GS1 DataBar
Shelf space on fresh produce, coupons, and pharmacy packaging drove the design of GS1 DataBar, which encodes a complete fourteen-digit GTIN in an area appreciably smaller than an EAN-13 symbol. GS1 published the family in 2001 under the earlier name RSS. Its bar height of 13 mm and quiet zones of a single module on each side are the source of the space saving, while the X-dimension remains 0.264 mm. The base variant is fixed in structure and carries the GTIN alone, with no Application Identifier data attached. Because point-of-sale systems had to be upgraded before the symbol could be read at checkout, adoption proceeded on a coordinated industry schedule rather than product by product. DataBar is a GS1 data carrier and encodes numeric data only.
A compact GS1 symbology designed to fit on small or irregularly shaped items like fresh produce, coupons, and pharmacy packaging. GS1 DataBar encodes a full 14-digit GTIN in a space significantly smaller than EAN-13, enabling point-of-sale identification on items previously too small for barcoding.
GS1 DataBar
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