All About Barcode Label Printing

If Your Product Packaging Has Not Been Printed Yet

1. Forward the files we send you to your Designer or Printing Professional
2. Instruct them to use the EPS if at all possible and ideally place the graphic at 100% the size provided.
3. Send them our Output and Sizing Guide also if your product is small and needs to have a cropped barcode.
4. Your barcode should always appear solid black with smooth edges on the bars when viewing proofs from your professionals. If they have fuzzy edges or appear blurry or grainy, then your professional has not placed the file properly.

Your cheapest and most professional way to get your upc bar code on your product is to have your designer or printer incorporate the barcode into the layout of the label. Then when your product labels are printed you are ready to go. Your designer or printing professional will no doubt be using a professional program such as Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign, even Adobe Photoshop or Ilustrator or Corel Draw. They should import or place the Vector EPS version of the barcode for maximum quality.

	We created a simple Output and Sizing Guide for you. Click on the image to download.
	For a comprehensive guide to assigning your numbers to your products, applying the barcodes, the GS1 printing and graphics standards, how to use case and container codes, as well as shipping codes, you may download the GS1 General Specifications document. Click on the image to download.

A Note of Caution About "Art Barcodes"

You may have seen a few other UPC resellers offering "Art Barcodes" where they are offering to "stylize" your barcode graphic with cutesy and cheesy graphics such as flowers and motorcycles, claiming that "nobody says that barcodes need to be boring". Those barcodes are in complete defiance of the GS1 graphics standards and can potentially cause you big problems and money down the road.

Here's why. While yes, it is understood by most everyone that the GS1 is merely a "Standards Organization" and there is no such thing as Barcode Police, the GS1 does serve the purpose of keeping the system working through continual implementation and improvement of the barcoding methods and standards with the outcome of saving corporations money. And the fact is, they are throughout the world the de facto Barcode Standards Organization by everyone in retail and distribution. This allows for the retailers to reduce labor costs by reducing employee time dealing with unreadable barcodes.

Larger retailers can and will impose hefty fines to manufacturers if you get a contract with them to provide large amounts of product and the product starts shipping and can't be scanned. What happens is the retailer turns around and comes back to you, the manufacturer and says "Hey, those barcodes are no good, so we're going to charge you ($500-$5000 fee) plus XX cents per label to print a new sticker inhouse and we'll stick it over your existing one."

Sometimes the retailer will give you the option to retract your product and re-sticker them yourself for less, but then you have to consider the shipping expense and the time lost (several weeks) while your product could have been being sold during that time. That's why the retailer offers to do it. They make money selling your product and they understand that time is money also, so it's actually better for everyone if they do it. But the bottom line is, you shouldn't put yourself in jeopardy of facing that problem just becuase an ignorant UPC Code Reseller misled you with the idea of making your barcode "pretty". It's a symbology used for function, not a piece of artwork.

The reason why the "Art Barcodes" are against standards, is because they don't provide the required "quiet space" around the bars so the scanners don't mistakenly pick up interference, resulting in a bad scan. There should not be anything but white space within certain distances of the bars of the barcode (varies based on barcode type – see the GS1 General Specifications page 188).

Get Affordable, Compliant Barcode Labels Printed at Barcodes Unlimited

EZ UPC is proud to partner with Barcodes Unlimited and their online store http://WePrintBarcodes.com for you label printing needs. Barcodes Unlimited has been involved in barcoding since the late 80s and can give you what you need, quickly and affordably with free ground shipping and rush service for a small fee. Here is a sampling of their pricing for common UPC Labels.

Need to save every penny? Need 5000 or fewer stickers or print as you go? Save lots of money and do them yourself. Here's how.

We understand that most of you have invested heavily in your product and every penny counts at this point. If you are wanting to save as much money as possible and have the time and computer knowledge, you can print several thousand yourself.

We recommend using Barcode Label stock rather than Avery address labels. We found it here for the lowest price of only $10.45/box for 5000 stickers: http://www.data-labels.com/barcodelabel.html . We have no agreement with that company nor do we benefit from you buying label stock from them, we just found them to be the cheapest and have purchased from them ourselves.

Here is the template for the Compulabel 1.5" x 1" Barcode Label Stock listed above. We have put barcode placeholders in it to show you your options. If you do not know Microsoft Word or how to use templates, we can make them for you for a nominal fee and you can still print your stickers yourself. Call or email us to inquire. Click on the image to download.

How to Use the Template

We have placed several barcodes to show you how it works and what your options are if you want to put description text above or below each barcode. Once you’ve placed a barcode in the template you can copy and paste to each cell. We also find that it’s easiest to keep track of if you make a whole page of all the same barcode/number rather than trying to put a different number across every row. That way you can print a full page of 50 stickers for one barcode and apply them to your products as needed.

With Microsoft Word you select Insert>Insert Picture>From File and select the file you want to insert from your order folder>UPC>JPG and make sure you select the box to “Link to File” so your output is high resolution. Do not copy and paste barcodes from one program to another—that will give you only a screen-resolution barcode and will likely not print sufficiently for scanning. The JPG is high resolution and must be kept that way so it is imperative that you Link to File and don't just insert.

It’s always a good idea to do a test scan of a printout by taking a sample sheet to a nearby store and asking the clerk to scan it and see if it reads. If it is a good scan, it will say “item not found” or return the number of the barcode. If it is not a good scan it will beep at them and not produce any messages.

If, at any time, you have questions about printing, applying your barcodes to your labels, etc., we are here to help. Our staff has 40+ years experience in design, printing, publishing, advertising, marketing and branding.