LazBarcodes

General

About

LazBarcodes is a set of controls to create 1D and 2D barcodes. The backend engine is a port of Zint at sourceforge. Some units were heavily refactored to obtain a more Pascal-like code.

The library supports the generation of 1D and 2D barcodes:

• 1D barcodes: Code-11, Code-128, Channel code, EAN-128, several 2-of-5 variants, several 3-of-9 variants, EAN, UPC, Plessey, MSI/Plessey, Telepen, medical/pharmaceutical codes (CodaBar, Code-32, Pharma one-track, Pharma two-track, PZN), postal codes (Australian post, Japanese post, Korean Post, Deutsche Post IdentCode and LeitCode, Dutch KIX, Planet, PostNet, Royal Mail RM4SCC)
• Stacked barcodes: PDF417, compact PDF417, MicroPDF417
• 2D barcodes: QR, MicroQR, Aztec, Aztec Rune, Data Matrix, Maxicode

Author

2011 - Jose Mejuto

License

BSD 3 as it is being inherited from the zint source code.

Dependencies / System Requirements

• None

Getting LazBarcodes

The download contains the packages lazbarcodes and lazbarcodes_runtimeonly. The first one gives you visual components of the above barcodes and the second can be used just to access the ported zint code for advanced barcode generation.

Development version

The latest source code can be found on Lazarus-CCR. Use SVN to load the source files, or download the "Snapshot" by clicking on the corresponding button of the sourceforge site and unzip it to some directory. For installation go to "Package" > "Load package file (*.lpk)", navigate to the folder with the downloaded sources and load the fole lazbarcodes_runtimeonly.lpk. Then load the package lazbarcodes.lpk. Click "Use" > "Install", and confirm the question to rebuild the IDE. After some time the IDE restarts, and you find the barcodes in the "LazBarcodes" tab of the component palette.

Release version

Occasionally a release version is prepared and made available for easy installation by means of the Online-Package-Manager in the Lazarus IDE. Open "Package" > "Online package manager", check the item "LazBarcodes" in the list and click "Install". Again, confirm the question to rebuild the IDE. When the IDE restarts after some time you find the barcodes in the "LazBarcodes" tab of the component palette.

Change Log

• v2.0.0: Added a lot of 1D barcodes
• v1.0.3: Internally used units renamed to avoid naming conflict with CodeTyphon package PL_APE.
• v1.0.2: Change of license from GPL to BSD
• Initial development.

Documentation

General

The components installed by the LazBarcodes package descent from TGraphicControl and thus inherit fundamental control properties such as Width, Height, AutoSize, etc. They share a variety of other properties and methods; some properties, however, are not published fwhen they are not appropriate for the current barcode type.

Properties

• Text: TCaption - Text to be encoded as a barcode. Note that, depending on the barcode type, there exist limitations on allowed text length and allowed characters.
• ShowHumanReadableText: Boolean - Displays the encoded text underneath the barcode symbol. Note that the encoding algorithm may add check sum or additional characters to the input text.
• BarcodeType - Some barcode components can be modified to create various symbologies by selecting the corresponding value in this (type-dependent) enumeration.
• Scale: Integer - Horizontal scaling factor of the barcode determining the width of the smallest feature (bar or space) in pixels. Scale=0 tries to select an internal scale value such that the barcode fills the control's width as much as possible. Note that this scaling factor applies to all bars and spaces and therefore, increasing Scale does not increase the barcode with gradually but by more or less large steps.
• SymbolHeight: Integer - Similar to Scale, but refers now to the vertical direction. Again, SymbolHeight=0 fills adjusts the internal symbol height to fill the height
• MinSymbolHeight: Integer - Prevents the symbol to become too small.
• RecommendedSymbolSize: Boolean - If true, overrides the Scale and SymbolHeight settings so that the size of the symbol is as close as possible to its specification.
• AutoSize: Boolean - inherited standard property. When true, Width and Height are selected such that the current size of the barcode is enclosed. Note that AutoSize=true is ignored when Scale=0 or SymbolHeight=0.
• Margin: Integer - Amount of empty pixels added around the symbol
• WhitespaceWidth: Integer - Amount of empty pixels added to the left and right of some symbologies to enhance readability of barcode scanners.
• BearerBarMode: TBearerBarMode = (bbmNone, bbmBearerBars, bbmBox) - adds horizontal bars above and below the barcode (bbmBearerBars) or a box around the barcode (bbmBox). The thickness of the bars and the box border is given by the Margin multiplied by the currently used internal Scale parameter.
• ForegroundColor: TColor - Color used to draw the bars
• BackgroundColor: TColor - Color used to draw the background of the barcode (spaces, margin and text area).

