UPC & EAN-13 Specifications
This page shows the officially allowed sizes for your UPC-A or EAN-13 barcode. All measurements are in millimetres.
Your barcode images arrive at 100% magnification, ready to use. You only need this page if you’re changing the size.
Start here: where will your product be scanned?
Every other measurement on this page depends on the answer.
Retail point-of-sale: a checkout scanner operated by a person. This covers almost every product sold in a shop. Permitted magnification: 80–200%.
General distribution scanning: automated scanning by machine as the item passes along a conveyor belt. This applies if your product goes through a distribution centre unboxed. Permitted magnification: 150–200%.
If your product will be scanned in both environments, use the narrower range: 150–200%.
Printing on demand? If you’re using a thermal printer or similar on-demand process, 75% is acceptable at retail point of sale. Don’t shorten the bars below the 80% height shown in the chart below.
Size chart
The magnification column is the percentage by which you scale the supplied image. 100% is the size we send you.
80–145% (retail point of sale only)
| Magnification | X-dimension | Width | Bar height | Left quiet zone | Right quiet zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80% | 0.26 | 25.08 | 18.28 | 2.90 | 1.85 |
| 85% | 0.28 | 26.65 | 19.42 | 3.09 | 1.96 |
| 90% | 0.30 | 28.22 | 20.57 | 3.27 | 2.08 |
| 95% | 0.31 | 29.78 | 21.71 | 3.45 | 2.19 |
| 100% | 0.33 | 31.35 | 22.85 | 3.63 | 2.31 |
| 105% | 0.35 | 32.92 | 23.99 | 3.81 | 2.43 |
| 110% | 0.36 | 34.49 | 25.14 | 3.99 | 2.54 |
| 115% | 0.38 | 36.05 | 26.28 | 4.17 | 2.66 |
| 120% | 0.40 | 37.62 | 27.42 | 4.36 | 2.77 |
| 125% | 0.41 | 39.19 | 28.56 | 4.54 | 2.89 |
| 130% | 0.43 | 40.76 | 29.71 | 4.72 | 3.00 |
| 135% | 0.45 | 42.32 | 30.85 | 4.90 | 3.12 |
| 140% | 0.46 | 43.89 | 31.99 | 5.08 | 3.23 |
| 145% | 0.48 | 45.46 | 33.13 | 5.26 | 3.35 |
100% is the size at which your barcode images are supplied.
150–200% (valid in all scanning environments)
| Magnification | X-dimension | Width | Bar height | Left quiet zone | Right quiet zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150% | 0.50 | 47.03 | 34.28 | 5.45 | 3.47 |
| 155% | 0.51 | 48.59 | 35.42 | 5.63 | 3.58 |
| 160% | 0.53 | 50.16 | 36.56 | 5.81 | 3.70 |
| 165% | 0.54 | 51.73 | 37.70 | 5.99 | 3.81 |
| 170% | 0.56 | 53.30 | 38.85 | 6.17 | 3.93 |
| 175% | 0.58 | 54.86 | 39.99 | 6.35 | 4.04 |
| 180% | 0.59 | 56.43 | 41.13 | 6.53 | 4.16 |
| 185% | 0.61 | 58.00 | 42.27 | 6.72 | 4.27 |
| 190% | 0.63 | 59.57 | 43.42 | 6.90 | 4.39 |
| 195% | 0.64 | 61.13 | 44.56 | 7.08 | 4.50 |
| 200% | 0.66 | 62.70 | 45.70 | 7.26 | 4.62 |
The width column contains only the barcode. Add the quiet zone on each side to calculate the total space needed for your artwork — at 100%, that’s 31.35mm plus 3.63mm on the left and 2.31mm on the right, for a total of 37.29mm.
The bar height column excludes the numbers printed underneath. At 100%, add roughly 3mm for the digits, bringing the full height to 25.93mm.
Resizing your barcode
Scale width and height together. Stretching or squashing a barcode in one direction will stop it from scanning. In most design software, hold Shift while dragging a corner handle, or enter the same percentage in both the width and height fields.
Stay within the range for your scanning environment. Anything outside it may be accepted by some retailers and rejected by others.
Don’t crop or shorten the bars. Truncating bar height is a common cause of scan failures, and it will fail verification.
Check that your quiet zones survived. If you’ve placed the barcode in a box or against artwork, the white space on either side can easily be eaten up. See below.
Quiet zones
The area of white space on either side of the bars, sized according to the chart above. On UPC and EAN-13, the two sides are different widths; the left zone is wider than the right.
Allow more space than the minimum wherever you can, in case of ink spread. This is the single most common reason a barcode fails to scan.
Human-readable interpretation
The digits printed beneath the barcode.
The recommended typeface is OCR-B, set to 2.75mm height at 100% magnification. This is a recommendation only; other fonts and sizes are acceptable as long as the digits are clearly legible.
Colour and contrast
Scanners read the contrast between the bars and the background, not the colour itself.
Safest choice: black bars on a white background.
Avoid: red, orange or yellow bars. Most scanners read these as white and see nothing there. Avoid dark or busy backgrounds behind the barcode for the same reason.
Terms used on this page
Magnification: the percentage you scale the barcode to. 100% is the size we supply.
X-dimension: the width of the narrowest bar in the barcode.
Width: the width of the barcode symbol, excluding quiet zones.
Bar height: the height of the bars, excluding the digits printed below.
Quiet zones: the area of white space on either side of the bars.
Retail point-of-sale: a checkout scanner operated by a person.
General distribution scanning environment: automated scanning by a machine as the item passes along a conveyor belt.
If you’re unclear about anything here or need to arrange barcode verification, please contact us.
Packing your product into cartons? See our ITF-14 specifications.
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