UPC-E

The Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code version E is a zero-suppressed version of UPC-A. This version compresses the data characters and the checksum into six characters. Only tags with a number system character of zero can be encoded into UPC-E. In addition, the original ten data characters must have at least four zeros. This bar code is ideal for small packages because it is the smallest bar code. Note that supplementals are not supported.

A UPC-E bar code consists of the following:

  • Left guard pattern
  • Data characters
  • Compression

    type digit
  • Right guard pattern

An example of a UPC-E bar code is shown here. It encodes the data 12300 00064, with the data compressed to 123643 (the second 3 indicates a compression type).


UPC-E bar code