Bar codes have become widely popular
because of their reading speed, accuracy, and superior
functionality characteristics.
As bar codes became popular and their
convenience universally recognized, the market began to call
for codes capable of storing more information, more
character types, and that could be printed in a smaller
space.
As a result, various efforts were made to
increase the amount of information stored by bar codes, such
as increasing the number of bar code digits or laying out
multiple bar codes.
However, these improvements also caused
problems such as enlarging the bar code area, complicating
reading operations, and increasing printing cost.
2D Code emerged in response to these needs
and problems.
Multiple bar code layout
2D Code with stacked bar codes
(stacked bar code type)
2D Code (matrix type)
2D Code is also progressing from the
stacked bar code method (that stacks bar codes), to the
increased information density matrix method.
About QR code
QR Code is a kind of 2-D (two-dimensional)
symbology developed by Denso Wave (a division of Denso
Corporation at the time) and released in 1994 with the
primary aim of being a symbol that is easily interpreted
by scanner equipment.
QR Code (2D Code) contains information
in both the vertical and horizontal directions, whereas
a bar code contains data in one direction only. QR Code
holds a considerably greater volume of information than a
bar code.
Typical 2D code
In addition to QR Code, other kinds of
2D Code have been developed. Below is a table of typical 2D
Code and their features.
QR Code
PDF417
DataMatrix
Maxi Code
Developer(country)
DENSO(Japan)
Symbol Technologies
(USA)
RVSI Acuity CiMatrix
(USA)
UPS (USA)
Type
Matrix
Stacked Bar Code
Matrix
Matrix
Data capacity
Numeric
7,089
2,710
3,116
138
Alphanumeric
4,296
1,850
2,355
93
Binary
2,953
1,018
1,556
Kanji
1,817
554
778
Main
features
Large capacity,
small printout size
High speed scan
Large capacity
Small printout size
High speed scan
Main
usages
All categories
OA
FA
Logistics
Standardization
AIM International
JIS
ISO
AIM International
ISO
AIM International
ISO
AIM International
ISO
* This page has been translated. For the original go here
