Do I need a barcode?
Not every homemade product needs a barcode. If you are selling at markets, online through your own store, or directly to customers, a barcode is optional - it helps with your own stock management but no scanner needs to read it.
A barcode becomes necessary when:
- A retailer or wholesaler requires it for their stock system
- You are selling through a marketplace that requires product barcodes (Amazon, certain wholesale platforms)
- You want to manage multiple SKUs efficiently in your own inventory
If you are aiming for retail shelves, you will almost certainly need a registered EAN-13 or UPC-A number from GS1. If you are managing your own stock or selling direct, you can use any number system that works for you.
Getting a registered barcode number
For retail use, contact GS1 in your country to register a company prefix. This gives you a block of product numbers you can assign to each product variant. Each unique product (including each size and flavour variation) needs its own barcode number.
GS1 charges an annual membership fee that scales with your company revenue. Smaller producers can join at a lower tier with a smaller prefix block.
Do not buy cheap barcodes from third-party websites that resell numbers. These numbers may have been assigned to other products and can cause duplicate conflicts in retailer databases.
Generating the barcode image
Once you have a number, use the EAN-13 barcode generator on this site to generate the barcode image. Enter your 12-digit number (the tool calculates the 13th check digit automatically) and download the SVG.
Download as SVG for use in any design software - Illustrator, Canva, Affinity Publisher, Word, or InDesign. SVG scales to any size without quality loss, which is important for a label that may be resized during layout.
Minimum print size for label use
GS1 specifies a nominal size of 37.29 mm wide by 26.26 mm tall for EAN-13 barcodes. The allowable range is 80–200% of nominal, meaning the minimum width is 29.83 mm.
On a small label, 30 mm wide is tight but workable. 37 mm is comfortable. Below 30 mm, scanning reliability starts to drop on the slower scanners used in many warehouse and point-of-sale environments.
Ensure the quiet zones - the white space on each side of the bars - are preserved. These need to be at least 3.5 mm on each side for EAN-13. Do not extend the label background colour over the quiet zone.
Designing the label
When placing a barcode in a label design:
- Print in black on white if at all possible. Black on a light colour (cream, pale yellow) generally works. Avoid red backgrounds - red absorbs the red laser light used in many retail scanners and makes the bars disappear.
- Do not rotate the barcode. EAN-13 and UPC-A barcodes should be oriented with the bars running vertically (the standard orientation). Rotating 90 degrees makes them unreadable on many scanners.
- Leave the human-readable number below the bars. The digits should be clearly legible at the final print size - at least 2.5 mm tall is recommended by GS1.
- Do not compress the barcode horizontally. Narrowing the bar width to fit a smaller label breaks the ratio that scanners rely on.
Printing the labels
For short runs (under 100 labels), a standard home laser or inkjet printer at 300 DPI or above produces adequate results. Use the highest quality setting your printer offers.
For higher volumes, label stock printed by a commercial printer will be more consistent and durable. If the label may be exposed to moisture or handling (food products, cosmetics), ask for a varnish or laminate coating - inkjet prints are particularly vulnerable to smudging when wet.
Printing multiple labels at once
If you need the same barcode on many labels - or different barcodes for different variants - use the barcode label sheet generator. It supports standard Avery label formats (including 5160, 5161, and 5163) and lets you print a full sheet at once via your browser's print dialog. No additional software required.
Testing before committing to a print run
Always test-scan a printed proof on the hardware that will actually be used to scan it. A phone camera app may scan a code that a retail scanner cannot. Print one label, attach it to the product, and scan it with the scanner your retailer or warehouse uses before printing the full batch.