Barcodes are considered simply as a series of stripes on a light background that is able to be scanned and read directly into computer. The bars and spaces are the main elements in a barcode. These should be of consistent and proportional thickness and thinness. These are printed on a barcode label by a barcode printer. The symbology must be accurately printed on the label. Many high quality printers are produced by various companies that include Zebra printers, SATO printers, EPSON printers and many others.
The symbologies of barcodes are mostly linear and are considered as one-dimensional barcodes. However, there is an advancement in technology that has given rise to two-dimensional barcode system. As only one dimension that is the width of the bars and spaces is to be considered in the linear symbols, these are termed as one-dimensional barcodes. Where as in a two-dimensional barcode, data is encoded from both the height and width of the symbol. Hence the amount of data that is present in a symbol is greater in two-dimensional barcode when compared to a one-dimensional barcode.
Another important aspect is that the one-dimensional barcode symbols never represent more than a dozen of characters. In two-dimensional barcodes many thousands of alphanumeric characters can be placed in a single symbol. One of the most important advantage of 2D barcodes is that a large amount of data that is read easily and accurately can ride with the item to which it is attached.
The durability of 2D barcodes is much better than that of one-dimensional barcodes. This is one of the most important benefit and amazing concept of 2D barcode system.
As the technology got advanced in 2D barcode system, the need for advanced technology based scanners is also increasing. The cost of 2D scanners was much greater than that of one-dimensional barcode scanners at the time of introduction of 2D barcode system. However, microprocessor developments that have taken place recently helped in bringing down their cost.
Thus there are lot of differences between one-dimensional and two-dimensional barcodes. However, each of them are used based on the requirement.
