DHES

I received the email below today. I do not use barcodes at my shop so I have no use for software to generate barcodes. If anyone out there has experience with this type of software (hopefully free) would you please post here.
Dale

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Good Afternoon Dale,

We have been using your POS software for a long time and use a barcode scanner that works extremely well. However, I am looking for barcode software that is EASY to use and that doesn’t cost an arm and a let (well, who isn’t?). I really can’t find a decent program that will produce product inventory labels, and I thought you might have an idea about where to look. We have a small picture framing business and I need to keep track of frames we build to sell, etc.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
James
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For the most basic needs - all you really need is a word processor (i.e. Microsoft Word or OpenOffice) and a barcode font, perhaps the most common is the freeware Code39 font from IDAutomation: http://www.idautomation.com/fonts/free/

There are instructions on that page, but basically you just set up your labels (MS Word has label templates for most Avery standard labels), type in the barcodes and change the text to the Code39 font (noting that Code39 needs an asterisk at the beginning and end of the code, as a start and stop character). If you were really clever, you could export your stocktable and then use the resulting file to create a mail merge to labels (like mailing address labels) - which would be quicker if you have a lot of stock items.

It should be noted also, that Code39 isn't designed to hold a lot of data without the barcode becoming too wide and unreadable by most scanners, but for stock numbers it will do just fine.

Had to do some searching, but here is a post I found.

viewtopic.php?p=8363#p8363

And the link to the program/utility page

http://grandzebu.net/index.php?page=/in ... codbar.htm

Click on the type of barcode you want to use and read ALL the information.
It's basically a font with a conversion utility. Works great for me.

I found that barcode software for code39 in word will sometimes not scan very well jam the pos program. Techno river http://www.technoriversoft.com/ is a really good software it allows code39 or ISO2to5. It is a free download (or you can buy for around $30-100).

Making barcodes is simple, open a spreadsheet and type in your barcode numbers and descritions in seperate fields, then highlight all numbers in the column you would like barcodes for, select the "add in" tab and select techno river bar code generator, it will generate the rest and do it all for you.

I have just started to use barcodes in a bar atmosphere for bottles items with a NEXA barcode scanner from www.hotpos.com.au even though they are around $100 inc GST Australian, it was well worth the investment as it is alot quicker than entering the 10-14 digit barcode number manaully.

Good Luck
Simon

Hi Simonaus,

Thank you for the of the software for doing barcodes on lables. I have tryed it out as I also had a friend asking me.

It does a lot for the size of it.

Hi, I am new to this forum and new to the software. Firstly, I think the software is great and easy to use compared to systems that I have worked with over the years. I will be using Epson receipt printers but just need to know if there is anyway that you can print barcodes through this printer? Is there software out there to print barcodes through these small printers?

Any help will be appreciated

Regards
Dale

Dalem44,

A recipt printer is petty much like any other printer except that it prints on funny sized paper and usually only in black and white. For example if you power up your word processing program it will be able to print to your receipt printer.

So if you already have a receipt printer load a graphic into your word processing program and see if it will print it on your receipt printer. However to print any graphic on your receipt printer will require that you have the printer driver for that specific printer. If you are printing receipts with the generic driver or no driver at all then your printer will not be able to print any graphics, including a barcode.
If you do not already have a receipt printer look in the list of features, will it print logos? If it will then it will print graphics, usually. You can also just call up the vendor and ask if it will print barcodes. Just make sure that the printer can be returned if you cannot get it to print barcodes.

Of course any barcode a receipt printer can print will be printed on the same paper that is used to print receipts. Note that thermal receipts fade to invisibility pretty quickly and so will any barcodes pritner by a thermal receipt printer. If you want barcode stickers can you get sticker paper for your receipt printer, probably not.

Dale

Thanks,
I would like to print on thermal labels as the stock is quick moving and won't stand for too long. Will this be possible going through a word processor? Won't the printer a whole bunch of junk if I print to it from a word processor?

Thanks again

Dale,

That depends on your receipt printer and if you have the specific printer driver for your printer. If your printer can print graphics then it can print barcodes which are usually graphics.
If you're using a barcode font that should also work if your receipt printer can print graphics.

Dale