What is a Code 128 barcode?

Code 128 is a high-density linear barcode standardised as ISO/IEC 15417. It encodes the full 128-character ASCII set, it has no fixed length, and it packs more characters into the same width than any other common linear symbology. Its structure is fixed: a start character that names the code set, your data, a mandatory check character, and a stop pattern. Every one of those symbol characters is eleven modules wide — three bars and three spaces — and the stop pattern is thirteen, which is why the finished width of a Code 128 is predictable arithmetic rather than a guess. It is the default barcode for shipping labels, cartons, warehouse locations, work-in-progress travellers and internal asset tags, because those are exactly the cases where nobody is forcing you to use a retail standard.

What characters can a Code 128 barcode contain?

In this generator: standard ASCII, code points 0 to 127. Letters in either case, digits, spaces, and punctuation such as - . / + $ % all encode, and QRKIT-123, ABC 123 and shipment/42 are all valid. Case is preserved exactly as you type it — nothing is auto-uppercased here, unlike Code 39 and Code 93, which have no lowercase alphabet at all. Anything above U+007F is refused rather than mangled, so an accented or non-Latin character such as café is rejected at the input with a message naming the cause. That is a deliberate choice: encoding it would hand you a label that prints perfectly and scans back as something you never typed.

What are Code 128 subsets A, B and C?

Three alphabets inside one symbology, and the reason Code 128 is as dense as it is. Set A covers ASCII 0 to 95 — control codes, digits, capitals and punctuation, but no lowercase. Set B covers ASCII 32 to 127, which adds lowercase and drops the control codes. Set C is the interesting one: it encodes numbers only, two digits per symbol character, so a purely numeric payload takes about half the width it would in A or B. You do not choose between them here. The encoder does it for you and switches mid-string when it pays: it starts in Set C when your value opens with two or more digits, otherwise it picks A or B by whichever alphabet matches the longer opening run, and it drops into C part-way through only when a run of at least four digits makes the switch worth its cost. There is no manual A/B/C picker in this tool, and for almost every real payload there is no reason to want one.

Why does Code 128 Set C matter for numeric data?

Because it halves the label. Work the arithmetic through: a 48-character payload of mixed text encodes as 48 symbol characters, and with the start character, the check character, the stop pattern and the ten-module quiet zone on each side that comes to 583 modules — about 146 mm across at a 0.25 mm module. The same 48 characters as pure digits encode in Set C as 24 symbol characters, which is 319 modules, or about 80 mm. Same data length, same print resolution, barely more than half the width. If you control the format of your own serial numbers, container IDs or location codes, making them all-numeric and an even number of digits is the single cheapest way to shrink a Code 128 label.

Does Code 128 need a check digit, and do I have to work it out?

Code 128 always carries a check character, and you never type it. It is a modulo-103 weighted sum over the start character and every data character, and this generator's encoder computes it and appends it before the stop pattern automatically. It is not printed in the human-readable line beneath the bars either, so the text you see under a Code 128 is exactly the text you entered. This is different from UPC-A and EAN-13, where the trailing check digit is part of the number people quote and you can either supply it or let the tool compute it, and different again from Code 39, whose check character is optional and usually omitted. With Code 128 there is nothing to decide.

How long can a Code 128 barcode be?

Two different answers, and it matters which one you want. ISO/IEC 15417 sets no character limit on Code 128 at all — the symbology is variable-length, and the real ceiling is how wide a symbol your printer can lay down and your scanner can read in one pass. The input field on this page accepts up to 48 characters. That 48 is our limit, not the standard's: it is the maxLength on a single-line field, chosen because a Code 128 much longer than that is already a wider label than most people are printing. If you need a longer payload than 48 characters, this is the honest place to say that another tool or a 2D symbology will serve you better.

Can I use Code 128 on retail products sold at a checkout?

No — that is the one job Code 128 is not for. Retail point of sale runs on the GS1 retail symbologies: UPC-A in the United States and Canada, EAN-13 elsewhere, with UPC-E and EAN-8 for small packs. Those carry a GTIN that you license through GS1, and a checkout system will simply not accept a Code 128 in their place. Code 128 owns everything else — shipping labels, cartons, totes, shelf and bin locations, work orders, asset tags — because those are closed systems where you define the data. If you need the retail codes, they are in the format picker above, though the GTIN itself has to come from GS1 — QRKIT draws the symbol, it does not issue numbers.

