UPC Barcodes:What are they all about

A UPC (Universal Product Code) code is a symbol printed on the back side of nearly every product. It consists of two parts

1. A machine readable Barcode

2. A set of 12 digit legal number

UPC serves as an aid in making the identification of a product easy. The scanning of products and identification regarding features, item size, brand name and colour while checkout becomes smooth. It is also helpful in tracking inventory within a warehouse.

An important question arises here, what is the difference between a barcode and a UPC, from the points mentioned above, a barcode is the machine readable part whereas the UPC code is the numerical part. To illustrate this, let us take an example-

In the given picture, there is a series of vertical black lines and below the lines there are numbers. So, this is a UPC with its two components a bar code and a UPC code.

A barcode is any code which can be converted into a bar styled code. Thus, any UPC/EAN code can be converted into a Barcode. We use Barcodes to represent UPC/EAN codes so that instead of entering the code manually, the cashier during checkout would simply scan the barcode, this makes the process hassle and error free.

EAN stands for European Article number, it is same as the UPC, except it has a single digit country code prefixed to it, thus making it 13 digits long.If the customer base of a product is based in US, then UPC code should be used because many old barcode readers don’t recognize an EAN code yet. However if the product is to be sold internationally then EAN code would work. If you are still wondering where to buy UPC codes then let me tell you our website is the Best place to buy UPC codes.