Common Barcoding Problems

 

Good practices and adhering to the generic barcode printing guidelines will alliviate most of the issues that can occur, but below are illustrations of some of the issues that you might encounter:

 

 

Barcodes that have been printed using incorrect colour combinations, often red bars on a pale background which will not scan.

 

Reversed out images where the bars are white against a coloured background, are again not scanable.

 

Missing bars (when printing in picket fence) or horizontal white lines crossingthe bar code (when printing in ladder)

because of faulty printheads being used for on demand printing.

  Printing barcodes that are either too large or too small.
  Labels that are peeling off as a result of extremes of heat, label degradation through age or simply the wrong adhesive for the application.
  Labels tahat have been applied with creases in them will distort the barcode and make it unreadable.
  Barcodes should always be printed in picket fence format and in the correct orientation.
  Barcodes printed too close to the edge of the label can result in parts not being printed, thus unreadable.
  Show through of the barcode on consumer units through the outer packaging.