Avery Dennison Monarch 6017 Programmer Manual User Manual

Page 15

Creating and Printing Formats 2-9

Code 128 (UCC/EAN-128) Details

For Code 128 (UCC/EAN-128) bar codes,

can be a maximum of

18 (with alphanumeric/control code data) or 36 (if you use subset C and
numeric pairs).

The first character of

must specify the subset to use: A, B, or C

(listed as

87, 88, and 89 hex, respectively). The rest of the data can be all

256 ASCII characters by using a combination of the subsets. The data must
appear as numeric pairs corresponding to the hex values for the ASCII
character in question.

Each subset enables the bar code to contain different characters. Subset A
uses

20-3F hex and 40-7F hex (read by a bar code reader as 00-7F hex),

subset B uses

20-7F hex, and subset C uses 30-39 hex.

The following table explains how to switch from one subset to another.

Character

Subset A

Subset B

Subset C

80 hex

Function 3

81 hex

Function 2

82 hex*

Shift

83 hex

Switch to Subset C Switch to Subset C

84 hex

Switch to Subset B Function 4

Switch to Subset B

85 hex

Function 4

Switch to Subset A Switch to Subset A

86 hex

Function 1

* A temporary, one character shift to another subset.

The following table describes the purpose of each function.

Function
Number

Purpose

Uses reserved Code 128 characters (UCC/EAN128).

Appends data (subsets A and B only).

Initializes a bar code reader.

Extends characters. For example, 'a' (97 decimal) is
changed to '

' (225 decimal) by adding 128 to it. This

function is unavailable in subset C.