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Code-128 doesn’t support Latin-1 characters (characters above ASCII)

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Hi,

When trying to encode the data “öäü” (Hexadecimal F6 E4 FC of Latin-1) via Code-128 using the .NET Forms Control with the following code …
Bitmap outputImage;
using (var barcode = new Barcode (true))
{
barcode.DoPaint = false;
barcode.SymbologyID = Barcode.Symbologies.Code128;
barcode.ShowText = false;
barcode.DataToEncode = "öäü";

barcode.Resolution = Barcode.Resolutions.Custom;
barcode.ResolutionCustomDPI = "254";
barcode.XDimensionCM = "0.0301";
barcode.NarrowToWideRatio = "1.01";

barcode.BearerBarHorizontal = "0";
barcode.BearerBarVertical = "0";

barcode.LeftMarginCM = (10f * 0.03f + 0.0001f).ToString ();
barcode.TopMarginCM = "0";

barcode.Code128Set = Barcode.Code128CharacterSets.Auto;
barcode.ApplyTilde = false;

barcode.DoPaint = true;
outputImage = (Bitmap)barcode.BMPPicture.Clone ();
}

…we get the following barcode:

This barcode consists of a Start Pattern “B” and a Stop Pattern, and no data code words or error correction code words.
This is unexpected since the Code-128 Standard clearly supports the use of characters of Latin-1.
The expectation would look like this:

This is a barcode that can be read using several of our hand scanners.
The code words it contains are the following: (separated by ‘|’)
Start-Character “B” | FNC4 | 86 | FNC4 | 68 | FNC4 | 92 | Stop-Character

What we would need is complete support of Latin-1 as stated in the code-128 standard using the FNC4 codeword.

Kind regards,
Roman Brandstetter

04-03-12 11.9 year(s) ago

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Tim	Best Answer Roman, The code 128 standard can only support the first 128 characters in the ASCII table. This is actually where it gets its name. :) However, I did find a way to work around it. To encode the same data set the Code128Set property to B and DataToEncode to "ÈvÈdÈ\|" barcode.Code128Set = Barcode.Code128CharacterSets.B; barcode.DataToEncode = "ÈvÈdÈ\|" It looks like the sample barcode is doing this breakdown for you since each of those characters is two code words. Posted 11.9 year(s) ago (0) (0) Report Abuse

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Other Answers (6)

Tim

Thank you for the update Roman,

Concerning the permanent shift issue, I have not been able to recreate the problem.
Both barcodes in your last response scanned with the same value, "öäü".
This may be a scanner setting issue. I was able to get the same result using both the HHP 4600g and SC7-2D barcode scanners.

I will look at the human-readable and see what we can do about getting this in our next release.

Posted 11.9 year(s) ago

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DocumentPartner

Hi,

Finally...
This would work except for two minor issues.
Using Codeset B it is then only possible to encode values 0x1F-0x5F, 0x60-0x7F, 0xA0-0xDF, and 0xE0-0xFF of all the values from 0-0xFF
That would be okay since that is all the printable characters of Latin-1.
I assume this would work with CodeSet A too, but it could be problematic with automatic mode.
The only problem is that showing the text under the barcode looks like this:

Also I would expect that the value 'ÈÈvd|' would give me a barcode that decodes to the same value.
But this does not work out as expected as the permanent mode shift to the 128+ character set does not seem to work.

Kind regards,
Roman Brandstetter

Posted 11.9 year(s) ago

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Tim

Roman,

I believe we are saying the same thing.
The code snippet sent in my last response does exactly that, it uses the FNC4 as a shift character and creates an identical barcode as the sample you provided. Even though the data underneath looks different.
barcode.Code128Set = Barcode.Code128CharacterSets.B;
barcode.DataToEncode = "ÈvÈdÈ|"

The È is the FNC4 shift character in our library, and this can only be used in either code set A or B. I choose B because it encodes the lowercase characters as is, whereas set A encodes lowercase characters as special functions.

When using the string "ÈvÈdÈ|" this scanned correctly as "öäü".
Please give this a try and let me know how this goes.

Posted 11.9 year(s) ago

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DocumentPartner

Hi,

Okay, we need this for encoding mode auto since we don't want to bother with the different modes ourselves as long as we can.
I also don't see if there is a possibility to switch between the modes in the barcode without setting the mode for the whole barcode.

About Code-128 and Latin-1:
That sample barcode with the value "öäü" CAN be decoded using several hand scanners!
Annex F of the ISO standard 15417 is all about Latin-1.
And furthermore page 8 of the standard states in chapter 4.3.4.2 explicitly that code word FNC4 CAN be used to encode byte value from 128 to 255 where the original ISO/IEC 646 value of the corresponding codeword is then increased by 128, resulting in a character in the range of 128 to 255!
This is either possible by using FNC4 as a shift character where only the following character is then increased by 128 or by using a double FNC4 where all following codeword values are increased by 128 unless there is a double sequence of FNC4 which ends the sequence of characters above 128.

So I'm sorry but stating that Code-128 does not support Latin-1 is simply not true.
Therefore I am wondering if you are going to fix that issue or if it will just stay that way.
If you say it was possible to encode Latin-1 characters using the library via some workaround, please send me a snippet to produce the barcode with the value "öäü".
You can look up their Latin-1 values on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin-1.

I didn't find any reference to FNC4 in the source code, so I highly doubt that it is possible.

Kind regards,
Roman Brandstetter

Posted 11.9 year(s) ago

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DocumentPartner

Hi,

Thanks for your quick answer.
Yes, I know, that this is currently the case. But the standard explicitly states the support of Latin-1 characters.
So what you are saying is that the library does not conform to the standard?

Kind regards,
Roman Brandstetter

Posted 11.9 year(s) ago

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Ben	The Code 128 barcode symbology will only encode characters listed in its character set: https://www.idautomation.com/code128faq.html#Code-128CharacterSet Posted 11.9 year(s) ago (0) (0) Report Abuse

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