About UPCA Barcode Font
UPCA (stands for Universal Product Code Version A) is the most popular linear barcode font symbology that is found on many retail items in the US. It is also simply called a standard UPC barcode. According to the requirements of the worldwide GS1 organization, it is primarily used for scanning trade products at the retail checkout process. The GTIN-12, which is made up of twelve numeric characters that are used to specifically identify each product sold by a company, is represented by the UPCA barcode symbol.
Whenever a UPCA barcode is recognized, information on a product can be instantly shared between a manufacturer and a retailer or within the internal company divisions, including shipping, stock, invoicing, etc. These barcodes enable businesses to enter prices and other relevant data for each product into their Payment gateways, in addition to making it simple to identify products.
Sample of UPCA Barcode Font
Sample of UPCA Barcode Font
History
In 1932, punch cards were used to first suggest the automated checkout system. The Uniform Product Code Council, which was established in 1973 by a trade group from the supermarket sector, is responsible for creating the UPCAs that are used today. The council received numerous alternate symbol representation proposals from innovative companies. But at last, the IBM proposal created by George J. Laurer was ultimately chosen for implementation by the Symbol Selection Committee. Although IBM had first requested that he model the design of his barcode on the bull's eye pattern, he instead created a barcode with a sequence of black and white stripes. With several changes and upgrades, the first UPCA was placed on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum in 1974, which was bought at the Marsh grocery store in Troy.
Purpose
UPCA was created with the purpose of establishing a purchasing or shopping system that does not require a salesperson to manually enter item information into a database. Despite manual information entry, this reduces human mistakes and saves a lot of time. IBM created UPCA for this reason in order to guarantee quick, simple, and trustworthy information encoding for retail products.
When a product is scanned at the register, UPCA barcodes are used to make it simple to determine product characteristics such as the brand name, item, size, and color. They were actually developed to accelerate the supermarket checkout process. They are useful for inventory tracking inside a warehouse or retail store.
Parts of a UPCA Barcode
The UPCA barcode is divided into two parts: a machine-readable bar code and a 12-digit human-readable number. This 12-digit number is further broken down into four components:
➨ Number System Character
The Uniform Code Council assigned this number as the first UPCA number. Different number system characters are used for various product types. (For example, 0,6,7,8: standard UPCA number, 1,9: reserved, 2: variable weight items such fruits, vegetables, meat, etc, 3: pharmaceuticals, 4: in-store marketing for retail owners, 5: coupons)
➨ Manufacturer Identification Number
This is a specific 5-digit number that is given by the Uniform Code Council. This number is given to every product made by the company.
➨ Item Number
This is a 5-digit number that is assigned and managed by the product owner. This term points to the product itself. The five numbers must be different for each product or item.
➨ Check Digit
This is the final number of a 12-digit UPCA. The check digit is calculated by adding and multiplying the coded numbers. It is used by a checkout scanner to evaluate the UPCA's authenticity. The UPCA code won't scan correctly if the check digit is incorrect.
UPCA Barcode Advantages
- UPCA enables barcode scanners to instantly recognize a product's inventory data and its related price significantly boosts the speed.
- By minimizing the requirement to manually enter the product information, UPCA improves both productivity and efficiency.
- UPCA enables the tracking of products from manufacturing to shipment to retail locations as well as into customer residences.
- UPCA offers a checksum digit as a self-checking technique.
UPCA Barcode Limitations
- The short and finite encoding offered by UPCA barcodes makes them perfect for application in retail and grocery store environments, but less effective for other scanning and recognition tasks.
- UPCA barcodes encode just numeric values. Characters and special characters cannot be encoded.
- It has minimum endurance for damage. Even if it is slightly damaged, it cannot be decoded.
- Regardless of the fact that UPCA bar codes are useful for tracking, they are still slower as well as less effective than the more current radio frequency identification (RFID) system.
Application Areas of UPCA Barcode
- UPCA barcodes are mainly used in Retail stores, healthcare products, store coupons, customer loyalty cards, and other related items.
- Primarily used in the United States, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia for storing more detailed and convenient data.
- They are basically used in those goods that don't need complicated information encoding.
Create UPCA Barcode Labels
Design your own UPCA barcode label using DRPU Barcode Software. You can create UPCA barcode label for product using Barcode Designing View or Barcode Settings option. Print designed UPCA barcode font by clicking on print icon from tool bar and select print mode (Pre Define Label Stock or Manual) as per requirement.