Methods

• CopyToClipboard - Copies the barcode to the clipboard as a bitmap
• SaveToFile(const AFileName: String; AImageClass: TFPImageBitmapClass) - Saves the barcode as a graphic image of the specified class to file.
• SaveToStream(const AStream: TStream; AImageClass: TFPImageBitmapClass) - Saves the barcode as a graphic image of the specified class to a stream.
• SaveToEPSFile(const AFileName: String) - Saves the barcode as EPS file
• SaveToEPSStream(const AStream: TStream) - Saves the barcode in EPS format as stream.
• SaveToSVGFile(const AFileName: String) - Saves the barcode in SVG format to file
• SaveToSVGStream(const AStream: TStream) - Saves the barcode in SVG format to a stream
• ErrorString: String - In case of an error, this read-only property contains a message why the Text could not be encoded correctly.

Components

1D codes

Component	BarcodeType	Name	Application	Allowed chars	Text length	Reference
TBarcode2of5	bctCode25Standard	Standard 2-of-5, or Matrix 2-of-5	Warehouse sorting; photo finishing; airline ticket marking	'0'..'9'	up to 80	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_2_of_5
	bctCode25DataLogic	DataLogic 2-of-5	Processing and sorting of mail for the Chinese Postal Service	'0'..'9'	up to 80	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_2_of_5
	bctCode25IATA	IATA 2-of-5	Airline cargo	'0'..'9'	up to 45	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_2_of_5#IATA_2_of_5
	bctCode25Industrial	Industrial 2-of-5	Cardboard printing; photo developing envelopes; warehouse sorting systems	'0'..'9'	up to 45	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_2_of_5
	bctCode25Interleaved	Interleaved 2-of-5	135 film; cartons of some products	'0'..'9'	up to 89	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleaved_2_of_5
	bctITF14	ITF-14	Packaging levels of a product	'0'..'9'	up to 13	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITF-14
TBarcode3of9	bctCode39; bctLOGMARS	Code 3-of-9 (C39); LOGMARS	Name badges, inventory and industrial applications; LOGMARS: different bar widths	'0'..'9', 'A'..'Z', ' ', '–', '.', '$', '/', '+', '%'	up to 74	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39
	bctCode39Ext	Extended Code 3-of-9 (C39ext)	Name badges, inventory and industrial applications	#0..#127	up to 74	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39#Full_ASCII_Code_39
	bctCode93	Code-93	Canada post	like C39	up to 107	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_93
TBarcodeC11		Code-11	Telecommunication	'0'..'9', '-'	up to 121	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_11
TBarcodeC128	bctC128	Code-128	Industrial applications	#0..#127	up to 160	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_128
	bctEAN128	EAN-128, or GS1-128	Industrial applications	#0..#127	Depending on "Application identifier"; to be given in square parenthesis	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GS1-128
TBarcodeChannelCode		Channel Code	high densitiy codes	'0'..'9'	up to 7	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Channel_Code.htm
TBarcodeEAN	bctEAN	EAN-8, EAN-13	Article numbers	'0'..'9'; '+' for addon code	up to 19	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Article_Number
	bctEAN14	EAN-14	Trading goods	'0'..'9'	up to 13	https://www.barcodestalk.com/ean14
	bctISBN	ISBN	Books	'0'..'9', 'X'; '+' for addon code	9, 10 or 13	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number
	bctNVE18	NVE-18	Shipping and storage	'0'..'9'	up to 25
	bctUPCA	UPC/A	Trade items	'0'..'9'; '+' for addon code	up to 10; plus 2 check digits	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code
	bctUPCE	UPC/E	Trade items (more compact than UPC/A)	'0'..'9'; '+' for addon code	up to 7	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code#UPC-E
TBarcodeMedical	bctCodabar	Codabar	Blood identification	'0'..'9', '-', '$', ':', '/', '.', '+', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D'	up to 60	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codabar
	bctCode32	Code 32 (Italian PHARMACODE)	Pharmaceutical products in Italy	'0'..'9'	up to 8	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Code_32.htm
	bctPharmaOne	Pharmacode One-Track	Packaging of pharmaceutical products	'0'..'9'	up to 6	https://barcode-test.com/301/what-is-pharmacode/
	bctPharmaTwo	Pharmacode Two-Track	Packaging of pharmaceutical products	'0'..'9'	up to 8	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/TwoTrackPharmacode.htm
	bctPZN7	Pharmazentralnummer (PZN)	Identification of pharmaceutical products (Germany, Austria)	'0'..'9'	7 (6 by user + 1 auto-generated check digit)	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/PZN.htm
	bctPZN8	Pharmazentralnummer (PZN)	Identification of pharmaceutical products (Germany, Austria)	'0'..'9'	8 (7 by user + 1 auto-generated check digit)	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/PZN.htm
TBarcodePlessey	bctPlessey	Plessey	Shelf tags in retail stores	'0'..'9', 'A'..'F'	up to 65	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessey_Code
