Problem with 3 of 9 Barcode encoding astericks* of dashes -

[Cody Williams]

Hope someone can help me. I have data that I need to make into a Code39 barcode and I'm using the FusionPro function "Make39Barcode" on a string like this *U131k14299503*51007 or a string like this W4-A-2C and I get a /J for * and a /M for - in my barcode reader. I know FusionPro uses the IDAutomation fonts for encoding their barcodes and I went to their website to do some research and it appears that they have a special version of the barcode39 font that handles symbols and it is called "IDAutomationSC39S.ttf" which is not provided by FusionPro. I'm curious is there a workaround in FusionPro to encode these symbols correctly so that they read as * or - in various barcode readers instead of reading as /J and /M or can FusionPro provide that Font "IDAutomationSC39S.ttf" for the user base for encoding symbols in a barcode39. Any and all help welcome.

 

Thanks

Cody Williams

Windows 7

Acrobat 9.5.5

FusionPro Ver. 8.2.7

[Dan Korn]

I went to their website to do some research and it appears that they have a special version of the barcode39 font that handles symbols and it is called "IDAutomationSC39S.ttf"

What led you to that conclusion?

 

According to this page:

http://www.idautomation.com/barcode-fonts/code-39/fontnames.html

 

The only difference between the IDAutomationC39S font that ships with FusionPro and the IDAutomationSC39S font is that the latter is an evaluation version. You already have the full "purchased" version of the font installed with FusionPro (through a redistribution agreement that PTI has with IDAutomation).

 

If you try a Google search for "IDAutomationSC39S.ttf", you can probably fine a version of that to download (although the legality of that may be questionable, even though it's an evaluation version), but I would expect the output with that font to be exactly the same as with the font that ships with FusionPro.

 

I think you may be confusing the evaluation versions of the fonts with the symbol-encoded versions described here:

http://www.idautomation.com/product-support/symbol-encoded-barcode-fonts.html

Those fonts have names with the letter "Y" in them, such as "IDAutomationYHC39S".

 

Or perhaps you need the "Extended" Code 39 Barcode Fonts described here:

http://www.idautomation.com/barcode-fonts/code-39/extended39.html

Those fonts have names with the letters "Y" and "X" in them, such as "IDAutomationYXHC39S".

 

Beyond that, I wouldn't necessarily judge the validity of a barcode from a single data point of how one particular set of reader hardware and software interprets it.

 

Or perhaps there's something about FusionPro's Make39Barcode function that could be improved to better encode the data. I think you would need to inquire about custom template-building for that. However, if you have an example of a barcode generated from another application that scans the way you want, and you want to post it here, I might be able to take a little bit of time to analyze it.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Dan Korn

[tobarstep]

One thing to note about standard Code 39 is that the asterisk (*) is used to delimit the data and can't normally be used in the data. That yours is allowing it and returning a /J seems to indicate that you're actually using an extended Code 39 as described here and here. I don't know abut the /M unless your dash is being interpreted as an en or em dash. The second link I posted also indicates that if you are using the extended ASCII Code 39 then your scanner needs to be set up for it or it will return the data as /J, etc.

 

I'd try encoding just some standard alphanumeric data [0-9][A-Z] and see how that scans.

Edited March 25, 2015 by tobarstep