Barcodes & Barcode Recognition

It is perfectly practical and often highly desirable to recognize barcodes on scanned documents. A common scenario is a small business that prints documents from a software application, the paper documents are signed or endorsed in some way outside the office, and then the documents are scanned and the digital copies are indexed for future reference. By printing an identifying barcode on each document, the software can quickly and accurately 'recognize' and file each document as it returns to digital form, with no manual keying and little chance of error. The printing and scanning steps must be designed with respect for the limits of the technology, of course.

The software modules that recognize barcodes in digitized images are commonly called barcode recognition engines and are quite complex and subtle. Our EZTwain Pro product supports recognition of scanned barcodes in several ways:

1. EZTwain Pro 3.07 introduced the ability to collaborate with the Axtel AX-4 barcode engine. Unfortunately, Axtel sold their barcode engine to LeadTools, and refocused their business on other markets.

2. EZTwain Pro 3.09 added a limited Code39 (3 of 9) barcode recognition engine.

3. EZTwain Pro 3.10 added the ability to work directly with the LEADTOOLS Linear 1D Barcode Module, and the Black Ice Barcode SDK. These barcode recognition engines must be licensed from their respective vendors (Lead Technologies and Black Ice). Once correctly installed they appear as additional engines controllable through the EZTwain API. See the Barcode Recognition section in the EZTwain Pro User Guide. Contact Dosadi Support (support@dosadi.com) if you have any questions.

If you have developer experience with a barcode engine or a suggestion for this page, please e-mail us or post in our forums.

The classic reference on all things barcode is The Bar Code Book by Roger C. Palmer (Amazon listing)

There are many pages on the Web devoted to the theory and practice of barcoding. For example:

What type of code should I use in my application?

Morovia - Barcode - Education

Technical Knowledge Base on Barcodes