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Code 93

Code 93 is a barcode symbology designed in 1982 by Intermec to provide a higher density and data security enhancement to Code 39. It is an alphanumeric, variable length symbology. Code 93 is used primarily by Canada Post to encode supplementary delivery information. Every symbol includes two check characters.

Each Code 93 character is nine modules wide, and always has three bars and three spaces, thus the name. Each bar and space is from 1 to 4 modules wide. (For comparison, a Code 39 character consists of five bars and four spaces, three of which are wide, for a total width of 13–16 modules.)

Code 93 is designed to encode the same 26 upper case letters, 10 digits and 7 special characters as code 39:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - . $ / + % SPACE

In addition to 43 characters, Code 93 defines 5 special characters (including a start/stop character), which can be combined with other characters to unambiguously represent all 128 ASCII characters.

In an open system, the minimum value of X dimension is 7.5 mils (0.19 mm). The minimum bar height is 15 percent of the symbol length or 0.25 inches (6.4 mm), whichever is greater. The starting and trailing quiet zone should be at least 0.25 inches (6.4 mm).

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Structure of a code 93 barcode

A typical code 93 barcode has the following structure:

  • A start character *
  • Encoded message
  • First modulo-47 check character "C"
  • Second modulo-47 check character "K"
  • Stop character *
  • Termination bar

Detailed outline

The 48 possible code-93 symbols are as follows. There are actually ( 8 3 ) {\displaystyle {\tbinom {8}{3}}} = 56 combinations that satisfy the coding rules, but one would be confused with the stop symbol in reverse, and the other 7 are unused. Codes 43–46 can be prefixed to alphanumeric values to produce all 128 possible ASCII codes. This is done in exactly the same way as Full ASCII Code 39, but uses reserved codes rather than re-using codes 39–42.

Code 93 bar code
IDCharacterWidthsBinaryIDCharacterWidthsBinary
0013111210001010028S211122110101100
1111121310100100029T211221110100110
2211131210100010030U221121110010110
3311141110100001031V222111110011010
4412111310010100032W112122101101100
5512121210010010033X112221101100110
6612131110010001034Y122121100110110
7711111410101000035Z123111100111010
8813121110001001036-121131100101110
9914111110000101037.311112111010100
10A21111311010100038SPACE311211111010010
11B21121211010010039$321111111001010
12C21131111010001040/112131101101110
13D22111211001010041+113121101110110
14E22121111001001042%211131110101110
15F23111111000101043($)121221100100110
16G11211310110100044(%)312111111011010
17H11221210110010045(/)311121111010110
18I11231110110001046(+)122211100110010
19J122112100110100Start/Stop *111141101011110
20K132111100011010(Reverse stop)114111101111010
21L111123101011000Unused411111111101010
22M111222101001100111132101011100
23N111321101000110111231101001110
24O121122100101100113112101110100
25P131121100010110113211101110010
26Q212112110110100213111110111010
27R212211110110010212121110110110

Full ASCII Code 93

Code 93 is restricted to 43 characters and 5 special characters. In Full ASCII Code 93, the 43 basic symbols (0–9, A-Z, "-", ".", "$", "/", "+" and "%") are the same as their representations in Code 93. Lower case letters, additional punctuation characters and control characters are represented by sequences of two characters of Code 93.

This encoding is the same as Full ASCII Code 39, except that four special-purpose symbols are used, rather than reassigning $, /, + and %:

Code details
NrCharacterEncoding   NrCharacterEncoding   NrCharacterEncoding   NrCharacterEncoding
0NUL(%)U32[space][space]64@(%)V96`(%)W
1SOH($)A33!(/)A65AA97a(+)A
2STX($)B34"(/)B66BB98b(+)B
3ETX($)C35#(/)C67CC99c(+)C
4EOT($)D36$$68DD100d(+)D
5ENQ($)E37%%69EE101e(+)E
6ACK($)F38&(/)F70FF102f(+)F
7BEL($)G39'(/)G71GG103g(+)G
8BS($)H40((/)H72HH104h(+)H
9HT($)I41)(/)I73II105i(+)I
10LF($)J42*(/)J74JJ106j(+)J
11VT($)K43++75KK107k(+)K
12FF($)L44,(/)L76LL108l(+)L
13CR($)M45--77MM109m(+)M
14SO($)N46..78NN110n(+)N
15SI($)O47//79OO111o(+)O
16DLE($)P480080PP112p(+)P
17DC1($)Q491181QQ113q(+)Q
18DC2($)R502282RR114r(+)R
19DC3($)S513383SS115s(+)S
20DC4($)T524484TT116t(+)T
21NAK($)U535585UU117u(+)U
22SYN($)V546686VV118v(+)V
23ETB($)W557787WW119w(+)W
24CAN($)X568888XX120x(+)X
25EM($)Y579989YY121y(+)Y
26SUB($)Z58:(/)Z90ZZ122z(+)Z
27ESC(%)A59;(%)F91[(%)K123{(%)P
28FS(%)B60<(%)G92\(%)L124|(%)Q
29GS(%)C61=(%)H93](%)M125}(%)R
30RS(%)D62>(%)I94^(%)N126~(%)S
31US(%)E63?(%)J95_(%)O127DEL(%)T, (%)X, (%)Y, (%)Z