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Many barcodes are read less reliably when there are broad areas of all-light or all-dark modules or when a pattern of modules duplicates the position detection pattern that is located in three corners of the barcode. To resolve this issue, some two-dimensional (2-D) barcodes can mask a hard-to-read symbol with an easier-to-read symbol that can be read and translated to the original barcode data.

Many different mask schemes are available, and we strongly recommend that you use the default setting of Auto. When you use this setting, BarTender compares how all available masking schemes affect your barcode and then automatically uses the most readable mask, as measured by a standard that is specified in the official barcode specification.