Your favorite sub-$100 barcode generating software

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    • #68484
      George Krompacky
      Participant

      I need to generate 5–7 Bookland EAN barcodes per year in .eps format to send to my book cover designers.

      My predecessor here at our small research center used https://www.barcode-us.com and paid $10 for each barcode, which I have been doing as well. It never occurred to me that I could do it myself with a program or plug-in.

      Looking through the forums I can see that there are at least a couple of InDesign plug-ins that can nicely do the job–but for my volume of books, I can’t really argue that we’ll save money by getting a $249 or even $100 plug-in instead of paying $10 a shot.

      So are there any sub-$100 Mac-compatible barcode-generating applications out there that you use and like?

    • #68806
      Eugene Tyson
      Member

      There’s quite a few free online generators.

      https://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/

      Bit of trial and error but they work.

      To be honest – I get my printers to generate the barcode and attach it onto the artwork, I supply the Indesign files. They insert the barcode.

      They also do it for free, which is very cool.

      Check with your print vendor. If you’re doing a lot of work with them they can be persuaded!

    • #69889
      Colin Flashman
      Participant

      If you’re prepared to go just beyond $100, try https://www.easybarcodetech.com/ebc.html

      To make barcodes without leaving InDesign, here are some solutions:

      There is a free solution for code 39 barcodes: https://www.barcodesinc.com/free-barcode-font/

      EAN 13; EAN 8 have a few free or paid solutions:

      EAN Barcode Generator by Konstantin Smorodsky: https://creative.adobe.com/addons/products/899#.U-C20kgfY0E

      Skilldrick’s ISBN barcode generator: https://github.com/skilldrick/id_barcode

      Marc Autret’s Book Barcode: https://www.indiscripts.com/store/BKBC

      So far as QR codes go, there are a ton of free code generators online, and since CC, InDesign has had the ability to generate them without plug-ins. Since CC 2014 it is also possible to create variable QR codes.

      What I’ve found with some dedicated barcode creation software is that they can create one barcode at a time, but if I have to create hundreds – even thousands – of barcodes, then they are no good for that purpose. There are plug-ins that will generate various varieties of barcodes as part of a Data Merge (or apply the barcodes to a database in general) but there is only an ROI if this work is being done often.

      Otherwise Eugene’s link is a good one, and there is always search results from looking up the following in your favourite search engine: “open source barcode creation software”. Also, if you are on the Mac OSX, do a search in the app store for “barcode” as there may be an affordable app worth downloading. Just remember – you get what you pay for!

    • #75196
      Ruben Solér
      Participant

      We’ve been using this free, online EAN-13 generator at my office. It exports to pdf, ai, eps, png and jpg:

      https://www.free-barcode-generator.net/ean-13/

    • #84290
      elisa huynh
      Member

      you can find some solution barcode at
      [[deleted]]

    • #102974
      Anders Moden
      Member

      I have been using this free online barcode generator for 100+ EAN-13 barcodes for more than two years. It generates eps, ai, png etc.
      Works very well.
      https://online-barcode-generator.net

    • #103088
      Colin Flashman
      Participant

      Just an update on the suggestion of the Terry Burton suggestion mentioned earlier.

      My work recently had a barcode knocked back by GS1 that was made using this website, was to do with the widths of the bars within the barcode.

      Caveat Emptor.

    • #103135

      There are a few on the Mac App Store for around $20. (assuming you are on a Mac)

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