Method 1: Interpreting the

12 Printed Digits on a
Barcode

1. Look the barcode up online

for most 12-digit barcodes.
The UPC system encodes only the
manufacturer's identity and an identification
number for the specific product, except in
certain cases described in the following steps.
More typically, no additional information is
included in the UPC system, so there is nothing to
gain by attempting to read the barcode yourself.
Instead, look it up online using free services such
asGTIN's, the official U.S. bar code assignment
company, orupcdatabase.org, which is a
database created by users. Enter the full 12-digit
barcode in the "GTIN" or "Search for a product"
fields, respectively.
GTIN refers to the data system UPC is a part of,

2. Understand bar code

basics.

 The first 610 digits of a 12-digit barcode

identify the company that manufactures or
sells the product (either company may choose to
add a barcode). This code is assigned and sold by
a non-profit organization, GS1, upon request.The
remaining digits, except for the very last one,
are invented by that company to describe each
of its products.
For example, a company might be assigned the
code 123456. It can then print any 12-digit
barcode that begins 123456, creating one for each
product. Compare two barcodes from the
same company to see whether you can figure
out what the company code is.
The purpose of the final digit is explained later on
in this section.

3. Learn how to interpret the

barcode if the first digit is a 3.

 Drugs, pharmaceutical products, and

occasionally beauty products usually have
bar codes beginning with 3.
The next 10 digits are typically the U.S.
National Drug Code numberThis type of 12digit number is sometimes referred to as a
UPN, or Universal Product Number.
Although drug codes are always 10 digits
long, they may also include hyphens (or
spaces), which are not shown in the barcode.
For example, 1234567890 and 1234567
890 are different drug codes, but only one
of them can use the same sequence of
numbers as a barcode.

2. Understand barcodes with a

first digit of 2.

 These barcodes are for items sold by

weight. Typically, the first six digits, including
the 2, identify the product's manufacturer,
and the next five after that are used
locally by the store or warehouse to
identify the weight of the product, or the
price of a particular weight.
If you have several products from the same
location but in different weights, you may try
to figure out the codes for specific weights.
The remaining digits (except for the very last
one) should be the code used to denote
weight or price.

5. Learn about the final

digit.

 The final digit is called the "check digit," and is

automatically determined by putting the previous
11 digits through a mathematical formula. The
purpose of this is to catch printing errors.
While fake UPC barcodes do exist, usually
created by companies who don't understand
that they need to apply for one, it would be
easy to include the correct check digit, so this is
likely not a reliable method of finding fakes. (For
that purpose,look it up in the official
databaseinstead.) If you're curious or enjoy doing
math for fun, you canenter your barcode into a
GTIN-12 check digit calculator, or follow the
checking formula yourself: Add all the oddnumbered digits together (the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th,
9th, and 11th digits)

 Multiply the result by 3

Add the new result to all the even digits (the
2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th) - this
includes the check digit itself
"Chop off" everything except the final digit of
your new result, i.e. the number in the ones
place. (This process is called modulo 10, or
dividing by 10 and finding the remainder.)
Subtract the new result from 10 to find your
answer. For example, if the previous step
resulted in an answer of 8, you would
calculate 10-8=2. This answer should be the
same as the final 12th digit of the barcode.

Method 2 of 2: Reading UPC

Barcodes without the Numbers

1. Understand this
method.
Although barcodes are designed to be "read"
by scanners and interpreted by computers, it
is possible with practice to look at a UPC
barcode and translate it into a 12-digit
number.
Barcodes using non-UPC systems or different
numbers of digits cannot be read using this
method. Most barcodes on products sold in
the U.S. and Canada are UPC barcodes, but be
wary of compressed 6-digit UPC barcodes,
which have a different, more complex
encoding system.

2. Find the three sets of longer

lines.

 The barcode should be divided into three

sections by sets of slightly longer lines. Look
at the bottom of the vertical bars: some of the
lines should extend further down than the others.
There should be two longer lines at the
beginning, two in the middle, and two at the
end.
These are there to help a barcode scanning
machine read the bar code, and do not get
interpreted as numbers.
However, they still have a purpose in this method:
the bars to the left of the central longer lines get
read slightly differently than the bars on the right.
This is explained in the next details.

3. Identify the four widths of

the bars.

 Each vertical bar (black or white) can

have one of four different
widths. Going from thinnest to
thickest, these will be described as
widths 1, 2, 3, or 4 for the rest of this
method.
Using a magnifying glass if
necessary, try to figure out the
differences in the line widths. Telling
the difference between two lines of
similar widths can be the hardest
part of reading a bar code.

4. Write down the thickness of

the left hand bars.

 Start with the bars on the left hand side,

between the longer bars on the left and the
longer bars in the center. Begin with the
firstwhitebar on the left hand side, and
measure the thickness of each bar, black and
white.
Each digit in the 12-digit number you're trying
to find is encoded using four bars. Write down
the thickness of each bar, dividing them
into four-bar groups. When you reach the
extra-long center bars, you'll have six groups
of four digits each. For example, if the first
white barafterthe extra-long lines on the left
hand side is the thinnest size, write down 1.

 Next, if the black bar to the right is

the thickest size, write down 4.
Once you've done this for four bars
(black and white), leave a space
before writing down the next bar. For
example, once you've written down
"1422," move your pen to a new line
before writing down the next bar
width.

5. Do the same for the right-hand

side, but start with a black bar.

 Do not decode the extra-long bars in

the center. Starting with the first
normal-lengthblackbar to the right
of them, use the same technique.
This time, each group of four bars
(representing one digit) will have a
black-white-black-white pattern. Stop
when you have six additional groups
of four digits each, and do not
decode the extra-long bars on the
right.

6. Decode the bar widths into

actual numbers.

 Now that you have figured out which bars (of

different widths) correspond to each number, all
you need is to know the code that translates these
into the actual digits in the 12-digit number. Use
the following instructions to do so: 3211= 0
2221= 1
2122= 2
1411= 3
1132= 4
1231= 5
1114= 6
1312= 7
1213= 8
3112= 9

7. Check your result.

 If the numbers are printed beneath the bar

code, read them to see whether you made
any mistakes. You can also look up the
product in theGTIN database, typing in the
12-digit barcode you found into the "GTIN"
field. This should find any product from a
company that was officially assigned a
barcode, although sometimes companies
mistakenly print their own barcodes that
aren't added to the system. Still, most of the
time, this database should come up with a
product name that matches the item you are
looking at, if you read the barcode correctly.