UPC-A

The American variant of the European EAN code is called barcode UPC and stands for Universal Product Code. There are two variations: UPC-A has 6 digits and UPC-E has 12 digits.

This Universal Product Code was developed in 1973 in the USA, primary based on studies of IBM.

The UPC-A code is the standard version of the UPC code and has 12 digits. It is also called UPC-12 and is very similar to the EAN code.

The structure of the UPC-A code is as follows:

• The first digit of the UPC A code says what the code contains:
  0 - normal UPC-Code
  1 - reserved
  2 - articles where the price varies by the weight: for example meat. The code is produced in the store and attached to the article.
  3 - National Drug Code (NDC) and National Health Related Items Code (HRI).
  4 – UPC-Code which can be used without format limits
  5 - coupon
  6 - normal UPC-Code
  7 - normal UPC-Code
  8 - reserved
  9 - reserved
• The next 5 digits show the producer of the article (UPC-ID number). This number is issued by the Uniform Code Council (UUC), 7051 Corporate Way - Suite 201, Dayton, OH 45359-4292, USA
• The seventh to eleventh digits show the individual article number issued by the producer.
• The last digit is the check digit. This one is calculated by BarcodeMaster automatically.
  The UPC-E code is a short version with 8 digits, always starting with a zero. The UPC-code is a numeric code which is able to display digits from 0-9. Each character consists of two lines and two spaces.