Creating a barcode for a product is a two-part job: getting the right number, and generating the artwork. Most guides blur the two together — this one keeps them separate, because the number is where people make expensive mistakes.
If your product will be sold in retail stores or on marketplaces (Amazon, Walmart, grocery chains), you need a GTIN — a UPC or EAN number licensed from GS1, the global standards body. Retailers look the number up in shared databases, so it must be registered to your company.
If the barcode is for internal use — inventory, asset tags, warehouse bins, event tickets — you do not need GS1 at all. Pick Code 128, invent your own numbering scheme, and skip straight to step 3.
Go to your country's GS1 member organisation (gs1.org lists them) and license either a single GTIN or a company prefix that lets you number many products. Pricing varies by country and quantity. Avoid third-party resellers offering "cheap UPC codes" — those numbers are typically registered to another company's prefix, and marketplaces increasingly validate ownership against the GS1 database.
With your number in hand, generate the barcode image: EAN-13 for worldwide retail, UPC-A for US/Canada, or Code 128 for internal codes. Our free barcode generator computes the check digit automatically, validates the number live, and exports SVG — a vector format that stays razor-sharp at any print size. Use PNG only for screens.
An EAN-13 at 100% magnification is 37.29 × 25.93 mm; you can scale between 80% and 200%, but don't shrink below 80% or cut the height ("truncation") — both are common causes of checkout failures. Leave the quiet zones (blank margins) alone. Then print one sample at final size on the final material and scan it with a phone app and, ideally, a laser scanner before mass production.