How To Create Barcodes in PHP

Posted: March 31st, 2009 | Author: David Scott Tufts | Filed under: PHP | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

A few years ago I needed a way to generate barcodes on-the-fly using PHP, at the time there were several solutions available at a steep cost, so I wrote this script that generates barcodes in four barcode formats including Code 128, Code 39, Code 2of5, and Codabar. With a little over 100 lines of code you have the options of “vertical” or “horizontal” display, varying barcode heights, and one of four barcode formats. It does require the GD Library to be installed as a module in PHP.

This code is available for use under the MIT License

View the code here: http://www.davidscotttufts.com/code/barcode.phps

Example 1:

Parameters:
Text: “0″ (Default)
Size: “20″ (Default)
Code Type: “Code128″ (Default)
Orientation: “Horizontal” (Default)

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php" alt="testing" />

Result:
0

Example 2:

Parameters:
Text: “testing”
Size: “20″ (Default)
Code Type: “Code128″ (Default)
Orientation: “Horizontal” (Default)

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php?text=testing" alt="testing" />

Result:
testing

Example 3:

Parameters:
Text: “TESTING”
Size: “40″
Code Type: “Code39″
Orientation: “Horizontal” (Default)

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php?codetype=Code39&size=40&text=TESTING" alt="TESTING" />

Result:
TESTING

Example 4:

Parameters:
Text: “12345″
Size: “40″
Code Type: “Code25″
Orientation: “Horizontal” (Default)

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php?codetype=Code25&size=40&text=12345" alt="12345" />

Result:
12345

Example 5:

Parameters:
Text: “123ABC”
Size: “40″
Code Type: “Codabar”
Orientation: “Horizontal” (Default)

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php?codetype=Codabar&size=40&text=123ABC" alt="123ABC" />

Result:
123ABC

Example 6:

Parameters:
Text: “The Real David Tufts”
Size: “40″
Code Type: “Code128″ (Default)
Orientation: “Vertical”

HTML Source Code:

  1. <img src="/code/barcode.php?text=The%20Real%20David%20Tufts&orientation=vertical&size=40" alt="The Real David Tufts" />

Result:
The Real David Tufts

Please leave comments with additions or improvements to this script. One possible area of improvement for Code 128 is figuring out how to add keyboard commands (i.e. SHIFT, DEL, FNC 1, etc.) to the barcode.

Again, you can view the code here: http://www.davidscotttufts.com/code/barcode.phps