MicroPDF417

MicroPDF417

The MicroPDF417 barcode symbology is 2D stacked-linear barcode based on PDF417 that can encode full 256 character extended-ASCII.

Variants:

• PDF417 is a larger variant of the MicroPDF417 barcode.
• HIBC MicroPDF417 is a variant of MicroPDF417 that should be used when encoding HIBC formatted data.

Standards: ISO/IEC 24728, AIM ISS - MicroPDF417.

Data and Options

• The data field can contain any extended ASCII data. The default interpretation of data by readers is in accordance with ISO/IEC 8859-1. When supported by the receiver characters from other code pages can be encoded using Extended Channel Interpretation (ECI).

• When the parse option is specified, any instances of ^NNN in the data field are replaced with their equivalent ASCII value, useful for specifying unprintable characters.

• When the parsefnc option is specified, non-data function characters can be specified by escape sequences:

  • ^ECI000000 to ^ECI811799: ECI indicators
  • ^FNC@: FNC1 in second position, written before an AIM application indicator of one letter or two digits at the start of the data, e.g. ^FNC@T... or ^FNC@99.... See FNC1 in second position. The symbol is encoded in Code 128 emulation, which readers report as ]C2 or ]L4. It is not available with readerinit, and only in the first symbol of a Structured Append sequence.
  • ^FNC1: FNC1, a field separator after FNC1 in second position.
  • ECIs are not available with FNC1 in second position.

• Whenever the data field contains suitable input, the encoder will compress ISO/IEC 15434 structured data (internally using the 05 Macro and 06 Macro codewords), except in a Structured Append symbol or with readerinit.

• The columns and rows options are used to specify the size of the symbol. Valid values, as columns x rows, are:

  • 1x11, 1x14, 1x17, 1x20, 1x24, 1x28, 2x8, 2x11, 2x14, 2x17, 2x20, 2x23, 2x26, 3x6, 3x8, 3x10, 3x12, 3x15, 3x20, 3x26, 3x32, 3x38, 3x44, 4x4, 4x6, 4x8, 4x10, 4x12, 4x15, 4x20, 4x26, 4x32, 4x38, 4x44

• The version option can also be used to specify the symbol size, as version=RxC (rows first), for example version=15x4.

• If the columns, rows and version are unspecified the encoder will default to creating a symbol that is the minimum size to represent the given data.

• The rowmult option is used to specify how tall each bar is, with respect to the minimum module width. The default is 2.

• The raw option denotes that the data field is providing the input as pre-encoded codewords in ^NNN format, suitable for direct low-level encoding.

• The sampos, samtotal and samid options make the symbol one of a Structured Append sequence of 2 to 99999 symbols, which a reader reassembles into a single message. All three are required:

  • sampos is the position of the symbol in the sequence, from 1 to samtotal.
  • samtotal is the number of symbols in the sequence. It is encoded as the segment count, and the last symbol of the sequence is marked as such.
  • samid is the file ID, which is the same in every symbol of the sequence, given as one or more groups of three digits, each from 000 to 899, for example samid=017053.
  • The optional fields that describe the file, such as its name, sender and time stamp, are not supported.
  • Structured Append is not available with the raw option or for GS1 Composite symbols.

• The readerinit option denotes that the symbol is used for programming the barcode reader. Every symbol of a Structured Append sequence for reader programming is given it. It is not available with the raw option or for GS1 Composite symbols.

• Deprecated: Internal use. The cca option identifies this symbol as a CC-A 2D component of a GS1 Composite symbol.

  • Special size rules apply when the cca option is given, in which case the columns and rows options that are used to specify the size of the symbol must be one of:
    • 2x5, 2x6, 2x7, 2x8, 2x9, 2x10, 2x12, 3x4, 3x5, 3x6, 3x7, 3x8, 4x3, 4x4, 4x5, 4x6, 4x7

• Deprecated: Internal use. The ccb option identifies this symbol as a CC-B 2D component of a GS1 Composite symbol.

Examples

A basic symbol:

Data:    MicroPDF417
Options:
Encoder: micropdf417

A symbol using the parse option with fixed dimensions:

Data:    MicroP^068F417
Options: parse rows=15 columns=4
Encoder: micropdf417