PDF417 Barcode - Overview

PDF417 symbol is an ISO international standard (IEC 15438). You are allowed to use it in your applications.
There is an example on the left.

The PDF417 code is a 2D barcode which can encode a lot of information inside a square symbol. All the 256 characters can be encoded.
You may use multiple symbols to spread your information in order to create a bigger message.

This barcode contains a way to detect and correct errors based on the Reed Solomon algorithm. The level can be between 0 and 8 included.

• Text (2 characters per keyword): Default mode which allows you to encode capital letters, lower case and many punctuation characters. (ASCII 9, 10, 13 & 32 à 127). You will save space if you write your message only in capital letters or only in lower case instead of switching back and forth between these two kinds of letters.
• Byte (1.2 byte per keyword): Mode which allows you to compress less than the TEXT mode all the ASCII characters (ASCII 0 to 255).
• Number (2.9 numbers per keyword): Mode which allows you to encode with a good compression all the numbers.