Barcode generation: Scannable

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BucksPA

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So I was just commenting on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f46/first-attempt-few-label-designs-220884/ about his labels. He has one that has a barcode and it got me thinking, Can the general public create a barcode of their choosing? The answer is yes.

You can do so at http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php

What's cool about it is that you can actually scan it and it will read what you input. To clarify, I can take my Android X barcode scanner, or your iphone barcode scanner and scan a homemade barcode put onto my beer labels, revealing an actual barcode. So when you give out your homebrews to technologically savvy friends, make sure they scan it.

Here it is in action:

image.php


Scan it: It should read "Rusty Red Ale" Use the advanced options to generate a barcode 200 pixels wide, 100 pixels H to keep it more inline with what a barcode typically looks like.

Here is the edited one, removing the text with photoshop: Scan it and it will still read it.

Untitled-1-1.jpg
 
So i did some playing around and there are some flaws (with either the barcode generator, or my scanner on my android). This site has more coding options. If it doesnt like HIBC Code 128, try code 93 Extended. There are more options. This site I feel is better. If it doesn't read a barcode, try putting a space before the first letter. I made my "Drunken Uncle Dunkel" barcode.

You can also resize on this site by changing both scale parameter from 2 to 1. Hope you like it. http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/
 
Look at generating QR codes instead of 1-D barcodes...you can store a lot more information (4296 characters!). I used this and put recipe info as well as brew date, bottle date and a URL to my beersmith recipe/brew sheet in it. there are QR reader programs for every smart phone.

Wikipedia info on QR Codes
HERE is a handy generator
 
To me the idea of putting a barcode on a label of homebrew seems odd, but to others the idea of creating a label seems odd, so I'm not one to judge.

However, this spurs another idea. Put an android barcode or tag logo (smartphone app) on the labels that links to a website (if you own a domain and have hosting, or save the recipe to Brewmasters Warehouse) with the recipe and fermentation info.
 
We do barcodes for inventory at work and yes, you can indeed put any information you want in them up to the size limit. We use them to encode make/model/item numbers/purchase dates and other information. Scan the barcode and you know everything you need about the item. As jpoder said, you can put even more info in with QR codes. We did barcodes because it had to be compatible with software we already were using for other things.
 
We do barcodes for inventory at work and yes, you can indeed put any information you want in them up to the size limit. We use them to encode make/model/item numbers/purchase dates and other information. Scan the barcode and you know everything you need about the item. As jpoder said, you can put even more info in with QR codes. We did barcodes because it had to be compatible with software we already were using for other things.

QR codes don't seem to have enough capacity for a recipe though, unless maybe you broke it down into groups by grain, hops, and fermentation info
 
Ok, so I did some playing around with CS5. I never knew about QR Codes. They are great because they hold more info, however. I created a simple QR Code reading:

Drunken Uncle Dunkel
Brewed: 12.27.10
Enjoy After: 2.14.10
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.35%
Style: Dunkelweizen

I got QR Code, save it as a PNG to my desktop, opened it with Illustrator, saved it as a SVG (Scalable Vector) and made it small enough to fit on a label and my scanner would not read it. Therefore, QR codes are useless unless you want a 3" x 3" QR code on your label.

There is no real reason to put a barcode on the bottles, unless you are individually selling them through a commercial capacity. It's more for the homebrew user who loves his smartphone and can share it with his/her friends.
 
Ok, so I did some playing around with CS5. I never knew about QR Codes. They are great because they hold more info, however. I created a simple QR Code reading:

Drunken Uncle Dunkel
Brewed: 12.27.10
Enjoy After: 2.14.10
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.35%
Style: Dunkelweizen

I got QR Code, save it as a PNG to my desktop, opened it with Illustrator, saved it as a SVG (Scalable Vector) and made it small enough to fit on a label and my scanner would not read it. Therefore, QR codes are useless unless you want a 3" x 3" QR code on your label.

There is no real reason to put a barcode on the bottles, unless you are individually selling them through a commercial capacity. It's more for the homebrew user who loves his smartphone and can share it with his/her friends.

I've found a few sites that let you download it as an EPS, worked on my iPhone when I scaled it up and down. However, I can't get it to recognize new lines, so:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.011

turns into:

OG: 1.057FG: 1.011

I could do a recipe in 4000 characters, easy.

All of the sites I've found limit QR code to 250 characters.
 
All of the sites I've found limit QR code to 250 characters.

I was going off Jpoder's post above where he said the limit was 4296 characters. If he was wrong, then so was I. I haven't used them enough so I don't know the actual limit. Was just going off other's knowledge.
 
