Add to Options ability to specify narrow and wide bar widths

[RodBarnes]

trafficstars

A helpful addition would be to allow specifying the narrow and wide bar widths. Doing so would allow printing smaller barcodes.

For example, I have an SDK to a particular label printer and, using that SDK, I can specify the narrow and wide bar widths in order to produce a barcode that is smaller in width. So, a 30-char barcode generated using narrow/wide bar widths of 2, outputs an image approx. 3" in width. The same 30-char barcode generated using narrow/wide bar widths of 1, outputs an image half the length -- 1.5 " in width.

Detailed explanation can be found here Basics of Barcodes in the section "Narrow Bar and Wide Bar".

[ankiitbansal]

any luck with this? I am facing issues while scanning low width barcodes on iOS

[mpp]

Hi, I'm writing an app to render ZPL commands and I'm facing the same problem.

I need a way to set the barcode bar width and wide bar to narrow ratio data that come from the ^BY command.

Do you know if it is possible and how?

[micjahn]

A possible workaround and perhaps a really good solution would be if you generate the barcode with a width of 1 and manually stretch the image / changing the DPI settings of the bitmap afterwards. A width of 1 results in a bitmap with the smallest possible size. The narrow bars should have a size of 1 pixel.

[mpp]

Yeah, that's what I did. I render the barcode without setting the width and then render it again with the width I want using the resulting width of the first render and the barcode parameters I have.

Thanks

[mpp]

The solution is not optimal for the wide-to-narrow bar ratio because that's not what the zebra printer does so I have big imperfections between the rendering and the printer label. Can you suggest me the best way to implement it? If I get to a decent result then I'll submit a pull request with the code

[mpp]

As example for the CODE39 format the edit should be in the method:

private static void toIntArray(int a, int[] toReturn)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++)
            {
                int temp = a & (1 << (8 - i));
                toReturn[i] = temp == 0 ? 1 : 2;
            }
        }

where instead of that 0 ? 1 : 2 there should be something like 0 ? 1 : wideBarRatio

Am I correct?