Barcode Functions

2011-03-29

Dismiss this until next updateThis documentation has been updated

The latest version of PrintShop Mail is currently 7.1. This documentation was updated on 2011-03-29 and covers the changes made in this version. If you are still using an older version of PrintShop Mail, you can access its documentation by using the Version: menu at the top-right corner of this screen.

If you wish to upgrade to PrintShop Mail7.1, you can do so via the Upgrade Request page. Note that in order to upgrade, you will need a valid OL Care contract as of 2010-09.

Barcode Functions

Barcode functions and fonts are deprecated in PrintShop Mail 7.0 for Windows. We strongly advise using the Barcode Object instead.

Available Barcode Types in PrintShop Mail:

Codabar: Codabar (also known as NW7) is generally used in health care, chemical processing, express delivery and government.
Code 128: The most common use of Code 128 is for shipping labels.
Code 39: Code 39 is a widely used industrial barcode and is mandated for some automotive industry and Department of Defense labels, because of its ability to represent alphanumeric data. Code 39 is a bidirectional, self-checking, discrete and variable length code.
EAN/UPC: The EAN (European Article Numbering) and UPC (Universal Product Code) is used through the world to mark physical goods in retail shops.
ITF (Interleaved 2 of 5): ITF is one of the most popular barcode used by shipping and warehouse industries for identification. It is also used in the medical and automotive fields.
JAN: The JAN (Japanese Article Numbering) is similar to EAN, used in Japan.
KIX: KIX barcode is used by the Dutch post office for mail addressing.
MSI/Plessey: MSI/Plessey (Modify Plessey Code) barcode, are mostly used for marking retail shelves for inventory control. MSI is a variable length symbology, however various applications use fixed length codes.
NW7: Is used at library, parcel delivery service and various other purposes.
ONECODE: ONECODE barcode used to sort and track packages from their origins to their destination.
POSTNET: The POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) symbology was developed in the United States for the automatic sorting of mail. POSTNET is only used for mailing address marking.

Barcode Fonts

The table below reflects an example of which font name can be used with each barcode.

Barcode	PrintShop Mail Font Name	Example
CODABAR	PSMCbar	PSMCbarHrP24DhTt
CODE 128	PSMC128	PSMC128Bwr3P36DhTt
CODE 39	PSMC39	PSMC39HrP24DhTt
EAN 13/ EAN 8	PSMEan	PSMEanBwrP36Tt
ITF	PSMInt	PSMIntHrP72DmTt
JAN 13/JAN 8	PSMJan	PSMJanBwrP36Tt
MSI	PSMMsi	PSMMsiHr72DhTt
NW7	PSMNW7	PSMNW7HrP48DmTt
ONECODE	OneCode Barcode	PSMOneCode
POSTNET	PSMPostNet	PSMPostNetHrTt
UPCA/UPCE	PSMUpc	PSMUpcP72Tt

PrintShop Mail font name description

P = Point size. The Point size refers only to the height of the font. For example if you see C39HrP24DmTt, the P used here refers to the point size of 24.

Dh, Dm and Dl = Density (high, medium and low).The density of a barcode is the number of characters per inch (cpi) of the printed barcode. It is of great practical importance since it determines the minimum barcode length required to print the desired information. The higher the density, the shorter the barcode.

Hr= Human Readable characters. These characters are printed below the barcode.

Bwr = Bar Width Reduction. The font includes technology to reduce the width of the individual bars uniformly across the barcode without changing the center line of the barcodes.

Note: You can install the barcode fonts library from the PrintShop Mail Installers folder on the CD.

The PSMFimCodesTt font, used to generate POSTNET barcode, is a special font used by the US Post Office to separate business reply mail from other mail. The FIM font consist of four unique barcodes, each barcode represents a unique reply mail classification.

Font Information

Each font name starts with the letters “PSM”.
Some fonts come in human readable versions.
Each font has different densities (thicknesses) depending on printer capability. It is recommended that samples of each density be printed to verify quality and readability.
Font Style: must always be Regular.

Barcode Setup

Below are the steps for setting up a barcode. A Postnet barcode is used for this example.

Click on the text tool on the Tools toolbar to draw a text box, or from the Insert menu, select Variable Text.
Type a variable name, example @Barcode@.
Double click on the Barcode field in the Variables panel, to open the Expression Editor.
Click the radio button titled "Barcode" to display all barcode generators and select the required function from the list. A barcode function translate a numerical code to a text string, which yields the desired barcode when printed with a special barcode font. Select POSTNET by double clicking on it.
As the argument to the barcode function, enter the database field that contains the code that should be translated into a barcode. Some barcode functions require another argument.
Click OK.
Note: PrintShop Mail Postnet function and font, only works with 5, 9 and 11 digit number strings. No hyphens can be in the string.
Select the variable @Barcode@, and pick the barcode font, that is specified for use with the chosen barcode generator.
From the Text Formatting toolbar or from the Text menu, select the desired PrintShop Mail font. Adjust the font size to show the barcode at the specified or desired size.