	bctMSIPlessey	MSI/Plessey	Shelf tags in retail stores	'0'..'9'	depending on checkdigits (see CheckChar property below)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSI_Barcode
TBarcodePostal	bctAustraliaPostCustomer	Australia Post Standard Customer Barcode	Postal code and automatic mail sorting in Australia	'0'..'9', 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', space and hash ('#')	8, 13, 16, 18, or 23	http://www.neodynamic.com/Products/Help/BarcodeWPF3.0/barcodes/AustraliaPost.htm; http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Australia_Post_standard_customer_barcode
	bctAustraliaPostReplyPaid	Australia Post Reply Paid	Postal code and automatic mail sorting in Australia	'0'..'9'	8	http://www.neodynamic.com/Products/Help/BarcodeWPF3.0/barcodes/AustraliaPost.htm; http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Australia_Post_standard_customer_barcode
	bctAustraliaPostRoute	Australia Post Routing	Postal code and automatic mail sorting in Australia	'0'..'9'	8	http://www.neodynamic.com/Products/Help/BarcodeWPF3.0/barcodes/AustraliaPost.htm; http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Australia_Post_standard_customer_barcode
	bctAustraliaPostRedirect	Australia Post Redirection	Postal code and automatic mail sorting in Australia	'0'..'9'	8	http://www.neodynamic.com/Products/Help/BarcodeWPF3.0/barcodes/AustraliaPost.htm; http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Australia_Post_standard_customer_barcode
	bctDAFT	DAFT Code	Generic system of transcribing 4-state barcodes where the data encoding is provided by an external program.	'D': Descender; 'A': Ascender; 'F': Full height; 'T': Tracker (short bar)	up to 50	https://www.neodynamic.com/barcodes/DAFT-4-state-Barcode.aspx
	bctDeutschePostIdentCode	Deutsche Post Identcode	Mail routing in Germany	'0'..'9'	(up to) 11 digits	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Identcode.htm
	bctDeutschePostLeitCode	Deutsche Post Leitcode	Specifies destination for mail in Germany	'0'..'9'	(up to) 14 digits	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Leitcode.htm
	bctFIM	FIM (Facing Identification Mark)	Automatic facing, or orientation, of the mail piece for cancellation	'A'..'D', 'a'..'d'	1	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facing_Identification_Mark
	bctJapanPost	Japanese Post 4-State Customer Code	Encodes addresses on mail for faster automatic processing in Japan	'0'..'9', 'A'..'Z', '-'		https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Japanese_Postal.htm
	bctKix	Dutch KIX 4-State Customer Code	Automatic processing of bulk mail in the Netherlands	'0'..'9', 'A'..'Z'	up to 18 chars	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/KIX_4_State_Customer_Code.htm
	bctKoreaPost	Korean Postal Authority Code	Automatic sorting of mail in Korea	'0'..'9'	up to 6 digits	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/Korea_Post.htm
	bctPlanet	USPS PLANET (Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique)	Automatic identification, sorting, and tracking of pieces of mail in the U.S.	'0'..'9'	up to 38	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/USPS_PLANET.htm
	bctPostNet	USPS POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique)	Sorting of business reply and courtesy reply mail in the U.S.	'0'..'9'	up to 38	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSTNET
	bctRM4SCC	RM4SCC (Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code)	Mail service in United Kingdom	'0'..'9','A'..'Z'	up to 120	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM4SCC
TBarcodeTelepen	bctTelepen	Telepen Alpha	University and other academic libraries in the UK	#0..#127	up to 30	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepen
	bctTelepenNum	Telepen Numeric	University and other academic libraries in the UK	'0'..'9', 'X'; 'X' must be at even character position.	up to 60	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepen

Stacked barcodes

Component	BarcodeType	Name	Application	Allowed chars	Text length	Reference
TBarcodePDF417	bctPDF417	PDF417 (Portable Data File)	Government-issued identification cards (such as driver's licenses), airline boarding passes, postage stamps, package labels, etc.	#0..#255 (ISO-8859-1)	up to 1850 alphanumeric, or 2710 numeric characters, or 1108 bytes	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF417
	bctPDF417trunc	PDF417 truncated; Compact PDF417	Government-issued identification cards (such as driver's licenses), airline boarding passes, postage stamps, package labels, etc.	#0..#255 (ISO-8859-1)	up to 1850 alphanumeric, or 2710 numeric characters, or 1108 bytes	https://www.neodynamic.com/Products/Help/BarcodeCF2.0/barcodes/CompactPdf417.htm
	bctMicroPDF417	MicroPDF417	Designed to encode a moderate amount of data in a very small space	#0..#255 (ISO-8859-1)	up to 250 alphanumeric or 366 numeric characters	https://barcodeguide.seagullscientific.com/Content/Symbologies/MicroPDF417.htm

