Barcode Generator

Type a number or code and this barcode generator draws it in the format you pick, EAN-13, UPC-A, Code 128, Code 39 and four more. Retail check digits are added for you when you leave them off. Set the bar size, download a PNG, and print it as large as your labels allow.

How to make a barcode with this generator

1. Pick the format that matches the job. The next section walks through which format fits retail, cartons, warehouse shelves and pharmacy packs.
2. Type the value. For EAN-13, type the 12 digits you have and the check digit is worked out and added for you. UPC-A takes 11 digits the same way, and EAN-8 takes 7.
3. If the value does not fit the format, the tool stops and tells you what that format needs, rather than drawing a barcode no scanner can accept.
4. Set the bar width and height, and leave the value printed under the bars switched on unless your label design forbids it. That printed value is how a human checks a barcode without a scanner.
5. Download the PNG, print one test label, and scan it with a phone before you print the full run.

Every format on the list is drawn to its published rules, using the JsBarcode library in your browser. Check digits for the retail formats are computed with the standard formula, the same weights and sums a scanner uses to verify them.

Which barcode format fits your job?

Retail runs on two formats. EAN-13 is the 13-digit code on products across most of the world, and UPC-A is its 12-digit North American cousin. Modern scanners read both, so the choice follows the market the product is sold into, not the till.

EAN-8 is the short 8-digit version made for small items where a full code will not fit, such as a single pen or a lip balm. ITF-14, at 14 digits, belongs on outer cartons and shipping cases rather than on the product itself, and warehouses print it large.

Code 128 is the warehouse and logistics workhorse. It holds letters, numbers and symbols in little space, which makes it right for internal labels, asset tags and shelf edges. Code 39 is its older relative, uppercase letters, digits and a handful of symbols, still common in industrial and government kit. MSI is a numbers-only format kept alive by older stock systems, and Pharmacode is a separate family used on pharmaceutical packaging, read by machines checking packs at speed.

What this barcode generator cannot give you

Read this before you print a product code. Drawing a barcode does not register or reserve the number inside it. The bars are just a font for digits. Retail product numbers are issued by GS1, the organisation that runs the system, and a number you invent may already belong to someone else’s product.

Marketplaces care about this. Amazon and many retailers check product numbers against the GS1 database and can reject listings built on self-invented numbers. For a product you plan to sell through shops or marketplaces, license a number from your national GS1 office first, and only then draw the bars here.

The check digit has a narrower job than it looks. It proves the number was typed and scanned without error, nothing more. It does not prove the number is yours, current or approved anywhere, and the tool makes no claim that it does.

For internal use, none of this applies. Asset tags, shelf labels, stockroom codes and event badges with Code 128 or Code 39 are yours to number as you please, and that is where a free generator earns its keep.