Can I generate Code 128 barcodes for free?

Yes — free, with no account at all. This generator does not ask you to sign in to create a barcode and does not ask you to sign in to download the file. It stamps no watermark on the output, asks for no card, and there is no paid barcode tier above it to upgrade to: vector export, the print-width and DPI controls, all fourteen formats and bulk generation are in the free tool. The barcodes are yours to use commercially. Worth saying plainly because it is unusual — most free barcode sites gate the download, the vector file, or both.

Can I download a Code 128 as an SVG or a vector PDF?

Yes, and both are genuinely vector. The SVG is real geometry written into the file rather than a traced bitmap, and the PDF is redrawn with the PDF's own drawing primitives onto a page sized to the barcode, so it stays sharp at press resolution and a label designer or plate-maker can place it directly. PNG is the raster option at 72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI. There is no EPS export. You can also state the finished print width in millimetres, inches or pixels rather than scaling the file up afterwards in another program — the one ceiling is 10,000 pixels per axis, and the tool tells you on screen when a request runs into it.

How small can a Code 128 barcode be printed?

The limit is your printer and your scanner, not the symbology. Code 128 sits mostly in closed systems whose equipment varies too much for a single spec figure to exist, so this generator warns you when the export you have set up would put one module below 0.25 mm — a general printing guideline rather than a requirement of ISO/IEC 15417. Two other rules matter more than the module width, and both are ignored more often. First, the quiet zone: Code 128 needs ten clear modules to the left and ten to the right, which the tool draws into the exported file, so never crop tight to the bars or butt the symbol up against a box edge. Second, height: a taller bar gives a handheld scanner more chances to catch a clean pass, which is why warehouse labels are tall. Test a printed sample with the scanner that will actually read it before committing to a run.

Can I generate Code 128 barcodes in bulk?

Yes. Open “Generate many at once” under the generator, paste a column of values or upload a CSV, and download the batch as a ZIP of PNGs, a ZIP of SVGs, or a single PDF with one barcode per page. Up to 500 rows run at a time — a browser-memory cap, not a plan limit, identical for everyone, and the tool tells you exactly how many rows were left out rather than truncating quietly. One detail that matters specifically for Code 128: because its data legitimately contains commas, a pasted list is read as one value per line rather than split on commas, unless the input is tab-separated or carries a header row that says which column holds the codes. That choice is shown to you and can be changed, so a name,sku export never silently encodes the product names.

Do you offer a Code 128 font, an Excel add-in, or a barcode API?

No to all three. This is a web tool: there is no Code 128 font, no Excel or Word add-in, no library and no REST API. What it does cover is the case those are usually wanted for — export your spreadsheet column to CSV, or copy it straight out of the sheet and paste it into the bulk panel, and every barcode comes back in one download. Worth knowing about the font route in particular: a Code 128 font cannot compute the modulo-103 check character on its own, which is why font-based barcodes so often scan as the wrong value or refuse to scan at all. We also do not read or decode barcodes — this page creates them. Everything QRKIT does generate, all fourteen formats, is listed on the barcode generator.

Can I edit a Code 128 after printing, or count how often it is scanned?

No. Every barcode this tool makes is static: the data lives in the bars, so once it is printed it says what it says forever, and nothing routes through us to be counted. There are no scan analytics, no redirects and no editing after download — that is a property of a linear barcode, not a feature we are holding back. If you need a code whose destination you can change later, or scan counts, that is a dynamic QR code, which is a different symbology, a different product, and unlike the barcode tool it does involve an account.

Get Started Free

Free Code 128 Barcode Generator

Create a Code 128 barcode in seconds. Download SVG, PDF or PNG. No signup, no watermark.

Full ASCII up to 48 characters, subset A/B/C chosen for you and the check character added automatically. Set the exact print width and download real vector SVG or PDF — or PNG at up to 600 DPI. Free, no signup, no watermark.

Free — no accountFull ASCIIVector SVG & PDFUp to 500 at once

Free — no signup requiredFull ASCII, automatic subsetsCheck character computed for youReal vector SVG & PDFBulk up to 500 codes

Barcode Type

Any ASCII characters. Most versatile barcode.

