General Purpose Options

Note that some encoders have additional options that are specified in the reference page for the symbology.

inkspread

Amount by which to reduce the bar widths to compensate for inkspread, in points.

• Negative values will increase the bar width
• Using too large values will have an undesired effect

Example - Code 39 for a printer with very runny ink

0 0 moveto (TEZ) (inkspread=0.3) code39 barcode

height

Height of longest bar, in inches.

Example - For a 0.5 inch tall EAN-13

0 0 moveto (TEZ) (includetext height=0.5) ean13 barcode

width

Stretch the symbol to precisely this width, in inches.

• This parameter literally stretches the symbol and text to the desired width which will may distort the human readable text. For information about resizing symbols read the guide to resizing symbols

Example - For a 2 inch wide Code 93 symbol

0 0 moveto (TERRY) (width=2) code93 barcode

includetext

Show human readable text for data in symbol.

• If a character in the data does not have a printable representation then it is not displayed

Example - Display the text encoded in this Code 39 symbol

0 0 moveto (SEE ME) (includetext) code39 barcode

includecheck

Generate check digit(s), where relevant.

Example - Calculate the optional checksum of this Code 93 symbol

0 0 moveto (CHECK ME OUT) (includecheck) code93 barcode

includecheckintext:

Show the calculated check digit in the human readable text.

• For symbologies where the check digit is not manditory, this option must be used in combination with includecheck
• If any part of the checksum does not have a printable representation then that part is not displayed

Example - Display the check digit of this RM4SCC

0 0 moveto (LE28HS9Z) (includecheckintext) royalmail barcode

textfont, textsize, textxoffset, textyoffset

Font name for text, size and offset of the text in points relative to its default position.

• Font name must be the literal name of a PostScript available font
• These options must be used in combination with the includetext option

Example - Customise the human readable text of this PostNet symbol

0 0 moveto (801221905) (includetext textfont=Times textsize=8 texty=-6) postnet barcode

textxalign, textyalign

Overrides the default positioning algorithm for the text.

• By default (in the absence of textxalign or textyalign), each character of text is placed immediately below the corresponding modules where this is possible
• Where there isn't such a direct relationship then the default is to position the text centrally beneath the symbol.
• The textxalign is used to specify where to horizontally position the text, either offleft, left, center, right, offright
• The textyalign is used to specify where to vertically position the text, either below, center, above
  

showborder, borderwidth, borderleft, borderright, bordertop, borderbottom

Display a border around the symbol of the specified width with the specified margin gap, in points.

Example - Display a customised border around this codabar symbol

0 0 moveto (A3+14-63B) (includetext showborder borderwidth=2 borderbottom=8) rationalizedCodabar barcode

textcolor, barcolor, backgroundcolor, bordercolor

Color of the respective component, either as a hex RRGGBB value or a hex CCMMYYKK value.

Example - Colorized Code 11 symbol using the RGB colour space
          0 0 moveto (0123456789) (includetext barcolor=AA0000 textcolor=008888 backgroundcolor=FFFF60 showborder bordercolor=0000FF) code11 barcode

Example - Colorized Code 11 symbol using the CMYK colour space

0 0 moveto (0123456789) (includetext barcolor=AA000000 textcolor=00888844 backgroundcolor=CCCC6000 showborder bordercolor=00FF0088) code11 barcode 

guardwhitespace, guardwidth, guardheight

Display whitespace guards or the specified width and height, in points. (Most useful for EANs).

• Usually the encoder specific default value of guardwidth and guardheight are sufficient

Example - ISBN-13 with tiny whitespace guard

0 0 moveto (978-1-873671-00) (includetext guardwhitespace guardwidth=3 guardheight=3) isbn barcode

guardleftpos, guardrightpos, guardleftypos, guardrightypos

Amount of whitespace to guard to left and right of the symbol and vertical position of the guard symbols, in points.

• The encoder specific default value of each of these parameters is normally sufficent

Example - EAN-8 with very mangled whitespace guards

0 0 moveto (01335583) (includetext guardwhitespace guardleftpos=14 guardrightpos=7 guardleftypos=15 guardrightypos=4) ean8 barcode