Question about barcodes

really easy, barcodes are just a font on a pc, you can pick up the label printers and scanner at almost any office supply store.
Do a quick search on the net for a barcode font (there are thousands of downloads)

 

No not safe at all

most people use them as a means to give a product a numeric code, when you buy somehting in a shop it usually refferences a DB with all the product details (price etc) as well as noting the reduction in available stock. as most brands pre-code their labels your stuck using their numeric code's (so you cant change em to your own stock refference)
If you had the time and were feeling particulary naughty you could create a bar code sticker that overlays the original and cause havoc in a large shop!!

 

as long as you have the software to print one bar code you can do them all.

 

what is it you are trying to accomplish by using bar codes?

 

ah. I personally wouldn't use bar codes for anything other than inventory. but in the IT industry, there's little else use for such things.

wouldn't mind playing devil's advocate on your idea though.

 

360..Why the hell would you want to copy barcodes if not for some activity that is not legit? Barcodes are the property of businesses (like mine) that pay a fee to the UCC to be able to apply it to our products. I have no understanding whats up your sleeve! Please explain.

 

As a business owner that has to put a barcode on my products for retail, I could care less what happens to it after the product leaves my warehouse. The products go to the distributors that check it in. At that time, the distributor double checks the barcode. After that point, I don;t care what happens to the barcode. If somebody copies it, it will have no impact on my business. Your angle may be geared towards retail stores with dumb clerks that may ring up a $100 item that somebody took another barcode label from another product that costs $3.00 to save $97.00.

 

Bar coding is no easier or harder than using Word, or Photoshop, or Corel Draw.

Just remember, much of what is in a bar code is proprietary. People/companies pay for the rights to use UCC barcodes that include a manufacturer's distinct ID code.

Other codes just digitize a series of numbers.

Download some software, try it, see if it works, then for goodness sake, spring the $100 and buy some good software to produce the barcodes.

Many packages, including Corel Draw, include bar code applications built in.

http://www.labelvision.com/2020_evaluation.html - don't know if it's good or bad, found it with google.

 

In my line of work, we use "masked" barcodes which are very difficult to copy. They look like mag stripes (black bar), but are optically read using light. You would need to have the original number and barcode format (Code 39, Code 128, I 2 of 5, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, Codabar, etc.) to reproduce the barcode, or special equipment to read and decode the format.

I believe the cards are made by Laminex, you may want to check their website for more information.