Saturday, May 16, 2009

Appendix D - Calculating Code Size and Capacity

The code stamp size and the data capacity are influenced by the print media and the dpi (dots per inch) capability of the printer used.

The data in a 2D barcode is rendered as groups of modules. A module contains one or more dots and is equivalent to Binary 1. The residual white space in the code is treated as a Binary 0. The interplay between the black and white areas allows the meaning of the pattern to be referenced as data.

For the matrix code types of QR Code and DataMatrix, each black area or module is recommended to comprise of 4 or more dots to maximize the stability of the code stamp. The overall size of the stamp is then constrained by the printer head and the number of dots in a module, this relationship is detailed below.



The module size will then directly impact the overall size of the barcode stamp depending on the capacity required.

Carl Sewell has a spreadsheet that shows the relationship between barcode proportions (rows and columns) , the data capacity (Numeric, Alphanumeric and ASCII) and the stamp size in inches for the DataMatrix format,

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