Handwritten price tags slow down billing, invite mistakes at the till, and make stock counts a chore. A printed barcode on each product fixes all three: scan, price, done. The only question is which kind of barcode to print, and the answer depends on where the product will be sold.
Which format do you need?
- EAN-13: the standard retail barcode in most of the world, including Pakistan and India. Thirteen digits, and the one most shops and marketplaces expect.
- UPC: the twelve-digit version used mainly in North America. If you sell there, print UPC; everywhere else, EAN-13 is the safer default.
- CODE128: flexible and compact, good for internal labels, shelf codes, and anything that will only ever be scanned inside your own shop rather than at a retail checkout.
Generate and print
- Open Barcode Generator, pick your format, and enter the digits. To generate an EAN-13 barcode for a small shop product label, choose EAN-13 and enter your thirteen digits.
- Download the barcode image and print it at a size your scanner can read. Too small is the most common reason a label fails.
- Use dark bars on white, with quiet space on both sides, and avoid glossy paper that glares under the scanner.
Test-scan every label with a phone before you print a batch. And one honest warning: a barcode you generate yourself is fine for your own shop, but selling through big retail chains usually needs officially registered numbers, so check your retailer's requirement before you print a thousand labels.
Labels are generated in your browser with no software to install, so a small shop can go from handwritten tags to scannable labels in an afternoon.