pdf417_enc win32 binaries

pdf417_enc win32 binaries

This page has win32/Windows binaries for pdf417_enc, an open source PDF417 encoder. PDF417 is a high density 2D barcode symbology increasingly being used by airlines, parcel delivery companies and many other users. This is an easy and free way to make your own PDF417 barcodes/symbols on Windows (Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP - Vista untested). You can shell out to these binaries from pretty much any programming language, like Perl for example, making it easy to make PDF417 symbols from any programming environment.

Binaries
- pdf417_enc_win32_bin.zip: contains two executables, pdf417_enc.exe, and pdf417_enc_gif.exe. The only difference between the two is that pdf417_enc_gif.exe supports GIF output.

Usage
pdf417_enc -t type infile outfile [nrows] [ncols] [ec_level]

type: can be pbm, ps, raw, or gif (if you are using pdf417_enc_gif). Note that output GIF files are quite big, because pdf417_enc_gif uses libungif, i.e. uncompressed, to avoid patent issues. Also, note you cannot have a space between '-t' and the option value! -t gif will not work, but -tgif will. Further note that "raw" mode does not seem to work.
infile: name of the file containing the data to be encoded. You must format the file appropriately, e.g.:
TC "Put text data here" NC "Put numeric data here" BC "Put arbitrary binary data here (see docs)"
In text mode, you can include \CR for a carriage return, \LF for a linefeed and \NL for carriage return and linefeed.
nrows / ncols: number of rows and columns in the barcode. This is useful for resizing the barcode if you have some specific size requirements.
eclevel: the error correction level. Defaults to 5, maximum value is 8. PDF417 uses Reed-Solomon error correction to handle damaged symbols. The higher the error correction level, the more resilient the symbol will be, but more error correction codewords will be needed, hence the symbol will be bigger.

Remember to always test that generated barcodes are readable by the scanners and other equipment you are using. Some scanners require that your barcode data ends in a newline.

See the pdf417_enc web site for more details.

Useful barcode links

bcTester: freeware Windows program to decode barcodes from images. Very useful for testing and analysis.
barcode4j: Java library (and separate commandline program) for producing a wide range of different barcodes.

Source / compiling
(Most people won't need or want this - you only need to do this if, for some reason, you want to build your own binaries.) As pdf417_enc is released under the GPL, I am making the source used for building these binaries available:
- pdf417_enc.3.9.5_win32_src.zip
Note that the source is identical to the original pdf417_enc source - only the Makefile has been modified.

To build this you'll need:

gcc as well as binutils, mingw32 and w32api. The Makefile assumes these are installed in \gcc. You can get these from mingw.
libungif - get this from gnuwin32.
UnxUtils - native Windows ports of many common utilities. We use sh, rm and GNU make.

To compile:

Unzip the source code zip file.
cd into the directory.
To make an executable with GIF support, run make WANTGIF=1.
To make an executable without GIF support, simply run make.