European Article Number (EAN) is a barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in North America. The EAN-13 barcode is defined by the standards organisation GS1. It is also called a Japanese Article Number (JAN) in Japan. UPC, EAN, and JAN numbers are collectively called Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), though they can be expressed in different types of barcodes.

 

The EAN-13 barcodes are used worldwide for marking retail goods. The less commonly used EAN-8 barcodes are used also for marking retail goods; however, they are usually reserved for smaller items, for example confectionery. In EAN-13 the symbol encodes 13 numerals divided into four parts:

 

•   System code, the first two or three digits, usually identifying the country in which the manufacturer is registered (not necessarily where the product is actually made). When the EAN-13 barcode is a conversion of an ISBN or ISSN code, the system code will be 978 or 979 for ISBNs (Bookland), or 977 for ISSNs.

 

•   Manufacturer code, consisting of four or five digits depending on the length of the system or country code.

 

•   Product code, consisting of five digits.

 

•   Check digit, a single checksum digit. The check digit is computed modulo 10, where the weights in the checksum calculation alternate 1 and 3. In particular, since the weights are relatively prime to 10 the EAN system will detect all single digit errors. But since the difference of consecutive weights is even, the EAN system does not detect all adjacent transposition errors.

 

2-digit and 5-digit supplemental barcodes may be added for a total of 14 or 17 data digits.

 

 

The first three digits of the barcode of any product represents the country.

EAN codes beginning with 0 are rarely used, as this is just an addition to 12-digit UPC. Since most scanners and registers worldwide can read both equally, most manufacturers in North America still only use UPC.

 

 

To encode an EAN-13 barcode, the digits are first split into 3 groups, the first digit, the first group of 6 and the last group of 6. The first group of six is encoded using a scheme whereby each digit has two possible encodings, one of which has even parity and one of which has odd parity. The first digit is encoded by selecting a pattern of choices between these two encodings for the next six digits, according to the table below. (Unlike the other digits, the first digit is not represented directly by a pattern of bars.) All digits in the last group of six digits are encoded using a single set of patterns which are the same patterns used for UPC.

 

If the first digit is zero, all digits in the first group of six are encoded using the patterns used for UPC, hence a UPC barcode is also an EAN-13 barcode with the first digit set to zero.