Barcode Data

Customize

Bar Color

Background

Bar Width (2)

Height (100px)

Show text below barcode

Preview

Enter data to see preview

Format

Print width

Resolution

Runs in your browser. Nothing to install.

The picker above also holds UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, Code 39, Code 93, ITF-14, Interleaved 2 of 5 and Codabar, plus four 2D symbologies. All fourteen live on the barcode generator.

How it works

Code Sets A, B and C, and Why C Halves Your Label

Code 128 is not one alphabet but three, and the encoder moves between them mid-barcode. That is the whole trick behind its density, and it is worth two minutes of your time because it changes how you should number your own things.

Set A

ASCII 0 to 95 — control codes, digits, capitals and punctuation. No lowercase. It is the set you land in when your data is uppercase and needs a control character.

Set B

ASCII 32 to 127 — the same, plus lowercase, minus the control codes. This is where most human-readable payloads end up: a mixed-case asset tag, a location code, a short reference.

Set C

Digits only, and two of them per symbol character. That single fact is why a numeric Code 128 is about half the width of the same number of letters.

You do not pick between them here, and there is no manual A/B/C control in the generator above. The encoder starts in Set C when your value opens with two or more digits, otherwise chooses A or B by whichever alphabet matches the longer opening run, and drops into C part-way through only when a run of at least four digits makes the switch worth the character it costs to change sets. The barcode is drawn in your browser as you type — nothing you enter is sent anywhere to be encoded. If you want the wider comparison against QR and the 2D symbologies, that lives on our QR code vs barcode comparison.

The arithmetic, since Code 128 lets you do it

Every symbol character in a Code 128 is eleven modules wide — three bars and three spaces — and the stop pattern is thirteen. Add the start character, the check character and ten clear modules on each side and the finished width is fully determined before you print anything.

48 characters of mixed text

48 symbol characters → 583 modules with quiet zones → roughly 146 mm wide at a 0.25 mm module.

48 digits, encoded in Set C

24 symbol characters → 319 modules with quiet zones → roughly 80 mm. Same data, barely more than half the label.

If you control the format of your own serials, container IDs or bin locations, making them all-numeric with an even digit count is the cheapest width saving available to you. It costs nothing and it is invisible to everyone downstream.

Specs

What This Code 128 Generator Does, Exactly

Including the limits. A tool that only lists what it can do is harder to plan a label run around than one that tells you where it stops.

Property	Value	Notes
Symbology	Code 128 (ISO/IEC 15417)	The auto-subset variant: Code Set A, B and C are selected by the encoder, not by you.
Character set	Standard ASCII (U+0000–U+007F)	Letters in either case, digits, spaces and punctuation. Anything above U+007F is refused, not mangled.
Case handling	Exactly as typed	Nothing is auto-uppercased — unlike Code 39 and Code 93, which have no lowercase alphabet at all.
Input length here	Up to 48 characters	A limit of this page’s single-line field. ISO/IEC 15417 sets no character limit on Code 128 at all.
Check character	Modulo 103, added automatically	You never type it, and it is not printed in the human-readable line under the bars.
Symbol width	11 modules per character	Plus a start character, the check character, a 13-module stop pattern and the quiet zones. Width is arithmetic, not a guess.
Quiet zone	10 modules left and right	The ISO/IEC 15417 minimum, drawn into the exported file. Never crop tighter than this.
Smallest module we advise	0.25 mm	A general printing guideline, not a requirement of the standard — Code 128 runs in closed systems whose scanners vary.
Export formats	PNG, SVG, PDF	SVG and PDF are genuine vector. There is no EPS export.
Raster resolution	72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI	Paired with a target print width in mm, inches or pixels. Ceiling of 10,000 pixels per axis.
Design controls	Bar colour, background, bar width, height, text line	That is the whole list. No logo, no gradient, no frame.
Batch size	Up to 500 barcodes at once	A browser-memory cap, identical for everyone. Signing in does not raise it.
Code type	Static	The data lives in the bars. No redirects, no scan counts, no editing after download.
GS1-128 / EAN-128	Not generated	Plain Code 128 only. FNC1 sits above U+007F, which our ASCII check refuses, and GS1 mode is never enabled.

