Data Matrix

The Symbology and Size property page for the Data Matrix symbology includes the following options.

Symbology: Specifies the symbology that is selected. You can use this list to select a different symbology.

Dimensions

X dimension: Specifies the width of the X dimension.

Opens the Barcode X Dimension dialog, which you can use to configure advanced X dimension settings.
Ratio: Specifies the ratio between the widths of the wide and narrow elements in a barcode symbol. By default, this option is set to Auto and cannot be changed.
Density: Not available for this symbology.
Height: Not available for this symbology.

Symbology Specific Options

Symbol type: Specifies the symbol type, which indicates the level of error correction that the symbol uses.
Use ECI protocol: Specifies a protocol for adding escape sequences to the data that uses the Extended Channel Interpretation (ECI) standard. BarTender can use the ECI protocol to encode text into a barcode by using various international character sets or Unicode (UTF-8). Available when the selected symbol type is ECC 200.

For more information about escape sequences, refer to Data Matrix Escape Sequences.

Character set: Specifies the character set. Available when the selected symbol type is something other than ECC 200.

The following options are available:

Auto: Specifies that BarTender evaluates the data for the barcode and automatically determines the best character set.
Numeric (0-9) with Spaces: Specifies that only numbers, including spaces, are considered to be valid data.
Uppercase Alphabetic with Spaces: Specifies that only uppercase letters, including spaces, are considered to be valid data.
Uppercase Alphanumeric with Punctuation: Specifies that only uppercase letters and numbers, including punctuation, are considered to be valid data.
Uppercase Alphanumeric with Spaces: Specifies that only uppercase letters and numbers, including spaces, are considered to be valid data.
Full ASCII (128 characters): Specifies that all keyboard characters, including upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, are considered to be valid data.
ISO 8859-1 (256 characters): Specifies that all 256 delimited characters, including all keyboard characters and international delimited characters, are considered to be valid data.

If your data contains characters that are outside of the selected set, the barcode is displayed with an "X" as shown. In this case, the barcode is not valid and will not be printed. If you see this display, you can point to the symbol to view a tooltip that explains the error.

Text encoding: Specifies the character set that BarTender uses to convert the text message string to the data representation that is encoded in the barcode symbol.

Prefix: Specifies that a prefix of one or more characters is added to the beginning of the barcode symbol in accordance with industry standards. The following options are available.

For more information about which prefix option to use, refer to your symbology specification.

None: Specifies that the data is encoded without a prefix.
Auto (Macro Substitution): Specifies that the appropriate macro prefix is selected automatically.
GS1: Specifies that the prefix conforms to specific industry standards as authorized by AIM International. When you select this prefix, the GS1 Digital Link option is displayed.
GS1 (Manual Check Digits): Specifies that the prefix conforms to the GS1 standard, with manually selected check digits. When you select this prefix, the GS1 Digital Link option is displayed.
HIBC: Specifies that the prefix conforms to the Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC) standard. Encoding is forced to the US ASCII character set.
Macro 5: Specifies that the 05 Macro header (prefix) and trailer (suffix) are abbreviated in one symbol character to reduce the number of symbol characters that are needed to encode data.
Macro 6: Specifies that the 06 Macro header (prefix) and trailer (suffix) are abbreviated in one symbol character to reduce the number of symbol characters that are needed to encode data.
Reader Initialization: Specifies that the symbol encodes a message that is used to program the reader system.

If you specify a special function character (such as FNC1 through FNC6) at the beginning of your barcode data, and if the Prefix option is selected, the prefix that is specified in BarTender is ignored in favor of the special function character that is located in your data. For more information about special function characters, refer to your Data Matrix documentation.

Size: Specifies the size of the symbol. The Size list includes several preconfigured dimensions (such as 10 x 10) and the following auto-generated settings:

Auto-Square: Creates the symbol to have an equal number of columns and rows and a square shape.
Auto-Rectangle: Creates the symbol to have more columns than rows and a rectangular shape. To use this setting, the amount of data must be small. If the input data is larger than what will fit into the available rectangular sizes, the symbol is printed as a square.
Auto-Rectangle (Allow DMRE): Creates the symbol to support the extended rectangular Data Matrix (DMRE) symbology specification.

Options: Provides other symbology-specific options, as follows:

White on black: Specifies that the barcode symbol is displayed and printed as white on a black background. The black background is wide enough to accommodate the quiet zone.

When you select this option, you cannot specify a different color for the barcode.
Invert axes: Specifies that the X and Y axes are inverted. Available when the symbol type is something other than ECC 200.

GS1 Application Identifier Data Source Wizard: Starts the GS1 Application Identifier Data Source wizard so that you can add GS1 application identifiers (AIs) to the barcode.
GS1 Digital Link: Specifies that the barcode contains a GS1 Digital Link. When you select this check box, the following option is available:
- Base URL: Specifies the base URL of the digital link. By default, this URL is https://id.gs1.org, but you can change it as needed.
DIN SPEC 91406: Specifies that the barcode symbol conforms to the DIN SPEC 91406 standard specifications.

Color: Displays the currently selected color of the barcode symbol. To select a different color, click this option, and then use the Color Picker to select the color that you want. For more information, refer to Color Picker.

Barcode scanners cannot read colored barcodes as well as they can read barcodes that are printed in black. Therefore, we recommend that you do not modify the color of barcode objects unless they are used only for decoration.

Print Method: Opens the Print Method Options dialog, where you can specify how your barcodes are printed on thermal printers. Available when you use a thermal printer that has Drivers by Seagull™ installed.