News

Version 6.2.0 of the Barcode Reader Toolkit is now available. Highlights in this version are improved performance and regular expression matching. There have also been improvements in accuracy for Code 25, Code 128 and Code 39 barcodes.

1. Code 39 Recognition. Further enhancements have been made to Code 39 recognition: If the Code39Checksum property is set to True then the toolkit will only report Code 39 barcodes where the last character is a valid checksum for the rest of the string. If the ExtendedCode39 property is set to True then the toolkit will attempt to interpret the barcode in the Code 39 Extended symbol set.
2. Code 25 Recognition. The Code 25 recognition module has been modified to allow for barcodes where the width of a module for a bar may be different to that of a space.
3. Regular Expression Matching. The Pattern property now allows applications to specify a regular expression that all reported barcodes must match against. For example, Pattern = “^ABC[0-9]+XYZ$” would match barcodes similar to “ABC123456XYZ”. If the related property called Numeric is set to True then it is the equivalent of setting Pattern to “^[0-9]+$”.
4. Improved Code 128 Recognition. The Code 128 recognition module has been improved to cope with barcodes where the bar widths have been distorted by the process of scanning or faxing.
5. Error Correction. If the ErrorCorrection property is set to True then the toolkit will attempt to find the best match for a barcode character where it is practical to do so. This currently only applies to Code 39 barcodes, but will be extended to other types in the future.
6. Minimum Space Bar Width. The MinSpaceBarWidth property specifies the smallest width of a space in a barcode. Any spaces smaller than this width will be ignored by the toolkit. This is very useful when a scanned image contains lots of white dots in the black bars. Setting the property to a value of 2 or 3 can often result in a reliable read for such images.
7. Control over PDF Conversion. Where the PDF Extension to the toolkit is installed, it is now possible to control the resolution and color depth of the image created from the PDF file, and used to locate the barcodes. This allows applications to control the speed and accuracy of the process. The PdfBpp property controls the number of bits-per-pixel of the converted image (1, 8 or 24) and PdfDpi controls the number of dots per inch of the converted image. Lower values for either property lead to an increase in speed.
8. Default value of LineJump property has been changed from 9 to 1.
9. Improvement in speed Optimization in the Code 25, Code 39 and Code 128 module has given a significant improvement in speed.