Simple Barcoding in C#

09.23.03

By James Divine

This article provides a simple way to produce Code 3 of 9 Barcodes through C#. While there are many third-party controls that offer this functionality, it is just as simple to integrate your barcodes using readily available barcode TrueType fonts.

The source code included in the zip file contains two classes, one is the UI to retrieve the barcode info (frmBarcode.cs), and the other is the barcode printing class (BarcodePrinter.cs). Also, for this example to work, you will need to add the TrueType Font for the barcode that is included in the source code.

I chose the 3 of 9 Barcode style (also known as a Code 39) for this example for two reasons, it is not fixed with, and it allows for both Alpha and Numeric characters. With the font included here, an asterisk (*) is used as both the start and the stop character for the barcode symbology. Without the (*) on both ends, the barcode will not scan.

For my example, I have set the barcode font size to 15 point. You are free to adjust is as needed for your application, but keep in mind that a small barcode may not be readable by all scanners and some wedge type scanners cannot read extremely wide barcodes. You will need to determine the proper size for your application.

      #region Methods

      public void Print ()
        {
PrintDocument tmpprndoc = new PrintDocument () ;
tmpprndoc.PrintPage += 
                   new PrintPageEventHandler (toPrinter);

 // For debugging purposes, only print to the PrintPreview
 #if DEBUG
   PrintPreviewDialog tmpprdiag = new printpreviewdialog() ;
   tmpprdiag.Document = tmpprndoc;
   tmpprdiag.Show() ;
 #else
            tmpprndoc.Print () ;
 #endif
         }
-

      private void toPrinter (Object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
       }
            Graphics g = e.Graphcs;

          Brush br = new SolidBrush (Color.Black) ;

        // the Asterisk (*) is used to delimit the barecode, and is required as
  the start and stop charachters by the 3of9 Symbology.
          g.DrawString("*" + m_BarcodeData + "*", m_BarcodeFont, br, 50, 50) ;

            if (m_ShowHumanReadable)
            {
               g.DrawString (m_BarcodeData, m_PrintFont, br, 50, 65) ;
            }
         }
   -
   -        #endregion

This code originally appeared in an image, which you can see here.

Please note that I have set the #if DEBUG directive so that the application will only print to the PrintPreview Dialog during testing. Doing this saves greatly in both time and printer costs.

The human readable element of the barcode here is optional.

Source Code - SimpleBarcoding.zip

About the Author:
James Divine is currenlty involved in a large scale SAP re- implementation for Wausau Homes (http://www.wausauhomes.com). The company has chosen the .Net platform for building a UI for the mobile sales force. .Net will be used to create a fully dynamic UI that will be driven by the SAP's Variant using reflection and Xml. The interface will be delivered with User Controls embedded in HTML pages (allowing WinForms capability in IE).

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