The barcode fonts of TransBar
The installation of barcode fonts by TransBar
TransBar 5 offers an integrated font manager, which can be implemented manually or automatically.
However, the barcode fonts that TransBar installs are in no way different from the fonts delivered with the computer, except that they generate particular graphics, often unrelated to the graphics of traditional characters, and that they use internally a high-precision coordinate system that allows printing to the nearest printer point, whatever the printing resolution.
It is therefore perfectly possible to manage TransBar's fonts at the same time by its built-in manager and by any usual method, with one exception: under Windows 10 or 11, installing fonts in a user directory is possible, but the operations of installation and uninstallation cannot be carried out in a traditional way, only the manager integrated into TransBar authorizes these operations. Apart from this case, the traditional installation and uninstallation are perfectly possible, the TransBar manager allowing to export the fonts in TrueType/OpenType format in the form of files suffixed ".ttf".
The traditional installation of barcode fonts
Installing barcode fonts can be done in the traditional way:
- on Windows, files suffixed ".ttf" will be dropped in the directory "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts"
- under MacOS, files suffixed ".ttf" can be installed in three ways:
- by double-clicking them individually, they will be copied into the "Fonts" sub-folder of the current session's library and will thus become accessible to the only user of this session
- the same result is obtained by dragging a complete folder of fonts into this same sub-folder, with the advantage of hierarchical storage
- by dragging the files or a folder of files into the "Fonts" subfolder of the main library, making the fonts available to all users in all sessions.
It is also possible to install TransBar fonts through font management software or on a font server.
Please note that many applications create the contents of their "Fonts" menu when launched: if a newly installed font does not appear in an application's menu, close and relaunch that application.
The specificity of barcode fonts
No standard defines an absolute correspondence between an encoding and a barcode font. Consequently:
- TransBar should only be used with its own fonts
- a TransBar font should not be used with any transcription other than that provided by TransBar.
This does not mean that TransBar is always indispensable. In the simplest encodings (Code 39, no-interleaved 2/5, Codabar, MSI), and as long as the addition of a control character is not requested, it is possible to simply obtain the transcription, manually or by elementary programming, by adding a character at the start of the information to be coded and another at the end. To know which character to add, look at what TransBar does. This transcription, as simple as it is, is however always necessary, it is a technical constraint which, if neglected, will lead to a completely unreadable barcode.
Finally, barcode fonts cannot take all dimensions, except to accept that barcodes are obtained unreadable. See below an introduction to this specificity, then, then, the chapter of this documentation devoted to this subject.
The name of barcode fonts
The name of each TransBar file and font is made up of characters that totally define it:
- first a significant group of characters of the barcode symbology or standard it is likely to express:
- C128 for Code 128
- C39 for Code 39
- Cod for Codabar
- E25 for Interleaved 2/5 and Code S
- Ean for Ean 13 and 8
- Ean128 for GS1 128
- Itf for Itf 14
- Msi for MSI Plessey
- S25 for No-Interleaved 2/5
- Upc for Upc A and E
- then a significant capital letter of its internal technology (T for TrueType and OpenType_TrueType, P for PostScript, O for OpenType_PostScript)
- then a significant number of its nominal size (for example 48 for a font that it is advisable to use in size 48)
- then one of the following capitals depending on the type of caption or coding:
- N for no-captioned font
- L for standard captioned font
- A for captioned font, limited to set A of Code 128
- B for captioned font, limited to set B of Code 128
- C for captioned font, limited to set C of Code 128
- G for captioned font with reinforced caption
- R for captioned font with reduced caption
- finally, the ending "Dem" distinguishes demo fonts limited to use by TransBar transcriber in demo mode.
Example: the font named "EanT48L" is intended for:
- express an Ean 13 or Ean 8 transcript to provide an Ean 13 barcode or an Ean 8 barcode, due to the first three letters of its name "Ean"
- be used on a printing device supporting TrueType-OpenType fonts (all current printers and PDF generators), due to the fourth letter of its name "T"
- be used by default in size 48, except to determine a particular size by the calculator incorporated in TransBar according to the printing resolution envisaged and the desired size, because of the fifth and sixth letters of its name "48"
- provide a barcode with a standard size caption, due to the seventh letter of its name "L"
The sizing of barcode fonts
A traditional font cannot be used in all sizes or it will be unreadable. The acceptable limit depends on the resolution. For example, with a print resolution of 300 dots per inch, Arial should not in practice be used in size less than 9 given the inaccuracies accumulated by this low resolution, the characteristics of printers and those of office paper. But, in professional printing at very high resolution, you can go down to 7, or even 6 while remaining reasonably legible...
It is the same with barcode fonts, with rules that are much stricter and more diverse in this area. Moreover, and contrary to human reading, a reading test limited to one or a few barcodes, however useful or even essential it may be, does not make it possible to ensure that all the combinations of bars, corresponding to all the codable information, will provide readable code.
This is why we advise you to carefully read the chapter of this documentation devoted to this subject.