

The EAN "country code" 978 (and later 979) has been allocated since the 1980s to reserve a Unique Country Code (UCC) prefix for EAN identifiers of published books, regardless of country of origin, so that the EAN space can catalog books by ISBNs rather than maintaining a redundant parallel numbering system. Retailers who have historically used UPC barcodes tend to use GS1 prefixes starting with "02" for store-packaged products. The product identifier may be one assigned by the Produce Electronic Identification Board (PEIB) or may be retailer assigned. In these cases, the barcode may encode a price, quantity or weight along with a product identifier - in a retailer defined way.

Other retailers use at least part of this prefix for products which are packaged in store, for example, items weighed and served over a counter for a customer. Some retailers use this for proprietary (own brand or unbranded) products, although many retailers obtain their own manufacturer's code for their own brands. GS1 defines this as being available for retailer internal use (or internal use by other types of business).

The 020-029 GS1 Prefixes are worth a special mention. In recent years, more products sold by retailers outside United States and Canada have been using EAN-13 codes beginning with 0, since they were generated by GS1-US. Note that EAN-13 codes beginning with 0 are actually 12-digit UPC codes with prepended 0 digit. The first three digits of the EAN-13 (GS1 Prefix) usually identify the GS1 Member Organization which the manufacturer has joined (not necessarily where the product is actually made). These are generally used for periodicals like magazines or books, to indicate the current year's issue number and weighed products like food, to indicate the manufacturer's suggested retail price.įurther information: List of GS1 country codes 2-digit EAN-2 and 5-digit EAN-5 are supplemental barcodes, placed on the right-hand side of EAN-13 or UPC. The less commonly used 8-digit EAN-8 barcode was introduced for use on small packages, where EAN-13 would be too large. A prefix with first two digits of "45" or "49" indicates a Japanese Article Number (JAN) follows. A prefix with a first digit of "0" indicates a 12-digit UPC-A code follows.
Ean13 barcode maker registration#
An EAN-13 number includes a 3-digit GS1 prefix (indicating country of registration or special type of product). The most commonly used EAN standard is the thirteen-digit EAN-13, a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC-A) standard developed in 1970 by George J. These barcodes only represent the digits 0–9, unlike some other barcode symbologies which can represent additional characters. EAN barcodes are used worldwide for lookup at retail point of sale, but can also be used as numbers for other purposes such as wholesale ordering or accounting.

The standard has been subsumed in the Global Trade Item Number standard from the GS1 organization the same numbers can be referred to as GTINs and can be encoded in other barcode symbologies defined by GS1. The International Article Number (also known as European Article Number or EAN) is a standard describing a barcode symbology and numbering system used in global trade to identify a specific retail product type, in a specific packaging configuration, from a specific manufacturer. The first digit is always placed outside the symbol additionally a right ">" indicator is used to indicate a "Quiet Zone" that is necessary for barcode scanners to work properly. GTIN-13 number encoded in EAN-13 barcode.
