Barcode Online Reference
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The popularity of two-dimensional (2D) bar codes has grown tremendously in recent years because of their ability to encode a large amount of data into a very small space. This makes them extremely useful for marking small parts, products and packages. The tradeoff is that 2D bar code scanning equipment is usually more expensive than equipment used to scan linear bar codes.
There are two types of 2D bar codes currently in use: stacked codes and matrix codes. Stacked codes are arranged in horizontal layers to create a multi-row bar code, like Code 49 or Code 16K. Matrix codes are made up of a pattern of cells that can be square, hexagonal or circular in shape, like the MaxiCode symbology.
Yet another type of bar code that is placed under the 2D category is the composite symbol. With composite bar codes, two different symbols that contain linked data are actually printed together in close proximity to each other. The “host” symbol is usually a linear bar code and the other symbol is either a multi-row or matrix bar code. An example of this type of bar code would be the EAN/UCC and RSS-14 symbology.
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