying on the multiplier chips, and ensure the printed barcode width is at least 29.8mm for UPC-A. Inkjet printers introduce ink spread that can cause bars to merge — use a laser printer at 300 DPI minimum, or use SVG format and let the RIP software render at the correct resolution. Always scan a test print before applying labels in quantity.

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