Barcode design and implementation are governed by standards, specific for each type of barcode, which are summarized below:

• Note that barcode standards concern themselves primarily with laser scanners that have specially designed optics. Image based barcodes often do not fully comply with the standard requirements, nevertheless, ClearImage is able to recognize them.
  
• Barcodes are comprised of a set of black lines ( bars ) separated by white areas ( spaces ).  The particular symbology standard specifies possible sizes of bars and spaces.  In some cases, the standard may specify the distances from one bar to the next and from one space to the next.  In all cases, these sizes and distances are expressed in terms of multiples of the smallest dimensional unit, called a module .  The module is the smallest width and/or length of a space, bar or dot in the barcode symbol. Linear, 1D Barcode standards also specify the minimum height of the bars.
  
• Each character of  encoded data is represented by set of bars and spaces of of varying width.  The standard specifies how many bars and spaces encode a character.   Typically total number of space and bar modules encoding a character is fixed for given code type.   Sometimes, the name of barcode reflects these numbers, as in Code 93, which contains 3 bars and 3 spaces.   The combined width of all bars and spaces is 9 modules.  
  
• Bars and spaces at the beginning and at the end of the barcode symbol, called  start/stop characters, are added to identify a barcode of a specific type.  
  
• Format characters might be included in the symbol.  They specify the character set to be used for converting the encoded data back to the original text. This is clearly necessary when dealing with non english languages.
  
• Error detection and correction bits may be added to the symbol.  One example of such data is a checksum. The standard specifies the checksum calculation algorithm.
  
• White areas surrounding the barcode symbol are called quiet zones and separate the symbol from the rest of the image.  The standards specify the minimum size of the quiet zones.

The table below shows examples and describes salient features of the symbologies supported by ClearImage Barcode Products.