Not on the list, and deliberately: GS1-128, for the FNC1 reason set out below. There is also no Code 128 font, no Excel add-in, no barcode API and no decoding — this page creates barcodes, it does not read them.

Honest limits

Where This Tool Is Stricter Than the Standard

Two places, and both are worth knowing before you build a label around them. Neither is a bug, and neither is what ISO/IEC 15417 says.

48 characters is our limit, not Code 128’s

Code 128 is variable-length and the standard fixes no character count. The practical ceiling in the real world is how wide a symbol your printer can lay down and your scanner can read in one pass. The field on this page accepts up to 48 characters, which is a limit of a single-line input rather than anything in the symbology — and a 48-character Code 128 is already a 146 mm label at a 0.25 mm module.

If your payload is genuinely longer than that, say so to yourself early: a linear barcode is the wrong shape for it, and a Data Matrix will carry it in a fraction of the area.

Non-ASCII input is refused, not mangled

Type caféand the generator will not encode it. Code 128’s alphabets are defined over ASCII, and an accented or non-Latin character has no defined place in them — encoding it anyway would produce a label that prints perfectly and scans back as something you never typed. Refusing beats that, so anything above U+007F is rejected at the input with a message naming the cause.

Everything inside ASCII encodes exactly as typed, in either case, with no folding. If you need accented or non-Latin text in a scannable code, use a text QR code instead — QR handles UTF-8 and phone cameras read it.

And one thing we do not generate at all: GS1-128. GS1-128 — older documents call it EAN-128 — is Code 128 with a rule set on top: it opens with an FNC1 character declaring the payload to be GS1 element strings, written as application identifiers and values. This generator produces plain Code 128 only. FNC1 is not a character you can type, our ASCII check refuses it, and the encoder’s GS1 mode is never switched on. If a customer specification says GS1-128, this is not the tool for that label. For GS1 element strings in a 2D symbol we do support GS1 DataMatrix.

Choosing

Code 128 Is the Default — Except at a Checkout

The rule is simpler than most symbology guides make it. If an outside standard tells you which barcode to print, print that one. If nobody is telling you, Code 128 is the answer, because it is the densest linear symbology that takes the full ASCII set at any length.

Reach for Code 128

Shipping and courier labels, and the carton and pallet IDs that go with them.
Warehouse work: tote IDs, bin and shelf locations, pick lists, put-away labels.
Asset tags, IT inventory, tool cribs and equipment registers.
Work-in-progress travellers, job tickets and route cards on a production floor.
Anywhere the data is yours to define and both ends of the scan are inside your own operation.

Do not reach for Code 128

Retail point of sale. A checkout runs on UPC-A in the United States and Canada and EAN-13 elsewhere, with UPC-E and EAN-8 for small packs. Those carry a GTIN licensed through GS1, and a till will not accept a Code 128 in their place. Both formats are in the picker above; the number itself has to come from GS1, because QRKIT draws symbols and does not issue GTINs.
Outer cases in a retail supply chain. That is normally ITF-14, which is also in the picker.
A tiny part or a crowded label. A linear barcode only grows sideways. When there is no width left, a 2D symbol is the answer — see Data Matrix or Aztec.
Anything a customer will scan with a phone. Phone cameras recognise QR codes, not Code 128.

What about Code 39? It is the older alternative, and it is still specified in some defence and automotive standards, so print it when you are told to. Outside those, Code 128 beats it on every axis that matters: Code 39 has 43 characters and no lowercase, its check character is optional and usually skipped, and it needs roughly twice the width for the same data. If nothing is forcing your hand, this is the page you want. If something is, the Code 39 barcode generator is the one you want instead.

Output

Vector SVG and PDF, at the Size You Will Actually Print

Most free Code 128 tools hand you a PNG and leave the sizing to you. This one exports genuine vector and lets you state the finished dimensions up front.

SVG

Real geometry written into the file, not a traced bitmap. Opens in Illustrator, Inkscape, CAD and label software, and scales to any size without softening an edge.

PDF

Also true vector — the barcode is redrawn with the PDF's own drawing primitives onto a page sized to the symbol, rather than an embedded image, so it stays sharp at press resolution.

PNG

The raster option, at 72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI. Fine for screens and office printers; reach for SVG or PDF when the file is going to a plate or a thermal transfer die.

