The GS1 DataBar Barcode Family: Formats, Uses and Free Generation
GS1 DataBar is the retail family built for variable-measure and fresh-food items that never fit a fixed-price GTIN pack: loose produce, weighted meat and cheese, coupons, and small packs too narrow for an EAN-13. All members encode a 14-digit GTIN or a GS1 element string and read omnidirectionally at the checkout.
Expanded variants add GS1 application identifiers — weight, best-before dates, batch numbers and more — while the Stacked forms fold the symbol into two rows for produce stickers and tight shelf space. DataBar has been part of the GS1 retail scanning standard since 2010 and is required for coupons in North America.
Formats in this family
Each format below has its own reference page with exact data rules, options and generation steps.
- GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional
- GS1 DataBar Limited
- GS1 DataBar Expanded
- GS1 DataBar Stacked
- GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional
- GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked
Wrap application identifiers in square brackets when encoding element strings — for example [01]98898765432106[3103]000123 — and the generator validates the structure for you.
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