UPC Bar Code
UPC Bar Code
The 12-digit universal product code (UPC) is in widespread use on items for sale in the United States and many other countries. This Demonstration is designed to illustrate how the UPC number is encoded into the familiar looking bars seen on packaging. When the "show details" option is selected, guide lines appear. These guide lines show that each digit in the UPC number is represented by a sequence of seven bars. The bar code begins and ends with a 3-bar "guard bars" pattern and the bar code is separated into two parts by the 5-digit "center bars". Moving the cursor over the UPC number will show what the various parts of the number represent, and moving the cursor over the individual digits/spaces above the bar code will show a large graphic of the coding of those symbols.