What is the difference between Linear and 2D barcodes?

Linear barcodes contain only vertical lines and therefore store data only in the horizontal direction. 2D barcodes contain a checkerboard-like maze of small elements and store data in horizontal and vertical direction.

Besides the difference in general appearance, there are a few important technical differences. Linear barcodes store only a small number of digits, or ASCII characters, and they have a simple check character algorithm, which fails sometimes. 2D barcodes on the other hand can store thousands of digits or ASCII characters, and their Error Correction Code (ECC) never passes bad data to the user. The ECC has the ability to reconstruct data from sections of the image that have been accidentally erased or overwritten.

In applications where false reads have costly consequences, you should consider using 2D barcode symbols.

Edited by moderator Thursday, March 16, 2017 4:29:01 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified