How to buy UPC barcodes?
In my previous article I have shown you the process of buying EAN codes from the GS1 UK. Now I will help you with How to buy UPC barcode. For those of you who might not know, UPC (Universal Product Code) is 1D barcode that is used only in the USA and Canada. There are two types of UPC codes: UPC-A (used for marking products which are sold in the USA and Canada) and UPC-E (It is the short form of representation of a UPC-A number. It is used for identifying products in small packages). So if you are looking for a place or a website from where to buy a range of UPC-A codes and/or UPC-E codes – GS1 is the only one organisation that can help you. GS1 is a world wide, not for profit association that set standards globally, using unique numbers to ensure products are easily and errorless identified. There are Member Organisations in over one hundred countries globally. In order to buy a range of UPC-A codes and/or UPC-E codes you have to visit the regional, for your country, website of GS1. It depends on where you are from. For example if you are from Germany and you want to sell your products in the USA and/or Canada you have to visit: http://www.gs1-germany.de/. But if you are from the USA, you will have to visit: https://www.gs1us.org/ in order to buy a range of UPC codes. More information about GS1, you can find in their “About us” section. If you have already found the website of GS1 that you need, I will shows a few simple steps that you have to follow in order to purchase a range of UPC codes. I will be working with the GS1 US: http://www.gs1us.org/, but the process is similar with all of the GS1’s websites.
Purchasing UPC codes from the GS1 US
First you have to find the official website of the GS1 US or simply click on this link: http://www.gs1us.org/. There you will find a few boxes that show the services that GS1 US supports. In case you are already a member of the GS1 US society and you have a GS1 company Prefix, select “I have a GS1 Company Prefix“. But if you are not a member of the GS1 society, first you have to select “I’m new to GS1 US“.
I need a barcode
There you will see some information and a video that would be useful to read and watch. Now you can select “Click here to read more” in order to see the “GS1 Company Prefix New Pricing“:
GS1 Company Prefix New Pricing
Then you can select from the previous page “Let’s get started“. There you will see some condition you have to complete in order to get your Company Prefix:
1) You have to estimate your barcode needs and fees;
2) You have to fill their online application (Primary Contact, Primary Contact Address, Executive Contact, Executive Contact Address, Company Information and Payment);
3) You have to submit your payment online or by mail;
Company Prefix
After you give the information that is necessary and pay for the code you will get the range of the UPC codes on your e-mail. By default you will receive 1000 UPC codes. And this is the end of buying UPC codes. Now it is time to encode these codes into barcodes.
Now it is time for generating UPC barcodes
In order to generate UPC barcodes you can use UPC barcode generator or Barcode generator. BarcodeEncoder and UPCEncoder are barcode generators that create 100% compliant UPC barcodes, that can be exported in PNG, EPS and SVG format. These two generators are developed for Mac OSX. Download them now from the Mac AppStore. Here is a special video tutorial about UPCEncoder. It demonstrates almost all functions of the UPCEncoder. Video tutorial and screenshots of the BarcodeEncoder you can find on it’s product page.
These software products are very useful, especially in this case when you have a range of codes. In stead of entering every single code, generating it and then saving it, you can use the Automator. The Automator is used for bulk barcode generation (making more than one barcode simultaneously). After generating the UPC barcodes you can export them in EPS, SVG and PNG format. There is a special video tutorial about the Automator and it is used. Watch it and you will see it for yourself how useful is this feature.
So, this is the whole process of buying UPC codes, generating UPC barcodes and exporting them. If you have some question or you just want to share your opinion feel free to do so by contacting with us on our e-mail address: [email protected]