Understanding Barcode Symbology: A Guide to Scanning Barcodes with Ease

Have you ever been puzzled by the type of barcode symbology used on badges, products, or IDs? It is a question that comes up daily — you have a barcode in hand and need to know its format before you can build anything around it. The answer takes about a minute and requires nothing but a smartphone or tablet.

The CodeREADr app’s SD PRO scan engine reads more than 50 barcode symbologies — including QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF417, Aztec, EAN-13, UPC-A, and Code 128 — using only the built-in camera of an iOS or Android device. To identify a barcode’s format: download the CodeREADr app from the App Store or Google Play, tap the “Try SD PRO Scan Engine” button on the sign-in screen (no account needed for the demo), and scan your barcode. The scan result’s Data section shows the barcode’s symbology, or format, alongside the decoded value. Demo scans display with ‘x’ marks in the value, indicating a demonstration read.

Symbology identification is only as good as the engine doing the reading. SD PRO decodes in tens of milliseconds and handles the barcodes that defeat consumer scanning apps — small, dense, damaged, obscured, or scanned at extreme angles — with performance comparable to dedicated industrial scanners. It is the default scan engine for new CodeREADr sign-ups, so the engine you demo is the engine you deploy.

Once you know your barcode’s symbology, you can confirm platform support in our Supported Barcode Types article in the Knowledge Base, or use our free web-based identification tool described in “How to Identify Barcode Types and Formats.” And if the goal is to validate, record, or collect data with those barcodes at scale, the same app you used for identification is the starting point.