Barcode Generator
Make real EAN-13, UPC-A, EAN-8, Code 128 and Code 39 barcodes, one at a time or hundreds at once, laid out on A4 sheets ready to print.
Free forever, no sign-up and no limits, and this tool installs on its own so you can keep it on your home screen.
Type a product number and a real EAN-13, UPC-A, EAN-8, Code 128 or Code 39 barcode appears, with the check digit worked out for you and the number printed underneath. Paste a whole list instead and the codes are laid out on A4 sheets, 24, 40 or 65 to a page, ready to print and cut. Downloads are PNG for everyday use and SVG for the print shop, with no watermark and no account.
How to use it
- Pick the barcode typeEAN-13 and UPC-A are the ones on retail packaging. Code 128 takes letters as well as digits and suits shelf labels, cartons and internal numbers. Code 39 is the old asset-tag format that almost every scanner still reads.
- Type one value, or paste a listOne code draws as you type. Switch to a list, paste one value per line, up to 200, and choose how many go on each A4 sheet.
- Download or printPNG and SVG for a single code, a PNG per sheet or straight to the printer for a batch.
A number, drawn so a machine can read it
A one-dimensional barcode is not a container for information the way a QR code is. It is a number, or a short string, written in bars of varying width so a beam sweeping across it can recover the digits. That narrow job is exactly why it has survived fifty years of newer ideas: it prints on anything, reads at speed, and needs no more than a strip of white paper. What you get here is that strip, correctly proportioned, with the human readable number underneath so a person can still key it in when the scanner has a bad day.
Sheets, because one label is never the job
Nobody needs a single shelf label. They need forty of them, cut, stuck and finished before lunch. Paste your list, choose 24, 40 or 65 to a page or set your own grid, and every code is scaled to fill its cell with its quiet zones landing on the cell padding, which is the part cheap label software tends to get wrong. The page count is shown before you commit, so 120 codes on 3 sheets is a fact you see rather than a surprise at the printer. Sheets download as a PNG each, or go to the printer directly at A4 with the margins already set.
Where it will not help
It will not give you a retail number. Codes for products sold through shops come from a GS1 company prefix licensed to your business, and this tool draws the symbol rather than issuing the number inside it. It does not make two dimensional codes: for a link, a Wi-Fi network or a long block of text you want a QR code instead. And it cannot promise a particular printer. A barcode that scans on screen can still fail on paper if the toner is low, the label stock is glossy, or the design has been stretched to fit, so print one, scan one, and only then run the batch.
Questions people ask
Which barcode type do I need?
If the code will be scanned at a shop till it has to be EAN-13, or UPC-A in the US and Canada. For anything inside your own four walls, shelf labels, stock bins, equipment tags, Code 128 is the sensible default: it holds letters as well as digits and packs digits two to a symbol, so it stays compact. Code 39 is worth choosing only when an older scanner or an existing system asks for it by name.
What is the check digit, and do I have to work it out?
No, the tool does it. The last digit of an EAN or UPC number is not part of the product identity: it is arithmetic over the digits before it, so a scanner can tell a misread from a real number. Type the 12 digits of an EAN-13 and the thirteenth is added and shown. Type all 13 and it is checked instead, and if the last digit disagrees you are told which digit it should have been rather than being handed a barcode that fails at the till.
Can I make up my own EAN-13 numbers?
The symbol will draw and it will scan perfectly. What you cannot do is invent a number for products sold through retailers: those come from a company prefix that GS1 licenses to your business, and a made-up number may already belong to somebody else's tin of beans. For internal use, stock control and asset tags, invent away.
How many barcodes fit on an A4 sheet?
The presets are 24 (3 across by 8 down), 40 (4 by 10) and 65 (5 by 13), which match the common label sheet counts, plus a custom grid of your own columns and rows. Margins are 10 mm all round with a 2 mm gap between cells. At 65 per sheet the bars come out around 0.28 mm wide, close to the thinnest a retail scanner accepts, so the tool tells you the moment a setting pushes them under the limit.
Will these barcodes actually scan?
Yes, and it is checked rather than claimed. Every release draws each barcode type and then reads the pixels back with a decoder, and the build fails if what comes out is not what went in. The quiet zone, the clear space either side of the bars, is included in every download, because cropping it off is far and away the most common reason a printed code refuses to read.
PNG or SVG?
PNG for labels, spreadsheets, listings and anything going straight to a desktop printer. SVG is vector, so it stays perfectly crisp whatever size it is placed at, which is what a print shop or a designer will ask for. Both are drawn from the same bars, so they are the same code.
How big should a printed barcode be?
An EAN-13 at full size is about 37 mm wide and 26 mm tall, and shrinking it past roughly 80 percent of that is outside what shop equipment is built for. Height matters more than people expect: a code trimmed short gives a handheld scanner less to aim at. Never squash one sideways to fit a space.
Can I make barcodes from a spreadsheet column?
Yes, that is what the list mode is for. Copy the column, paste it in with one value per line, and every row is drawn as a barcode on the sheet with its number printed underneath. It is the usual route from a stock list to a page of shelf labels.