UPC A

UPC-A

The UPC-A barcode symbology is used for identification of retail goods at point of sale. It usually carries a GTIN-12.

A UPC-A has the same bars as an EAN-13 whose first digit is 0. EAN-13 encodes its additional leading digit by mirroring some of the symbol characters in the left half, and for a leading 0 none are mirrored.

Also known as: UPC, Universal Product Code.

Misnomers: UCC-12.

Uses:

• Retail products scanned at point of sale, chiefly in the US and Canada.
• In-store items, such as weighed goods with price-embedded labels from a scale, using restricted circulation numbers (beginning 2 or 4).

Variants:

• UPC-A+2 is an extension of UPC-A that includes a two-digit add-on.
• UPC-A+5 is an extension of UPC-A that includes a five-digit add-on.
• UPC-E is a barcode symbology derived from UPC-A that is designed for small packaging.
• UPC-A Composite is a variant of UPC-A that should be used when a CC-A or CC-B GS1 composite 2D component is required.

Standards: ISO/IEC 15420, BS EN 797, GS1 General Specifications.

Data and Options

• The data field for a UPC-A may contain eleven or twelve digits, optionally followed by a space then two or five digits if an EAN-2 or EAN-5 add-on is required.
• Alternatively, the data field may contain seven or eight digits of a UPC-E to produce the equivalent UPC-A symbol.
• If eleven digits of primary data are supplied then the check digit is calculated automatically. Otherwise the provided check digit will be verified.
• The includetext option should normally be supplied.
• The guardwhitespace option enables the display of whitespace guard marks.
• The guarddescent option controls how far the guard bars extend below the data bars, in multiples of the X-dimension (default: 5).
• The addondescent option controls how far the add-on bars extend below the baseline, in multiples of the X-dimension (defaults to the value of guarddescent).

Examples

Identical symbols, input provided with and without a check digit:

Data:    012345000058
Options: includetext
Encoder: upca

Data:    01234500005
Options: includetext
Encoder: upca

A symbol that includes a five-digit add-on:

Data:    012345000058 54499
Options: includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: upca