What is an ITF-14 Barcode and When Should You Use It?
What is an ITF-14 Barcode?
While EAN-13 and UPC are great for individual products, they aren't ideal for the large cardboard boxes those products are shipped in. That's where the ITF-14 (Interleaved 2 of 5) comes in.
Why Use ITF-14 for Shipping Cartons?
Shipping cartons are often made of corrugated cardboard, which is a rough surface. Standard barcodes can easily be damaged or blurred during printing on such materials.
ITF-14 is designed for this exact scenario:
- High Contrast: It uses thick bars that are easy for industrial scanners to read, even on low-quality cardboard.
- Robustness: It is more resistant to printing imperfections.
- Grouping: It allows you to identify a group of identical products (e.g., a box of 24 EAN-13 items).
How ITF-14 Works
An ITF-14 code consists of 14 digits. The first digit is typically a "Indicator Digit" that tells the scanner how many digits of the product code follow. This makes it flexible for different packaging levels.
When to use ITF-14 vs others?
- Individual Product $\rightarrow$ EAN-13 / UPC-A
- Outer Shipping Carton $\rightarrow$ ITF-14
- Internal Asset Tracking $\rightarrow$ Code 128 / Code 39
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