Barcode Software
Barcod.eu
Our brand new website related to barcodes
ActiveBarcode
You can generate barcode and export as a picture or you can buy as ActiveX
component and use it it e.g. Excel, Access and many other applications. Very flexible and
cheap.
Forget solutions like Codesoft and buy something like ActiveBarcode. You can use MS Access
to store data and draw labels. Place there text, barcode, graphic, what you like. Easy for
IT staff and easy for anybody after reading short manual.
For me number one. Easy to use, cheap, flexible.
Supported barcodes: Code 128, Code 128A, Code 128B, Code 128C, EAN-128, UCC-128, EAN-13,
EAN-8, EAN-5, EAN-2, EAN-99, EAN-Velocity, ISBN, EAN-14, DUN-14, SCC-14, ITF-14,
EAN-18/NVE, SSCC-18, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 39, Code 39 Extended, Code 25, Code 25
Interleaved, Codabar, Code 93, Code 93 Extended, PZN, Leitcode, Identcode, MSI Plessey,
PostNet, Royal Mail
Price 250-700 EUR / from $330 to $930 depends on license mode
IDAutomation
IDAutomation offers really wide range of tools for barcode printing. They have
barcode fonts which is easy to use in any application, like MS Word. I found them when I
needed some components for .NET bringing barcode print function into my application. They
have solutions for .NET, Java, ActiveX. Supporting both linear and 2D barcodes incl. more
and more popular PDF417.
IDAutomation also sell barcode label software, but I haven't tried it
yet.
Teklynx
Codesoft 
I was using Codesoft Enterprise and Runtime version 6.x more than 4 years. And if
I should buy again, I would refuse.
Why? It is nice software to design labels with many types of barcodes. It can print
directly to printer or through Windows spool (like to usual office printer).
But....
It worked fine just under Win98. When running on Win2000, then the barcode looked strange
(the first vertical bar was moved out of barcode) and the scanner could not scan it. We
were trying to do many things, but then we reinstalled PC to Win98.
The second issue was with "database connection". At the beginning we used Excel
sheets as a source of variable data. So we could draw common label for all models of
particular model family, and then go through lists of models and print out the label for
model we need. But something was wrong. If we add new row with new model into Excel sheet,
sometimes happen we cannot find that model in the list of models the Codesoft. After many
trials we have found out than 100% reliable way is to insert row before the last model in
Excel sheet and fill in data.
Based on that experience we have decided to move to MS Access as database storage. We did
it and it worked fine....Till one of out two barcode printers Intermec 4420 became broken
and we needed temporary to print all labels on the second barcode station with similar
configuration. I opened the label and could see error message that database could not be
found... The problem is with the name of ODBC driver. That name is stored both in query
definition file and in label itself in binary format. Never more !!!
I was very difficult to create label on different PC as it did not work sometimes on
production PC.
We have tried to print direct to printer without using Windows spool. It did not work
under W2000. When using on W98 system it was very slow. Now we print through Windows spool
like to usual office printers and it works.
When I have checked Teklynx website I could see new versions. Definitely we will not
upgrade to that. We will try another solutions, like above mentioned ActiveBarcode, which
is very flexible.
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