Density |
The density of a barcode refers to how many characters can be encoded per inch. One factor that controls the density of a barcode is its symbology. Different symbologies require different numbers of bars and spaces to represent the same information. The density of a barcode is also affected by the width of the narrow and wide bars and spaces. The narrower the bars and spaces, the less room it takes to print out the barcode and the higher the density of the barcode in characters per inch.
To change the density of a barcode by using the mouse
To change the density of a barcode by using the Symbology and Size property page
As the character density of a barcode increases, the space that is required to print it decreases, which enables the barcode message to be smaller. Although this may be desirable, if the density is increased too much, the readability of the barcodes can decrease due to the following factors:
The optics of the scanning device may not be precise enough to properly detect the narrow lines and spaces of the barcodes.
The printing tolerance of the printing device may not be precise enough to produce good-quality bars at the higher density settings.
When printing high-density barcodes on either dot matrix or laser printers, keep in mind that you may require a high-resolution optical scanner to read the codes. For a variety of reasons (such as the age of your dot-matrix printer head or toner specks from your laser printer), it is possible that the narrow white spaces between the bars can become too narrow to be detected by a low-to-medium resolution optical scanner. In addition, it is possible for your laser printer to produce lines that are finer than the optical resolving capability of your optical scanner. Therefore, if you plan to print high-density barcodes, we recommend the use of a high-resolution optical scanner.
Low-density dot-matrix barcodes can be used for the production of high quality camera-ready artwork. If a low-density barcode is photographically reduced, the individual dots from the dot-matrix printer disappear, making it appear as though it were produced by using a high-quality laser printer.