EAN-13 or UPC-A: Which Barcode Does Your Product Need?
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If you are putting a product on a shop shelf or listing it with a marketplace, you will be asked for a barcode. For retail products that almost always means EAN-13 or UPC-A. The two are closely related, and choosing between them mostly depends on where you sell.
The short answer
UPC-A has 12 digits and is the standard in the United States and Canada. EAN-13 has 13 digits and is used in most other countries.
The two belong to the same numbering system. A UPC-A number written with a zero in front is a valid EAN-13, and modern scanners read both. If you already have one type, you rarely need to buy the other.
Where the number comes from
A barcode is only a picture of a number. For retail, that number must be unique to your product worldwide, and uniqueness is managed by GS1, which licenses number ranges to companies through its national offices.
The Barcode Generator draws the bars for a number you already have. It does not issue numbers. Inventing a number or copying one from another product leads to clashes at the till and to rejected listings.
The check digit
The last digit of an EAN-13 or UPC-A is calculated from the others. A scanner repeats the calculation and rejects the read if the result does not match, which catches misreads and typing mistakes.
You can enter the number without the last digit, 12 digits for EAN-13 or 11 for UPC-A, and the tool adds the check digit. If you enter the full number and the last digit is wrong, the tool tells you.
Barcodes that are not for the till
For warehouse shelves, asset tags or order numbers that only your own systems read, you do not need a GS1 number. Code 128 is compact and accepts letters, digits and symbols. Code 39 is older and wider, but some equipment still expects it; it takes capital letters, digits and a few symbols.
Printing a barcode that scans
At its standard size an EAN-13 symbol is about 37 mm wide and 26 mm high. It can be printed from 80% to 200% of that size. Going smaller than 80% is the most common reason a barcode fails to scan.
Leave blank space to the left and right of the bars. Scanners need these quiet zones to find where the code starts and ends.
Print dark bars on a light background. Black on white is the safest. Red bars do not work, because scanners use red light and cannot see them.
Use the SVG download for print, since it stays sharp at any size, and scan a test print before a full production run.