Generate EAN-2 and EAN-5 Barcodes as Supplement in C#
Overview
Aspose.BarCode for .NET enables the generation of EAN 2 and EAN 5 barcode types but only as supplements for the following symbologies: EAN 13, EAN 8, Interleaved 2-of-5, ISBN, ISMN, ISSN, Standard 2-of-5, UPC-A, and UPC-E. Supplement barcodes may be used to encode two or five complementary digits in addition to the main barcode and have their own checksum. The use of such barcodes is reserved in various industries; however, in production, they can also be applied to encode additional information, for example, about an item or its price.
Supplement Barcode Settings
The main information about a product or an item needs to be encoded in the primary barcode. To insert additional (supplement) information, Aspose.BarCode for .NET provides a specific property that is called SupplementData and is defined in class SupplementParameters corresponding to the Supplement property group. The SupplementData property is initialized by inputting 2 or 5 additional numerical digits for EAN 2 or EAN 5, respectively. Then, the required barcode type is defined automatically according to the specified number of digits. Then, the size of a supplement barcode is calculated automatically depending on the main barcode parameters.
Barcode labels provided below have been generated with EAN 2 and EAN 5 supplement data settings enabled for EAN 13 barcodes.
Supplement Barcode |
EAN 2 |
EAN 5 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
The following code sample explains how to generate supplement barcodes using EAN 2 and EAN 5 symbologies.
BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.EAN13, "1234567890128");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension.Pixels = 2;
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementSpace.Pixels = 20;
//set EAN 2 supplement
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementData = "12";
gen.Save($"{path}SupplementEAN2.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
//set EAN 5 supplement
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementData = "12345";
gen.Save($"{path}SupplementEAN5.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
Adjust Spacing Between Main and Supplement Barcodes
To define the size of a gap between the main and supplement barcodes, the library provides the SupplementSpace property of class SupplementParameters.
Barcode samples demonstrated below have been generated with different gap settings.
Supplement Spacing |
Is Set to 20 Pixels |
Is Set to 40 Pixels |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
The following code snippet explains how to set the size of the spacing between the main and supplement barcodes in case of using the EAN 13 symbology.
BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.EAN13, "1234567890128");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension.Pixels = 2;
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementData = "12345";
//set supplement space 20 pixels
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementSpace.Pixels = 20;
gen.Save($"{path}SupplementSpace20Pixels.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
//set supplement space 40 pixels
gen.Parameters.Barcode.Supplement.SupplementSpace.Pixels = 40;
gen.Save($"{path}SupplementSpace40Pixels.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);