2D codes

Component	Name	Application	Allowed chars	Text length	Reference
TBarcodeAztec	Aztec Code	Transport ticketing (Railroad, Airline). Governmental.	#0..#255 interpreted as ISO-8859-1	up to 3823 numeric or 3067 alphabetic characters or 1914 bytes of data	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_Code
TBarcodeAztecRune	Aztec Rune	special	'0'..'9'	up to 3 (8-bit value 0..255)	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_Code#Encoding
TBarcodeDatamatrix	Data Matrix	Direct part marking	UTF-8	up to 2335 alphanumeric characters, 3116 numbers, or 1556 bytes of binary data.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix
TBarcodeQR	QR Code	Advertisement, web links, and many more	UTF-8	up to 7089 numeric digits, 4296 alphanumeric characters or 2953 bytes of data	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
TBarcodeMicroQR	Micro QR Code	Like QR Code, preferred when less space is available	UTF-8	up to 35	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qr_code#Micro_QR_code
TBarcodeMaxicode	Maxicode	Tracking and managing the shipment of packages	#0..#255 interpreted as ISO-8859-1	about 90 characters (plus "primary message" needed in property Primary for mode 2 and 3)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaxiCode

Special properties of some components

• TBarcodePlessey
  • CheckChar: TPlesseyCheckChar - determines the checksum digit(s) added to the MSI/Plessey symbol (used only when BarcodeType = bctMSIPlessey):
    • pcOneMod10: adds one check digit calculated by a mod 10 algorithm
    • pcTwoMod10: adds two check digits, both calculated by a mod 10 algorithm
    • pcOneMod11: adds one check digit calculated by a mod 11 algorithm
    • pcOneMod10Mod11: add two check digits, the first one calculated by a mod 10, the second one calculated by a mod 11 algorithm.
• TBarcodeQR
  • ECCLevel: TBarcodeQR_ECCLevel - determines the level of error correction (used also by TBarcodeMicroQR):
    • eBarcodeQR_ECCLevel_Auto: selects one of the other options depending on data length
    • eBarcodeQR_ECCLevel_L: Error correction capacity: approx 20% of symbol, recovery capacity: approx 7%
    • eBarcodeQR_ECCLevel_M: Error correction capacity: approx 37% of symbol, recovery capacity: approx 15%
    • eBarcodeQR_ECCLevel_Q: Error correction capacity: approx 55% of symbol, recovery capacity: approx 25%
    • eBarcodeQR_ECCLevel_H: Error correction capacity: approx 65% of symbol, recovery capacity: approx 30%
• TBarcodeMaxicode
  • Mode: TBarcodeMaxicodeMode - message mode
    • mcmAuto: tries to determine the mode from the type of the data
    • mcmMode2: In addition to the Text ("secondary message") also a 15-digit "primary message" must be provided in the property Primary. It consists of 9 numerical digits for the US-domestic post-code (property PostCode: String), 3 numeric digits for the country code (ISO 3166, property CountryCode: Integer) and 3 numeric digits for the service code (property ServiceCode: Integer).
    • mcmMode3: In addition to the Text ("secondary message") also a 15-digit "primary message" must be provided in the property Primary. It consists of 6 alphanumeric digits for the international post-code (property PostCode: String), 3 numeric digits for the country code (ISO 3166, property CountryCode: Integer) and 3 numeric digits for the service code (property ServiceCode: Integer).
    • mcmMode4: No Primary needed.
    • mcmMode5: No Primary needed.
    • mcmMode6: No Primary needed.
  • Primary: String - see TBarcodeMaxicode.Mode
  • PostCode: String - see TBarcodeMaxicode.Mode
  • CountryCode: String - see TBarcodeMaxicode.Mode
  • ServiceCode: String - see TBarcodeMaxicode.Mode

Demo application

A demo project is contained in the LazBarcodes installation. It allows to generate barcode from all barcode types supported. Please note that - since the requirements on length and characters changes from type to type - sometimes error messages are displayed; in this case, click on the "Sample text" button to use a predefined sample text for the selected barcode type. A screenshot is displayed at the top of this page.

Final notes

If you need the generation of another barcode and it is present in Zint, please ask for it in the Lazarus forum or mailing lists.

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From the Free Pascal wiki, page "LazBarcodes", as it stood on 2023-09-17 after a change by Wp, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.