Set the width, not a guess

Enter a target print width in millimetres, inches or pixels. The export is generated at exactly that size, so nothing has to be scaled up in another program afterwards. The one ceiling is 10,000 pixels per axis, and the tool tells you on screen if a request runs into it.

A module-width warning that means something

The tool works out how wide one module will be at your chosen size and warns you below 0.25 mm. That is printing guidance rather than a rule of the standard — Code 128 lives in closed systems — but it is the number a thermal printer at 203 DPI runs into first.

Quiet zone included

Ten clear modules on the left and ten on the right, the ISO/IEC 15417 minimum, drawn into the file. This is the single most commonly broken rule on a Code 128 label: do not crop tight to the bars, and do not butt the symbol against a box edge or a fold.

What we do not do: we draw the barcode and export the file. Print quality on the finished label — contrast, bar edge sharpness, ink spread, and grading against a print-quality verification standard — depends on your printer, ribbon and stock, and is not something QRKIT measures, grades or certifies. Bar height is yours to choose too, and taller is more forgiving of a fast handheld pass. Test a real printed sample with the scanner that will read it before committing to a run.

In bulk

500 Code 128 Barcodes From One Paste

Open Generate many at once underneath the generator, paste a column of serials, SKUs or location codes or upload a CSV, and take the whole run in one download. No account, no upgrade prompt.

Commas are treated as data

This matters more for Code 128 than for any other format, because its data legitimately contains commas. A pasted list is read as one value per line, not split on commas — unless the input is tab-separated or has a header row saying which column holds the codes, and that choice is shown to you and can be changed.

Three outputs

A ZIP of PNGs, a ZIP of SVGs, or a single PDF with one barcode per page. Files are numbered in input order, so the archive sorts back the way your list was written.

Nothing fails quietly

Every row runs through the same checks as the single-code field. Invalid rows are listed with their row numbers and left out of the download rather than silently producing a broken label.

About the 500-row cap. It is a browser-memory limit and nothing else — the batch is rendered on your own machine, and 500 barcodes at 300 DPI is already tens of megabytes held in memory. It is the same number for everyone, there is no account or plan that raises it, and when it bites the tool tells you exactly how many rows were left out so you can split the list and run the rest.

Step by step

How to Create a Code 128 Barcode

Step 1

Type the data

A serial number, a carton ID, a bin location, an asset tag. The generator above is already set to Code 128 and draws the barcode as you type. Standard ASCII, either case, up to 48 characters in this field.

Step 2

Let the encoder pick the subset

Code Set A, B or C is chosen for you and switched mid-string where it saves width. Nothing to configure — and if your value is all digits you get Set C and roughly half the label for free.

Step 3

Set the print size

Give it a target width in mm, inches or pixels, and pick 72–600 DPI for raster output. The tool reports the finished size and warns if one module falls under 0.25 mm. Bar height and the human-readable text line are yours to set too.

Step 4

Download

SVG or PDF for anything that will be printed or scaled; PNG for screens. The ten-module quiet zone is already in the file. No signup, no account, no watermark, and the barcode is yours to use commercially.

Reading one back is a different job. A phone’s built-in camera app recognises QR codes but does not read Code 128, so you will need a laser or imaging scanner, or a scanner app that lists the symbology. QRKIT generates Code 128 barcodes; it does not decode them.

Pricing

Free, and Free in the Way You Meant

“Free” usually turns out to mean free to preview. Here it means what it says: the Code 128 generator on this page asks for no account to create a barcode and no account to download the file, stamps nothing on the output, and has no paid tier above it.

Included, at no cost

Free forever

Code 128 with automatic A/B/C subset selection
Modulo-103 check character computed for you
Unlimited barcodes — no daily quota
PNG, SVG and vector PDF download
Print width in mm/in/px and 72–600 DPI
Bulk generation up to 500 at a time
No signup, no account, no card
No watermark on any export
Commercial use allowed

Not available at any price

Be clear about it

No dynamic or trackable barcode. Every Code 128 here is static, so it cannot be edited after printing and its scans cannot be counted.
No GS1-128 or EAN-128. Plain Code 128 only, for the reasons above.
No barcode API or integration. No REST endpoint, no Zapier, no plugin, no font, no library.
No decoding. This page generates Code 128 barcodes; it does not read them.

