#25 Code128 barcode cannot be read by Datalogic barcode scanner

[Ziyaad Eydatoula]

Hi,
eCircle is having an issue with the licensed barcode generator we are using from Barcode4j. Please see below specification of the issue.
The Code128 (Auto) barcodes generated by our tool cannot be read by a customer.

Example of barcodes readable by the customer :
http://barcode-coder.com/fr/generateur-de-code-barres-en-ligne-2.html (attached file “Barcode test 0.png)
http://barcode.tec-it.com/ (attached files “Code128 Auto 150dpi.png”)
(both with default settings for Code128 are OK with the customer)
Example of barcode generated by our tool, not readable by the customer :
Attached file : « Code128 généré par outil DMC.png »
HTML code tried :
http://[domain.com]/barcode?type=code128&msg=927152011081578&height=25&width=140&mw=0.3&wf=2&qz=disable&hrp=bottom&fmt=jpg&hrsize=12pt&hrfont=Arial&res=120&gray=true
http://[domain.com]/barcode?type=code128&msg=927152011081578&height=25&width=140&mw=0.3&wf=2&qz=disable&hrp=bottom&fmt=jpg&hrsize=12pt&hrfont=Arial&res=120
And many others, with settings modified

I recommended the team to play with the resolution and the quiet zone size of the barcode, but it's never working on the customer side..
Information coming from the customer:
- Barcode reader the customer is using : “DATALOGIC QuickScan L QD 2300 Barcode scanner”
- Application used by the customer to generate Code128 on their side : barcodes “test” are checked on free online generators (see above) and provided by their billing system Winstore (Cylande).
- Number of digit on barcodes used in their shops :
Goods : 13 digits
Loyalty card : 11 digits
Coupon sponsorship (as used in the mails) : 15 digits
Do you have any idea what can be wrong here?
Is there an incompatibility somewhere?
On my side, I can read the code bar generated by our tool with a smartphone app.
But of course the customer is using "real" scanners..
Can you please let us know what the issue here is?
Please let us know if you need any more info. This is a CRITICAL issue and we would appreciate a swift response.
Thanks,
Zi

[Jeremias Märki]

I'm sorry for the late answer. I'm not checking the mail account where this came in very often lately. Please take a look at http://barcode4j.sourceforge.net/troubleshooting.html. There are two major problems with the generator URLs you posted:

• "mw=0.3" was specified which won't produce consistent bar widths at 120 dpi. Following the troubleshooting page, you should specify "mw=0.01666in" which is equivalent to 2 / 120 = 0.01666. "2" because that makes the narrow bar exactly 2 pixels wide which is probably best since the human-readable part is relatively long in your case.
• Don't use JPG as output format. It's a lossy image format and barcode readers love maximum contrast. PNG is much much better for barcodes in general. So, I suggest you do "fmt=png"

HTH