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Introduction
EAN is designed by the International Article Numbering
Association (EAN) in Europe. It is an extension to UPC-A
to include the country information. The only difference between UPC-A
and EAN-13 is that the number system in UPC-A is a single digit from
0 through 9 whereas an EAN-13 number system consists of two digits
ranging form 00 to 99.
EAN-13 encodes 12 digits of numeric data along with a trailing
check digit, for a total of 13 digits of barcode data.
Structure of an EAN number
An EAN-13 number consists of four areas: (1) The number System;
(2)The manufacturer code; (3) the product code; (4)The check digit.
Normally the number system digit is printed to the left of the
barcode, and the check digit to the right. The manufacturer and
product codes are printed just below the barcode, separated by the
guard bar.
Number System. The number system is the first two digits
in the EAN number to identify the country/region numbering
authority. The number system list is maintained by EAN organization
(http://www.ean-int.org).
Manufacturer Code. The manufacturer code is a unique code
assigned to each manufacturer by the numbering authority indicated
by the number system code. All products produced by a given company
will use the same manufacturer code.
EAN uses what is called "variable-length manufacturer
codes." Assigning fixed-length 5-digit manufacturer codes, as
the UCC has done until recently, means that each manufacturer can
have up to 99,999 product codes--and many manufacturers don't have
that many products, which means hundreds or even thousands of
potential product codes are being wasted on manufacturers that only
have a few products. Thus if a potential manufacturer knows that it
is only going to produce a few products, EAN may issue it a longer
manufacturer code, leaving less space for the product code. This
results in more efficient use of the available manufacturer and
product codes. Product Code: The product code is a unique code
assigned by the manufacturer.
Product Code. The product code is assigned by the
manufacturer. The product code immediately follows manufacturer
code. The total length of manufacturer code plus product code must
be exact 10 digits.
Check Digit: The check digit is used to verify that the
barcode is generated or scanned correctly. The check digit is
calculated based on the rest of the barcode digits.
The nominal X dimension is 13 mils. The printable X dimension
ranges from 10.4 to 24 mils.
Variants
JAN: Japan's numbering system is 49. The EAN numbers with
numbering system 49 are called JAN.
Check Digit Calculation
EAN check digit is calculated using standard Mod10 method. Here
outlines the steps to calculate EAN-13 check digit:
- From the right to left, start with odd position, assign the
odd/even position to each digit.
- Sum all digits in odd position and multiply the result by 3.
- Sum all digits in even position.
- Sum the results of step 3 and step 4.
- divide the result of step 4 by 10. The check digit is the
number which adds the remainder to 10.
Encoding
A EAN-13 symbol can be divided into two halves, each consisting
of six digits separated by a center guard bar pattern. The whole
symbol is surrounded by two guard bar patterns. The same digit has
different encoding depends whether it is in the left halve or in the
right halve. The encoding pattern for digits in the left halve
always starts with a space while the one for digits in the right
halve always start with a bar and ends with a space.
A EAN-13 symbol has the following structure:
- Start guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.
- Left halve, six digits encoded using the encoding schema A or
B;
- Center guard bars, with a pattern space+bar+space+bar+space.
- Right halve, six digits encoded using the encoding schema C.
- Stop guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.
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