Code 39 (3 of 9) barcode font. Includes all alpha-numeric characters. Capital and lowercase characters are the same.

This font contains only numbers. No signs and no characters.

There is a small number above the bars. Just large enough to make the code readable for humans.

How to use it :

Each code must begin and end with an asterisk (*). There is no minimal or maximal limit to its length.

.._. _..._ _. _ __.._ _ .__._ .__ ._._ ._. __. _._. _..._ _.__. . ._. ._ ..... ..... ..... 

This font combines two simple ideas and puts them together. Braille and color theory.

I had a long time been holding on to this font (about 2 years) but decided that maybe someone out there would like it.  Its complicated, in a way, but can end up being the most compressed "barcode" I have ever seen. (With the average letter taking up approximately 2 pixels when used in its "second form" but we will get into that later.

As with many of my fonts, is rooted in braille. So a knowledge in braille is neccesary. (Braille is very very easy to learn)

So heres the nuts and bolts.  Lets take a 3 letter word in braille, say, "ice"

    o| oo| o
o    |    |    o

i        c      e

in of itself it takes three braille spots, but, what if we were to use color theory to compress it?
the first letter would be red, the second in yellow, the third in blue? You could have them occupy the same place and have no loss of information! Anywhere red overlapped the yellow, it would be orange, anywhere yellow overlapped blue it would be green! etc.
so, "Ice" could now be expressed as
            green, orange
              red,    blue
The word "Ice" is conveyed in a 2x2 packet of colored pixels!

Which brings me to my font. "Rybian" (a play on words of "RedYellowBlue-ian" is a colorless way of expressing that same form.

red is a horizontal line
yellow is a circle
blue is a verticle line

so, logically, orange would be a circle with a horizontal line in it
green would be a circle with a verticle line in it
purple would be a verticle and horizontal line

How to use

EAN-13 has 3 symbol sets A, B, and C. It looks like the following: *XXXXXX#CCCCCC*

• * start/end bar (as common for Code 39)
• # middle bar
• X a symbol of set A or B (see below)
• C a symbol of set C

Symbol sets

The symbol sets are placed on an international keyboard layout:

1. Number row: 1234567890
2. Middle character row: asdfghjkl;
3. Top character row: qwertyuiop

The first digit of an EAN-13 barcode does not directly correspond to a symbol. It determines which symbol set for the following 6 digits is to be used. The following listing shows the symbol set combinations for the starting digits:

1. AABABB
2. AABBAB
3. AABBBA
4. ABAABB
5. ABBAAB
6. ABBBAA
7. ABABAB
8. ABABBA
9. ABBABA

If the starting digit is 0, or if you want to encode a UPC-A, only use symbol set A.

Examples

The spaces are only inserted for clarity.

• EAN number → symbol set → What you type with the font
• 2 012345 67890 3 → *AABBAB#CCCCCC* → *01sd4g#yuiope*
• 2 230154 67890 1 → *AABBAB#CCCCCC* → *23;a5f#yuiopq*
• 9 786789 12345 1 → *ABBABA#CCCCCC* → *7kh7k9#qwertq*
• 9 789876 12345 7 → *ABBABA#CCCCCC* → *7kl8j6#qwertu*

The above examples contain all symbols, try them.

Standard

For detailed technical information download the GS1 General Specifications.

If you need other barcode fonts, just check my other FontStructions

This is a true barcode font, it actually works with most (if not all) readers (mobile and handheld scanners).

All characters are included. Use * as start/stop character.

Please leave a comment, how you used the font. It would be interesting to see whether there is demand.

Trivia: Although it is correct that 3 of the 9 stripes are wide, the name of the symbology is not called Code 3 of 9. In the original design 39 characters were possible to encode.