Need a code you can change or measure instead? That is what a dynamic QR code is for — edit the destination after printing, and see scan counts. It is a different symbology and a different product, and unlike the barcode tool it involves an account. Learn about dynamic QR codes.

Code 128 Barcode Generator — Frequently Asked Questions

: Code 128 is a high-density linear barcode standardised as ISO/IEC 15417. It encodes the full 128-character ASCII set, it has no fixed length, and it packs more characters into the same width than any other common linear symbology. Its structure is fixed: a start character that names the code set, your data, a mandatory check character, and a stop pattern. Every one of those symbol characters is eleven modules wide — three bars and three spaces — and the stop pattern is thirteen, which is why the finished width of a Code 128 is predictable arithmetic rather than a guess. It is the default barcode for shipping labels, cartons, warehouse locations, work-in-progress travellers and internal asset tags, because those are exactly the cases where nobody is forcing you to use a retail standard.
: In this generator: standard ASCII, code points 0 to 127. Letters in either case, digits, spaces, and punctuation such as - . / + $ % all encode, and QRKIT-123, ABC 123 and shipment/42 are all valid. Case is preserved exactly as you type it — nothing is auto-uppercased here, unlike Code 39 and Code 93, which have no lowercase alphabet at all. Anything above U+007F is refused rather than mangled, so an accented or non-Latin character such as café is rejected at the input with a message naming the cause. That is a deliberate choice: encoding it would hand you a label that prints perfectly and scans back as something you never typed.
: Three alphabets inside one symbology, and the reason Code 128 is as dense as it is. Set A covers ASCII 0 to 95 — control codes, digits, capitals and punctuation, but no lowercase. Set B covers ASCII 32 to 127, which adds lowercase and drops the control codes. Set C is the interesting one: it encodes numbers only, two digits per symbol character, so a purely numeric payload takes about half the width it would in A or B. You do not choose between them here. The encoder does it for you and switches mid-string when it pays: it starts in Set C when your value opens with two or more digits, otherwise it picks A or B by whichever alphabet matches the longer opening run, and it drops into C part-way through only when a run of at least four digits makes the switch worth its cost. There is no manual A/B/C picker in this tool, and for almost every real payload there is no reason to want one.
: Because it halves the label. Work the arithmetic through: a 48-character payload of mixed text encodes as 48 symbol characters, and with the start character, the check character, the stop pattern and the ten-module quiet zone on each side that comes to 583 modules — about 146 mm across at a 0.25 mm module. The same 48 characters as pure digits encode in Set C as 24 symbol characters, which is 319 modules, or about 80 mm. Same data length, same print resolution, barely more than half the width. If you control the format of your own serial numbers, container IDs or location codes, making them all-numeric and an even number of digits is the single cheapest way to shrink a Code 128 label. See printing codes on labels for the rest of the label-sizing picture.
: Code 128 always carries a check character, and you never type it. It is a modulo-103 weighted sum over the start character and every data character, and this generator's encoder computes it and appends it before the stop pattern automatically. It is not printed in the human-readable line beneath the bars either, so the text you see under a Code 128 is exactly the text you entered. This is different from UPC-A and EAN-13, where the trailing check digit is part of the number people quote and you can either supply it or let the tool compute it, and different again from Code 39, whose check character is optional and usually omitted. With Code 128 there is nothing to decide.
: Two different answers, and it matters which one you want. ISO/IEC 15417 sets no character limit on Code 128 at all — the symbology is variable-length, and the real ceiling is how wide a symbol your printer can lay down and your scanner can read in one pass. The input field on this page accepts up to 48 characters. That 48 is our limit, not the standard's: it is the maxLength on a single-line field, chosen because a Code 128 much longer than that is already a wider label than most people are printing. If you need a longer payload than 48 characters, this is the honest place to say that another tool or a 2D symbology will serve you better.
: No, and we do not generate GS1-128. GS1-128 (once called EAN-128) is Code 128 with a rule set bolted on: it opens with an FNC1 character that tells the reader the payload is GS1 element strings, and its data is written as application identifiers with their values. This generator produces plain Code 128 only. FNC1 is not a character you can type — in our encoder it sits above U+007F, which our ASCII check refuses — and we never enable the encoder’s GS1 mode. So if your customer’s specification says GS1-128, this is not the tool for that label. For GS1 element strings in a 2D symbol we do support GS1 DataMatrix.
