About the Barcode Generator
Barcodes remain the standard way physical products, inventory, and shipping labels are scanned and tracked. This generator produces standard, scannable barcodes in several common formats — including CODE128 (flexible alphanumeric), EAN-13, and UPC — directly in your browser, ready to download as an image for printing.
This tool is useful for small business owners creating product labels without expensive inventory software, warehouse and logistics teams generating quick tracking labels, and developers testing barcode scanning functionality in an application.
To use it, enter the value you want encoded (a product SKU, tracking number, or product code) and choose the barcode format that matches your use case. CODE128 accepts virtually any text or number and is the most flexible choice for internal tracking; EAN-13 and UPC require specific numeric formats used for retail products registered with GS1. The tool renders a live preview and lets you download the barcode as a PNG image at your chosen size.
For example, entering a 12-digit UPC-A number generates a correctly formatted barcode with the check digit validated automatically, ready to print onto a product label for retail use, while entering an arbitrary alphanumeric SKU like "WH-2024-001" with CODE128 format produces a scannable barcode suitable for internal warehouse tracking where GS1 registration isn't required.
A common mistake is choosing EAN-13 or UPC formats for internal-use codes that don't actually conform to those strict numeric standards — these formats require a specific digit count and a valid check digit, and using them incorrectly can produce a barcode that looks right but fails validation in professional scanning systems. For anything that isn't an officially registered retail product number, CODE128 is almost always the more appropriate and flexible choice.
Tip: always test any newly generated barcode with an actual barcode scanner or a phone scanning app before printing a large batch of labels, and print at a large enough size (generally at least 1 inch / 2.5cm wide for CODE128) to ensure reliable scanning, since barcodes printed too small can become unreadable due to printer resolution limitations.