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Example:

Code 3 of 9 is the most popular barcode for encoding alpha-numeric characters.

Key features:

• 2 different width of bar/space.
• Symbol set contains 43 characters: A-Z, 0-9, and -, ., *, $, /, +, %, SPACE.
• Each character is made up of 5 bars and 4 spaces with 3 wide bars/spaces and 6 narrow bars/spaces.
• There is a space between each character.
• The first and last character should always be the same (the * character)
• The first and last 5 black bars should always follow the pattern: narrow, narrow, wide, wide, narrow.
• The number of black bars should be divisible by 5.
• Optional checksum character modulus 43.
• Extended Code 39 uses 2 normal characters to represent one extended character, giving a 128-character symbol set.

Specification:

Symbol	Narrow/Wide Pattern	Visual Pattern	Checksum Value
*	NWNNWNWNN		N/A
0	NNNWWNWNN		0
1	WNNWNNNNW		1
2	NNWWNNNNW		2
3	WNWWNNNNN		3
4	NNNWWNNNW		4
5	WNNWWNNNN		5
6	NNWWWNNNN		6
7	NNNWNNWNW		7
8	WNNWNNWNN		8
9	NNWWNNWNN		9
A	WNNNNWNNW		10
B	NNWNNWNNW		11
C	WNWNNWNNN		12
D	NNNNWWNNW		13
E	WNNNWWNNN		14
F	NNWNWWNNN		15
G	NNNNNWWNW		16
H	WNNNNWWNN		17
I	NNWNNWWNN		18
J	NNNNWWWNN		19
K	WNNNNNNWW		20
L	NNWNNNNWW		21
M	WNWNNNNWN		22
N	NNNNWNNWW		23
O	WNNNWNNWN		24
P	NNWNWNNWN		25
Q	NNNNNNWWW		26
R	WNNNNNWWN		27
S	NNWNNNWWN		28
T	NNNNWNWWN		29
U	WWNNNNNNW		30
V	NWWNNNNNW		31
W	WWWNNNNNN		32
X	NWNNWNNNW		33
Y	WWNNWNNNN		34
Z	NWWNWNNNN		35
–	NWNNNNWNW		36
.	WWNNNNWNN		37
SPACE	NWWNNNWNN		38
$	NWNWNWNNN		39
/	NWNWNNNWN		40
+	NWNNNWNWN		41
%	NNNWNWNWN		42

Checksum Calculation:

The checksum is modulus 43 sum of all the checksum values from the table above.

For example, if you are encoding the string ABCD1234 then the checksum values will be 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 56.

56 mod 43 = 13. So the checksum character should be D.

Extended Code 39

The Code 39 character set can be extended to a full set of ASCII characters by using 1 or 2 normal characters for each character in the extended set.

Note that a barcode reader cannot automatically determine whether a barcode is encoded normally or in the extended set.

The following table shows how to encode the full set of ASCII characters: