Overview

Code 128 is a arbitrarily long, very high density symbology that can be used to encode 128 character ASCII.

Invokation

• Code 128 has three alphabets A, B and C each containing 106 characters.

  • Alphabet A includes the special ASCII characters, e.g. NUL, ACK, etc.
  • Alphabet B includes all general purpose characters
  • Alphabet C is for double density numeric data
• Non-printable/typable characters can be entered as their escaped ordinal values, e.g. ^102 for FNC 1, etc.
• If you want to encode ^ in your data you need to be escape it as ^062.
• The data must begin with a start character ^103, ^104 or ^105 to denote the initial alphabet A, B or C, respectively
• You can switch the working alphabet within the data using characters ^101, ^100 and ^099 for A, B and C, respectively
• When using alphabet C you must enter digits in pairs. For an odd number of digits you must switch to alphabet A or B to capture the stray digit
• The manditory mod 103 check digit is calculated automatically

Example Code 128

0 0 moveto (^104Count^0990123456789^101!) (includetext) code128

EAN-128

An EAN-128 (UCC-128) is encoded using Code 128 and has an start character (^103, ^104 or ^105) immediately followed by an FNC 1 symbol (^102). It then contains a concatinated list of Application Identifier (AI) fields. Except for the fixed-width fields listed in the table below, each variable-width field must be distinguished from the following field using an FNC 1 symbol (^102).

Example EAN-128

To represent the data: (01) 05015612003078 (15) 080826 (21) 84736154 (10) 916

0 0 moveto (^105^1020105015612003078150808262184736154^1021091^1006) (includetext) code128 barcode

Note the switch to alphabet B (^106) in order to encode the final unpaired digit 6.
Note also the interfield FNC 1 (^102) to delimit the end of the variable-width AI (21) field.

Code 128 Character Table

Value Code A Code B Code C
----- ------ ------ ------
0     SP     SP     00
1     !      !      01
2     "      "      02
3     #      #      03
4     $      $      04
5     %      %      05
6     &      &      06
7     '      '      07
8     (      (      08
9     )      )      09
10    *      *      10
11    +      +      11
12    ,      ,      12
13    -      -      13
14    .      .      14
15    /      /      15
16    0      0      16
17    1      1      17
18    2      2      18
19    3      3      19
20    4      4      20
21    5      5      21
22    6      6      22
23    7      7      23
24    8      8      24
25    9      9      25
26    :      :      26
27    ;      ;      27
28    <      <      28
29    =      =      29
30    >      >      30
31    ?      ?      31
32    @      @      32
33    A      A      33
34    B      B      34
35    C      C      35
36    D      D      36
37    E      E      37
38    F      F      38
39    G      G      39
40    H      H      40
41    I      I      41
42    J      J      42
43    K      K      43
44    L      L      44
45    M      M      45
46    N      N      46
47    O      O      47
48    P      P      48
49    Q      Q      49
50    R      R      50
51    S      S      51
52    T      T      52
53    U      U      53
54    V      V      54
55    W      W      55
56    X      X      56
57    Y      Y      57
58    Z      Z      58
59    [      [      59
60    \      \      60
61    ]      ]      61
62    ^      ^      62
63    _      _      63
64    NUL    '      64
65    SOH    a      65
66    STX    b      66
67    ETX    c      67
68    EOT    d      68
69    ENQ    e      69
70    ACK    f      70
71    BEL    g      71
72    BS     h      72
73    HT     i      73
74    LF     j      74
75    VT     k      75
76    FF     l      76
77    CR     m      77
78    SO     n      78
79    SI     o      79
80    DLE    p      80
81    DC1    q      81
82    DC2    r      82
83    DC3    s      83
84    DC4    t      84
85    NAK    u      85
86    SYN    v      86
87    ETB    w      87
88    CAN    x      88
89    EM     y      89
90    SUB    z      90
91    ESC    {      91
92    FS     |      92
93    GS     }      93
94    RS     ~      94
95    US     DEL    95

96    FNC 3  FNC 3  96
97    FNC 2  FNC 2  97
98    SHIFT  SHIFT  98
99    CODE C CODE C 99
100   CODE B FNC 4  CODE B
101   FNC 4  CODE A CODE A
102   FNC 1  FNC 1  FNC 1

103    START (Code A)
104    START (Code B)
105    START (Code C)

Fixed Width EAN-128 Application Identifiers

This table of all fixed field width Application Identifiers shows the two-digit AI prefixes alongside the number of remaining digits to the end of their field.

AI Prefix Remainder
--------- ---------
00        18
01        14
02        14
03        14
04        16
11        6
12        6
13        6
14        6
15        6
16        6
17        6
18        6
19        6
20        2
31        8
32        8
33        8
34        8
35        8
36        8
41        14