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Barcode support in FusionPro VDP Suite


mhilger

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Hi all,

 

A question recently came up about which barcodes are supported with our FusionPro VDP products. Sounded like a good idea to put this information in the forum for others looking for the same info.

 

Included Barcode Fonts

All products in the FusionPro VDP suite include the following barcode fonts which are installed along with the software:

 

- AdvPNet - the popular "postnet" barcode font for postal discounting

- AdvPNETn - a narrow version of postnet

- AdvPLNT - the USPS "PLANET" barcode

- AdvPLNTn - a narrow version of PLANET

- AdvFIM - "Facing Identification Mark". USPS barcode for business reply mail

- AdvOCRa - "Optical Character Recognition" - Postal barcode

- AdvI25d - Interleaved 2 of 5 barcode for postal

- I25HTd - Human readable version of 2 of 5 barcode

- Intelligent Mail Barcode - aka IMB, OneCode, 4-state barcode. The new postal barcode for the USPS that will replace postnet

- 128 barcode

- 3 of 9 barcode

- 9 of 3 barcode

- 2 of 5 barcode

- UPC EAN barcode

- PDF417 barcode - a 2-dimensional barcode

- DataMatrix - a 2-dimensional barcode

 

 

Barcode Data Algorithms

When working with barcodes, the data that is to be included in the barcode often needs to be processed by an algorithm before it can be typeset with the barcode font. For example, if you want to use the postnet barcode and have the necessary data for that barcode (which is the 5-digit zip code, the 4-digit "zip+4", and the 2-digit "delivery point"), these pieces of data need to be processed by an algorithm to calculate a special "checksum" digit as well as append a leading and trailing control character....

 

So if you have the postnet barcode data as such:

 

60606 (ZIP) 1234 (zip+4) 12 (delivery point)

 

The algorithm turns that info this exact string of text:

 

(606061234129)

 

This text is then typeset with the postnet barcode font.

 

For every barcode that we include in FusionPro, we also include the necessary algorithm, if needed, for that barcode.

 

Note that some users do not need these algorithms as they have some other software (like Satori Mailroom Toolkit for CASS address validation) that performs this step. In those cases, the pre-processed barcode data that is provided by a product such as Mailroom Toolkit can be typeset with a barcode font directly (either an included FusionPro barcode font or a 3rd party barcode font).

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  • 2 years later...
Does only the FusionPro Suite support creating algorithms for the barcode or do other FusionPro sets also support barcode algorithm creation?

It's everything. By "Suite," Mark was referring to FusionPro Desktop, Direct, and Server, all of which support creation of barcodes in the listed formats, either by using rules ("algorithms") to generate the barcode from some arbitrary data in the job, or by taking some previously-generated barcode data and typesetting it. (FusionPro Expression is not part of this "suite", even though it has FusionPro in its name, as it didn't exist at the time of Mark's post.)

 

In addition to the formats specified in Mark's message, FusionPro 7 and later also generates QR barcodes.

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  • 1 year later...

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