: No — that is the one job Code 128 is not for. Retail point of sale runs on the GS1 retail symbologies: UPC-A in the United States and Canada, EAN-13 elsewhere, with UPC-E and EAN-8 for small packs. Those carry a GTIN that you license through GS1, and a checkout system will simply not accept a Code 128 in their place. Code 128 owns everything else — shipping labels, cartons, totes, shelf and bin locations, work orders, asset tags — because those are closed systems where you define the data. If you need the retail codes, they are in the format picker above and covered on the barcode generator, though the GTIN itself has to come from GS1 — QRKIT draws the symbol, it does not issue numbers.
: Yes — free, with no account at all. This generator does not ask you to sign in to create a barcode and does not ask you to sign in to download the file. It stamps no watermark on the output, asks for no card, and there is no paid barcode tier above it to upgrade to: vector export, the print-width and DPI controls, all fourteen formats and bulk generation are in the free tool. The barcodes are yours to use commercially. Worth saying plainly because it is unusual — most free barcode sites gate the download, the vector file, or both.
: Yes, and both are genuinely vector. The SVG is real geometry written into the file rather than a traced bitmap, and the PDF is redrawn with the PDF’s own drawing primitives onto a page sized to the barcode, so it stays sharp at press resolution and a label designer or plate-maker can place it directly. PNG is the raster option at 72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI. There is no EPS export. You can also state the finished print width in millimetres, inches or pixels rather than scaling the file up afterwards in another program — the one ceiling is 10,000 pixels per axis, and the tool tells you on screen when a request runs into it. For the QR equivalent see SVG QR codes.
: The limit is your printer and your scanner, not the symbology. Code 128 sits mostly in closed systems whose equipment varies too much for a single spec figure to exist, so this generator warns you when the export you have set up would put one module below 0.25 mm — a general printing guideline rather than a requirement of ISO/IEC 15417. Two other rules matter more than the module width, and both are ignored more often. First, the quiet zone: Code 128 needs ten clear modules to the left and ten to the right, which the tool draws into the exported file, so never crop tight to the bars or butt the symbol up against a box edge. Second, height: a taller bar gives a handheld scanner more chances to catch a clean pass, which is why warehouse labels are tall. Test a printed sample with the scanner that will actually read it before committing to a run.
: Yes. Open “Generate many at once” under the generator, paste a column of values or upload a CSV, and download the batch as a ZIP of PNGs, a ZIP of SVGs, or a single PDF with one barcode per page. Up to 500 rows run at a time — a browser-memory cap, not a plan limit, identical for everyone, and the tool tells you exactly how many rows were left out rather than truncating quietly. One detail that matters specifically for Code 128: because its data legitimately contains commas, a pasted list is read as one value per line rather than split on commas, unless the input is tab-separated or carries a header row that says which column holds the codes. That choice is shown to you and can be changed, so a name,sku export never silently encodes the product names.
: No to all three. This is a web tool: there is no Code 128 font, no Excel or Word add-in, no library and no REST API. What it does cover is the case those are usually wanted for — export your spreadsheet column to CSV, or copy it straight out of the sheet and paste it into the bulk panel, and every barcode comes back in one download. Worth knowing about the font route in particular: a Code 128 font cannot compute the modulo-103 check character on its own, which is why font-based barcodes so often scan as the wrong value or refuse to scan at all. We also do not read or decode barcodes — this page creates them. Everything QRKIT does generate, all fourteen formats, is listed on the barcode generator.
: No. Every barcode this tool makes is static: the data lives in the bars, so once it is printed it says what it says forever, and nothing routes through us to be counted. There are no scan analytics, no redirects and no editing after download — that is a property of a linear barcode, not a feature we are holding back. If you need a code whose destination you can change later, or scan counts, that is a dynamic QR code, which is a different symbology, a different product, and unlike the barcode tool it does involve an account.

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Generate Your Code 128 Barcode

Full ASCII, subsets and check character handled for you, drawn in your browser and exported as vector SVG, PDF or PNG at the size you will print it. No signup, no watermark.

Automatic A/B/C subsetsVector SVG and PDFUp to 500 at onceCommercial use allowed

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