Label tools / Barcode generator
Barcode generator
Enter the number GS1 gave you, pick a size, and download the barcode as a vector PDF or SVG for your label design, or as a PNG. It is drawn to the GS1 General Specifications: the widths of the bars and spaces, the blank margins a scanner needs, the bar height for the size and the digits underneath. Free, with no account. The number itself has to come from GS1: this page never makes one up.
Make your barcode
Place it in your design at 100 %: resizing it there changes the width of its bars, and below 80 % it is smaller than GS1 allows. The white margin is part of the barcode; keep other print out of it. To put it on a label made here, use the Barcode option in any of the label tools.
How it is drawn
- The size is the width of the narrowest bar, which GS1 calls the X-dimension: 0.264 to 0.660 mm for a barcode scanned at a shop's till, 80 to 200 % of the standard 0.330 mm. At 100 % the barcode is 37.29 mm wide with its margins and 25.93 mm tall with its digits.
- The bars are never shortened. Their height grows with the size, 22.85 mm at 100 % and 18.28 mm at 80 %, and GS1 does not allow cutting them below that.
- The margins are part of the barcode. A scanner needs a blank space either side: 11 times the narrowest bar's width on the left of an EAN-13 and 7 on the right, 9 each side of a UPC-A. The file includes them on a white background, and the ">" marks where an EAN-13's right margin ends.
- Every digit is printed under the bars, as GS1 requires. An EAN-13's first digit sits in its left margin; a UPC-A's first and last digits are printed smaller, outside the tall guard bars.
- The fine detail follows the specification too. In the digits 1, 2, 7 and 8, the bars are narrowed or widened by a thirteenth of the narrowest bar's width, as GS1's Table 5-10 sets out, and the barcode's pattern matches GS1's own example drawings bar for bar.
Printing it
- Dark bars on a light background. Black on white is the safe choice. Scanners read with red light, so bars in red and other warm colours can lose their contrast, and white bars printed on a dark background cannot be read.
- On a round jar or bottle, a barcode with upright bars wraps around the curve and its ends can disappear from a scanner's view. GS1's Table 6-1 allows a 100 % barcode that way only on a container at least 60 mm across. On a narrower one, turn the barcode on its side, so that the bars run around the container.
- Scan it before a print run. A barcode app on a phone should read back exactly your number. It will not show your product's details: the number is not linked to scanning apps, and that is normal.
Whether you need a barcode at all, and where the number comes from, is on do you need a barcode to sell handmade products?
Common questions
Can I make up my own barcode number?
No. A number that has not been licensed to you by GS1 may already belong to another company's product, and shops and marketplaces check numbers against GS1's records. This page encodes the number you enter and never supplies one; the page on whether you need a barcode explains where yours comes from.
Should I choose EAN-13 or UPC-A?
Whichever your number is. A 13-digit number is printed as an EAN-13, the barcode used across most of the world. A 12-digit number is a UPC-A, the barcode used in the United States and Canada, and a scanner reads it as the same number with a 0 in front.
What size should I print it?
100 % (37.29 × 25.93 mm with its margins and digits) if the label has room; a bigger barcode is easier to scan. The smallest GS1 allows at a shop's till is 80 % (29.83 × 20.74 mm). Keep the full height at any size: GS1 does not allow the bars to be cut shorter.
Can I print it in colour?
Dark bars on a light background, with strong contrast. Black on white is the safe choice. Scanners read with red light, so bars in red and other warm colours can lose their contrast, and white bars on a dark background cannot be read at all.
Is the PNG as good as the PDF?
For printing, use the PDF or SVG: they are vector files that keep every bar edge exact at any printer resolution. The PNG is 600 dots per inch, for programs that only take pictures; place it at 100 % so the bars keep their width.
Can I put it on my label?
Yes. Each of the label tools has a Barcode option under the label's design: it draws the same barcode at the foot of your label, black on white, and fits the rest of the label above it.
Sources
- GS1 General Specifications, Release 26.0 (January 2026): section 5.2, the EAN/UPC symbology (Tables 5-3, 5-4, 5-5, 5-10 and 5-11; sections 5.2.3 and 5.2.5; Figures 5-23 and 5-24); section 5.12.3, symbol specification table 1 (Table 5-44); section 6.2.3, orientation and curved surfaces (Table 6-1); section 7.9.1, the check digit; Table 1-4, the GS1 Prefixes
- GS1 UK, "Your most asked barcode and standards questions answered" (14 October 2020): the sizes at 100 % and 80 %, and colours
- GS1 US, "Barcode FAQs: GS1 Company Prefix, Barcodes, and Identification": where numbers come from, never altering a barcode, scanning apps