PDF417
PDF417 is a stacked 1D barcode symbology, standardized in the ISO/IEC 15438 specification. It was designed to be read by conventional 1D barcode scanners in multiple passes, and is composed of multiple 1D barcodes stacked over each other.
PDF417 barcodes are often found on airline boarding passes and driving licenses. A sample PDF417 barcode that encodes the value STRICH Barcode Scanning SDK is shown below.
A simplified variant called Compact PDF417 is defined in the same ISO specification and also supported. A sample Compact PDF417 barcode that encodes the value 1234567890 is shown below.
Symbology Characteristics
Configuration name |
|
ISO specification | ISO/IEC 15438 |
Encodable character set | Three different compaction modes to efficiently encode numeric, alphanumeric and binary data. |
Capacity | The largest symbol can encode up to 3116 numeric characters, 2335 alphanumeric characters, or 1555 bytes of binary data. |
Integrity protection | Reed-Solomon error correction, with ten error correction levels (0-9) |
Quiet zone | A quiet zone of two modules (2X) is required around the symbol. |
Configuration Options
PDF417 does not have any symbology-specific configuration options.
Limitations
The following elements of the ISO specification are not implemented:
Macro PDF417 (distributing data across multiple codes)
Micro PDF417 (ISO/IEC 24728) is a distinct symbology that shares its data encoding with PDF417 and is not yet supported. Please contact us if you'd like to expedite support for Micro PDF417.
ECI (Extended Channel Interpretation) is not supported.