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Getting started with JsBarcode

Source: vignettes/JsBarcode.Rmd
JsBarcode.Rmd

JsBarcode() turns a value into an SVG barcode widget. Widgets render in the RStudio viewer, in HTML documents such as this one, and in Shiny apps.

Basic usage

The default symbology is CODE128, which accepts any ASCII text.

JsBarcode("Hello world")

Formats

Pick a symbology with format. barcode_format_info describes every supported format: the characters it accepts, its length, how the check digit is handled, and a valid example value.

knitr::kable(barcode_format_info[, c("format", "name", "character_set",
                                     "length", "check_digit")])
format name character_set length check_digit
CODE128 Code 128 (automatic) ASCII characters 0-127 Variable Mod 103, added automatically
CODE128A Code 128 subset A Uppercase letters, digits, punctuation and ASCII control characters (0-95); no lowercase Variable Mod 103, added automatically
CODE128B Code 128 subset B Printable ASCII (32-127): upper- and lowercase letters, digits, punctuation Variable Mod 103, added automatically
CODE128C Code 128 subset C Digits 0-9 Even number of digits (encoded in pairs) Mod 103, added automatically
EAN13 EAN-13 Digits 0-9 12 digits (check digit is added) or 13 digits (check digit is verified) Mod 10; computed if 12 digits are given, verified if 13
EAN8 EAN-8 Digits 0-9 7 digits (check digit is added) or 8 digits (check digit is verified) Mod 10; computed if 7 digits are given, verified if 8
EAN5 EAN-5 add-on Digits 0-9 Exactly 5 digits None (parity pattern only)
EAN2 EAN-2 add-on Digits 0-9 Exactly 2 digits None (parity pattern only)
UPC UPC-A Digits 0-9 11 digits (check digit is added) or 12 digits (check digit is verified) Mod 10; computed if 11 digits are given, verified if 12
UPCE UPC-E Digits 0-9 6 digits (number system 0 assumed) or 8 digits (number system 0 or 1, 6 digits, check digit) Mod 10 of the expanded UPC-A; verified if 8 digits are given
CODE39 Code 39 Uppercase A-Z, digits 0-9, space and - . $ / + % Variable None by default; optional Mod 43 with mod43 = TRUE
CODE93 Code 93 Uppercase A-Z, digits 0-9, space and - . $ / + % Variable Two check characters (C and K), added automatically
CODE93FullASCII Code 93 Full ASCII ASCII characters 0-127 Variable Two check characters (C and K), added automatically
ITF Interleaved 2 of 5 Digits 0-9 Even number of digits None
ITF14 ITF-14 Digits 0-9 13 digits (check digit is added) or 14 digits (check digit is verified) Mod 10; computed if 13 digits are given, verified if 14
MSI MSI Plessey Digits 0-9 Variable None
MSI10 MSI Plessey (Mod 10) Digits 0-9 Variable One Mod 10 check digit, added automatically
MSI11 MSI Plessey (Mod 11) Digits 0-9 Variable One Mod 11 check digit, added automatically
MSI1010 MSI Plessey (Mod 10 + Mod 10) Digits 0-9 Variable Two Mod 10 check digits, added automatically
MSI1110 MSI Plessey (Mod 11 + Mod 10) Digits 0-9 Variable Mod 11 then Mod 10 check digits, added automatically
pharmacode Pharmacode Digits 0-9 An integer from 3 to 131070 None
codabar Codabar Digits 0-9 and - $ : / . +, between optional start/stop characters A-D Variable None

All formats are linear (1D). 2D codes such as QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF417 and Aztec are not supported by JsBarcode.

The example column gives a value that is valid for each format:

info <- barcode_format_info[barcode_format_info$format == "ITF14", ]
JsBarcode(info$example, format = info$format)
JsBarcode("5901234123457", format = "EAN13")
JsBarcode("123456789999", format = "UPC")
JsBarcode("CODE39 TEXT", format = "CODE39")

A value that is not valid for the chosen format produces an inline message instead of a barcode:

JsBarcode("not a number", format = "EAN13")

Styling 

JsBarcode("ABC-123",
          bar_width = 3,
          bar_height = 60,
          line_color = "#1a4f8b",
          background = "#eef3fa",
          font_size = 16)

JsBarcode("NO-TEXT", display_value = FALSE, bar_height = 40)
JsBarcode("id-0042", text = "Custom label")

Any other JsBarcode option can be passed through ... using its JavaScript name:

JsBarcode("Top text", textPosition = "top", textAlign = "left", font = "serif")

Shiny 

library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(JsBarcodeOutput("code"))
server <- function(input, output) {
  output$code <- renderJsBarcode(JsBarcode("Hello Shiny"))
}
shinyApp(ui, server)

A full demo app ships with the package:

shiny::runApp(system.file("examples/shiny", package = "JsBarcode"))