#118 PDF417 with croatian characters - not working

[Željko Kovačević]

Hello,

I'm not sure if I am doing something wrong here or it's simply not possible by using this library. Anyways, I am trying to create PDF417 barcode that includes croatian characters "čćžšđČĆŽŠĐ" by using command line tool:

C:\zint\2018-04-06>zint -o pdf417.png -b 55 -d "čćžšđČĆŽŠĐ"
Warning 222: Encoded data includes ECI

When reading generated file (pdf417.png) using a barcode scanner it cannot read these characters but shows some unreadable characters.

PDF417 is very important here in Croatia as it is a standard barcode for bank slips.
Thanks!
Željko

[Željko Kovačević]

I solved this by using --binary switch and UTF-8 encoded file as input.

[Harald Oehlmann]

Zelko,

thank you for the message.

Zint informs you, that an ECI information was encoded. This includes information to the bar code reader, that non-ASCII characters are contained and gives the Codepage.

I suppose, the issue is, that your bar code reader only supports ASCII-characters and do not support any non-ASCII.

Often, Bar Code readers or their periphery do not support ECI information.
The solution is then to use binary data where you know the used encoding (Examples: ISO-Latin-2 or utf-8).

I personally sell a PC software (ScanLink) which supports ECI with ECI-compöliant scanners.
I may check your code, if you pass the image.

Usage questions like that are better discussed in the mailing list.
Thats why I will close the ticket. Nevertheless, the discussion on the ticket is still open.

Thank you and best regards,
Harald

[Harald Oehlmann]

Zelko,

thank you for the 2nd message.

Using binary means, that your application is not using ECI and the codepage is fixed implicitly within the application.

I hope you enjoy zint.

Good work, thank you,
Harald