So I sit down in class today, and my teacher tells us that the project next week is to do a print ad incorporating a QR code :D

This site will let you do up to 2000 characters, should be good to go for a beer recipe.
http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator

I'll also be screwing around with tweaks to the code. Should be fun!
 
sweet. scanned your rusty red ale with my droid and it worked.. thats cool stuff.

glad you like it. I think it's pretty cool myself even though it serves no purpose other than self amusement and some amusement amongst friends :mug:
 
So I sit down in class today, and my teacher tells us that the project next week is to do a print ad incorporating a QR code :D

This site will let you do up to 2000 characters, should be good to go for a beer recipe.
http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator

I'll also be screwing around with tweaks to the code. Should be fun!

Here's a thought: I went out to a sushi restaraunt today and they had a huge QR code (roughly 18" x 18") on their door. I scanned it and it was a link to google map location and customer reviews of their restaurant. Pretty clever.
 
BucksPA said:
Here's a thought: I went out to a sushi restaraunt today and they had a huge QR code (roughly 18" x 18") on their door. I scanned it and it was a link to google map location and customer reviews of their restaurant. Pretty clever.

Yeah, supposedly it's been used a lot in marketing in Japan (invented by Toyota IIRC), but it is just catching on here. I'll probably end up putting one on the back of my business card linking to my website. I was playing around earlier and used the code as a clipping mask over an image of mine. Looked cool an retained functionality!
 
Usually the QR codes in Japan simply link to a web page. So if you encode a URL, say to a blog page, you could really go nuts with information about your beer. Scan the QR code with your phone and the web page automatically pops up.
 
This is pretty cool, thanks for the links everyone! I have put just fake barcodes on labels but this is by far way better, and for the tech savy folks I will give beer to they will probably get a kick out of it also. Thanks again everyone, great thread OP!:mug:
 
Recipe: Helles IIBrouwerij Boerderij KabouterRecipe Specifications--------------------------Batch Size: 4.00 galOG: 1.049 SGColor: 3.9 SRMIBU: 18.9 IBUEff: 65.00 Ingredients:------------7.60 lb Pilsner 0.50 lb Carapils 1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00] (60 min)0.10 oz Saaz [4.00] (10 min) Budvar Lager (Wyeast 2000) I will be doing a enhanced double decoction. A-rest 97 : P-rest 133 : S-rest 156Ferment at 50 until 0.75 attenuation, raise to 65 for 4 days for D-rest, then down 5 a day until I reach 34. Lager for one month.
 
I liked the idea of putting stlye, date, abv, og, etc... Going to try to incorporate it into my next labels. For a person selling their beer, I would link it to rate beer! Or use it to give away prizes! Like you scan it and it says You've Won! with a verification code. Or links you right to the winning site... oooo cool. Maybe I'll give away a tour of my brewery with my next batch of home brew, LOL
 
This is pretty awesome.

Can anyone read mine?

5150672.png

The problem with using the At&t generator is that it basically generates a link to their server where your info is stored, instead of coding the actual information to the image... if you don't have access to that server for whatever reason, you don't have the info... Just sayin'
 
I like the idea of the QR codes.....alot, but the simplicity of an "old school" barcode works fine for me. Plus, I made a QR label for test purposes and it scanned great on flat paper. When i put it on a label (and thus, curved the image around the bottle), my droid barcode scanner wouldn't pick it up, however it picked up the regular barcode. someone may be able to work around this, but i was keeping it at 1" x 1".
 
So I sit down in class today, and my teacher tells us that the project next week is to do a print ad incorporating a QR code :D

This site will let you do up to 2000 characters, should be good to go for a beer recipe.
http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator

I'll also be screwing around with tweaks to the code. Should be fun!

Text files seem to be currently limited to 1500 characters but other than that it seems to work great! Here is one I just made with a quote I dig.

I dont have a smart phone but I found this program that lets my iMac read QR codes from images from the built in camera or from image files.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/41127/qr-journal

asimov2.jpg
 
This Barcode Reader for .NET integrates advanced barcode functions into Visual Studio .NET, ASP.NET, Windows Forms projects and supports quick barcode scanning for multiple barcode images in one image file at a time. Besides, it has a very good compatability with different Visual Studios. Take a look!
HI there
Thanks for your sharing.I have taken a look at your sharing site.It's reall nice.But i want to know that if it is possible for this barcode reader to read qrcode?I want to read my qrcode in my computer.Thanks a lot.
 
if you have a qr code barcode from this qr code barcode generation control, it can be scanned by qr code reader. i have tried, it worked well for me.
 

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