Symbology Synonyms	Symbology Features	Supporting Organization Applications
Interleaved 2/5 ITF ITF14	Numeric (0-9) Variable Length Optional check digit High Density	IATA (International Air Transport Association) Luggage Tag ITF-14 or SCC-14 (Shipping Container Code) HIBC - Health Industry Barcode USPS special services OPC (Optical Product Code Council) German Post Identcode and Leitcode CIP HR (Pharma France)
Industrial 2/5 Code 25 Code 2/5 Code 2 of 5	Numeric (0-9) Variable Length
Matrix 2/5	Numeric (0-9) Variable Length
Datalogic 2/5	Numeric (0-9) Variable Length
Airline 2/5 Code 2/5 Code 2 of 5	Numeric (0-9) Variable Length Modified Industrial 2/5	IATA (International Air Transport Association) Ticket Coupon
CODABAR NW-7 (in Japan) USD-4, Rationalized Codabar	Numeric (0-9) and 6 special char ($-:/.+) Variable length	America Blood Centers (ABC Codabar) Ameritech Library Services
Code 39 USD-3 Code 3 of 9	Numeric (0-9) Capital Letters (A-Z) 7 special char (space-+.$/%) 128 ASCII characters Variable length Optional check digit	CIP (Club Inter Pharmaceutique in France) or French Pharmacode ODETTE - European Auto Industry LOGMARS PZN (Pharma Zentral Nummer) or German Pharmacode HIBC - Health Industry Barcode GSA - General Services Administration AIAG - Automotive Industry Action Group DoD MIL-STD-1189 LOGMARS DoD MIL-STD-129P
Code 32 Pharmacode	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	Italian Pharmacode
Code 93	128 ASCII Characters Variable length Check digits High Density
Code 128	128 ASCII Characters Control characters Numeric mode (00-99) Variable length Check digits High Density	HIBC - Health Industry Barcode USPS Delivery Confirmation American Association of Blood Banks(ISBT 128) SISAC- Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee)
UCC 128	128 ASCII Characters Control characters Numeric mode (00-99) Variable length Check digits High Density	UCC (Uniform Code Council) EAN (European Article Numbering System) FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
UPC-A	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	UPC (Uniform Product Code) NHRIC (National Health Related Items Code) NDC (US National Drug Code)
UPC-E	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	UPC (Uniform Product Code)
EAN-13 JAN-13	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	EAN (European Article Numbering System) Bookland ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) ISSN (International Standard Serial Numbering) Spanish Pharmacode JAN (Japan Article Number)
EAN-8 JAN-8	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	EAN (European Article Numbering System)
Addon-2 UPC/EAN P2	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	Supplements UPC/EAN barcodes
Addon-5 UPC/EAN P5	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length Check digit	Supplements UPC/EAN barcodes
Patch Code	Limited Types: 1,2,3,4,6,T 1 character long, does not encode data, but acts as a signal	Used only for batch separation and scanner control, primarily with Kodak scanners
PostNet / Planet	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length (5,9 or 11ch) Check digit	US Postal Service, and most other postal authorities. Contact Inlite to decode Country Specific variants
USPS Intelligent Mail	Numeric (0-9) Fixed length (31ch) CRC check	US Postal Service Learn More
Australia Post	Alpha-Numeric Fixed length (10 +) Custom data embedding Read Solomon ECC	Australia Post
British Post Office Postcode	Alpha-Numeric (0-9, A-Z) Fixed length (8,9 or 10ch) Check digit	Royal Mail in the UK
4-State Postal Barcodes	Alpha-Numeric (0-9) Check digit	Used by Postal Service of various countries. Contact Inlite to decode Country Specific variants
2D Symbologies	Symbology Features	Supporting Organization Applications
DataMatrix	Multiple modes to representtext, numeric and binary data. Variable length Very High capacity Fixed ECC Level Very high density	German Post Stampit Pharmaceutical industry for unit dose packaging Automotive Industry (AIAG) NASA Electronic Industry Association
PDF417	Multiple modes to represent text, numeric and binary data. Variable length Flexible Geometry, Module size High capacity User Selectable ECC Level MacroPDF417 Mode - more...	DoD MIL-STD-129P AAMVA (American Assoc of Motor Vehicle Administrators) IATA (International Air Transport Assoc - for Bar Code Boarding Pass) drivers' license cards
QR	Multiple modes to represent text, Kanji, numeric, and binary data. Variable length Very High capacity Selectable ECC Level Very high density	Used widely in Japan and expanding in Asia

The term "Barcode Standards" can mean three different things;

Barcode Symbologies is a term that describes the types of data that can be encoded and stored in the barcode (i.e. numeric), the checksum algorithm, the method of converting data to bar-space pattern, and the bar-space pattern printing requirements. AIM/AIDC (Association for Automatic Identification and Data Capture Technology), ISO (International Standards Organization) and similar bodies publish Barcode standards. ClearImage Barcode Products implement the features as specified in the Barcode Symbologies.

Application Standards are developed by specific industry associations or governmental groups, and describe how to use particular symbologies in their applications. For each supported barcode application they specify how industry-specified data fields are encoded into the barcode and they impose rules about barcode length for symbologies with variable length. Sometimes they might specify their own checksum algorithm, to be added to the application data before it is encoded in the barcode. Examples include: Bookland ISBN, EAN-13 Israel, EAN-13 Special, HRI, ISSN, ITF-14, ITF-14 Israel, ITF-14 Old Style, NDC, ODETTE, Spanish Pharma CCP & SCP, UPC-A+UCC-128 (Coupons). The features of such Application Standards are typically interpreted and implemented by the customer applications that make use of ClearImage Barcode Products.

Proprietary Designations are purchase or business process specifications, which are adopted by various companies, especially large transportation and retail companies, such as Panasonic Video or MS-7 (Marks & Spencer). They use these terms to define specific barcodes, size, appearance, location on boxes or documents, and data formats that they want their business partners to utilize in order to transact business with them. It is impractical to keep track of the myriad of such names. Their significance affects primarily the printing step, because the appearance of the codes must adhere to these proprietary specifications. However, ClearImage Barcode Products can correctly recognize virtually all of them.