Glossary

ASCII

The character set and code described in American National Standard Code for Information Interchange, ANSI X3.4-1977. Each ASCII character is encoded with seven bits.

Barcode string

A text string which becomes a bar code after being formatted with a barcode font. A barcode usually adds start/stop characters, as well as checksum characters to the data input. Consequently you can not just format the data with the font to create a valid barcode. In data matrix fontware, it is a synonym for encoder results.

Check character

Synonymous to “Check digit”.

Code 39

Code 39 (also known as USS Code 39, Code 3 of 9) is the first alpha-numeric symbology developed to be used in non-retail environment. It is widely used to code alphanumeric information, such as the model number etc. It is designed to encode 26 upper case letters, 10 digits and 7 special characters.

Code 39 Full ASCII

Also known as Code 39 extended. An extension to normal code 39 standard. In code 39 Full ASCII, two normal characters are combined to encode a character outside the 43 native character set. The resulted barcode is compatible with a normal code 39. Scanners must be configured to the Full ASCIImode in order to give the correct results.

HIBC

Acronym for Health Industry Bar Code. A bar code format based on code 3 of 9 adopted by health industry.

LPD/LPR

Stands for Line Printer Daemon/Line Printer Remote, a printer protocol that uses TCP/IP to establish connections between printers and computers on a network. The LPD software runs on the server side and LPR runs on the client side. The LPR client sends the print request to the IP address of the LPD printer/server.

Mil

One one-thousandth of an inch (0.001")

PCL

Acronym for Printer Control Language, the page description language (PDL) developed by Hewlett Packard and used in many of their laser and ink-jet printers.

SFP

SFP stands from Soft Font Portrait. SFP is the file extension for PCL bitmap font files.

SFT

SFP stands from Soft Font TrueType. SFT is the file extension for PCL-5 scalable font files. Some conventions use extension SFS, which stands for Soft Font Scalable.

Start/Stop character

A special bar/space pattern that provides the scanner with start and stop reading instructions as well as scanning direction indicator. Most linear symbologies require start/stop characters included in the barcode.

X dimension

The nominal width dimension of the narrowest element in the bar code - bar or space.