Linear symbology
EAN-13
EAN-13 is the 13-digit retail barcode used on consumer products everywhere outside the United States and Canada, and it is readable at US checkouts too. Twelve digits carry the GS1 company prefix and item reference, and the thirteenth is a check digit calculated from the other twelve.
Specification
These are the values the editor enforces while you design, not figures collected from elsewhere — the same numbers its quiet-zone and resolution checks run on.
| Property | Value | In context |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum X-dimension | 0.264 mm | 0.0104 in · 10 thou |
| Quiet zone | 11 modules | 2.90 mm at the minimum X-dimension |
| Dimensionality | Linear (1D) | Read by laser or imager |
EAN-13 at 203, 300 and 600 dpi
A printer can only place whole dots, and 0.264 mm is not a whole number of them at any of these resolutions. What changes is how much a single dot of rounding costs you as a share of the narrow bar.
| Resolution | Narrow bar in dots | Printed as | Rounding error |
|---|---|---|---|
| 203 dpi | 2.11 | 2 dots | 5% |
| 300 dpi | 3.12 | 3 dots | 4% |
| 600 dpi | 6.24 | 6 dots | 4% |
What EAN-13 encodes
Exactly 13 digits, and nothing else — no letters, no punctuation, no variable length. The first 12 are your GS1-issued number and the last is the computed check digit. The editor accepts 12 digits and calculates the thirteenth, or 13 and verifies it.
Where it is used
- Retail products scanned at a point of sale outside North America
- Books and periodicals, where the ISBN is expressed as an EAN-13 under prefix 978 or 979
- Any product needing a globally unique GS1 identifier for a retail listing
Check digit
Starting from the rightmost data digit and working left, multiply the digits alternately by 3 and 1, add the results, then subtract the total from the next multiple of ten. The remainder is the check digit. The editor computes it for you, and accepts the value either with or without it.
How EAN-13 fails in practice
- Printing below the 80% magnification floor. A retail scanner is tuned for a symbol in a defined size range, and shrinking an EAN-13 to fit a small label is the single most common reason one stops reading at a till.
- Crowding the quiet zone. The clear space either side is part of the symbol, and a price or a border placed inside it stops the scanner finding where the code starts.
- Inventing the number. EAN-13 is only globally unique because the company prefix was issued by GS1; a made-up 13-digit value will scan and will collide with somebody else's product.
When to use something else
Questions about EAN-13
- Can I use EAN-13 in the United States?
- Yes. Retail point-of-sale systems in the US and Canada have been required to read EAN-13 since 2005, so a product carrying one is scannable at a US checkout without a separate UPC.
- How small can an EAN-13 be printed?
- The limit is set by the X-dimension — the width of the narrowest bar — not by the overall size. Below the minimum X-dimension the bars stop resolving on the printer and the symbol becomes unreliable regardless of how tidy it looks on screen.
- Do I need to buy the number from GS1?
- For retail sale, yes. The check digit only proves the number is internally consistent; it says nothing about whether the number is yours. Uniqueness comes from the GS1 company prefix.