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activePDF Toolkit Professional Edition
aptkl4a 30405
Copyright 2005, activePDF, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 515 of 553
Supplemental Barcodes
Asupplemental barcode is a secondary barcode appearing to the right of the main symbol. Typically,
the supplemental barcode is shorter than the main symbol. Toolkit automatically calculates the height.
The human readable text appears above the barcode.
There are two types of supplemental barcodes:
•
2-Digit.
•
5-Digit.
The supplemental barcodes encode specific data relevant to the barcode creator, but commonly
appears on printed material. Supplemental barcodes are only valid for UPC-A,UPC-E,EAN/JAN-13,
EAN/JAN-8 and Bookland symbologies. For details on these symbologies, refer to the specific
symbology type in Appendix C: Symbologies.
2-Digit Supplemental Barcode
The 2-digit supplemental barcode compliments the product code included with certain symbologies.
The product code remains constant for all items produced by a single manufacturer. To allow for
versioning, the 2-digit supplement increments with each new item in a series.
Magazines and other periodicals are common uses for the 2-digit supplement. The barcode remains
constant, ensuring the retail seller does not have to enter a new item into their database each
shipment. Combined with the 2-digit supplement, the retailer knows that this is a new issue of the
same magazine. Additional uses of the 2-digit supplement are usually internal, allowing for sales
tracking of a specific version of a product or inventory control.
5-Digit Supplemental Barcode
The UCC designed the 5-digit supplemental barcode for indication of the currency or industry and the
price for products. The first digit of the supplemental barcode indicates the currency or industry by a
pre-assigned UCC digit. The remaining four digits indicate the price for the product.
The most common use for the 5-digit supplemental barcode is the retail book industry. On a book, the
first digit indicates the country currency code. For example, 5 indicates the U.S. Dollar, 0 indicates the
British Pound and 4 for the Canadian Dollar. The rest of the code indicates the price up to 99.99
currency units. If the 5-digit supplement indicated "55999", the price in U.S. Dollars would be $59.99.
NOTE:
The UCC assigns the values and may change them according to need. For the most current
information and values, refer to the UCC guidelines.
