New MaxiCode 2D Barcode Reading and Writing Support
You can now build applications to write and recognize 2D MaxiCode barcodes. The US postal and shipment industries use this standard to ease label recognition on packages. The MaxiCode symbology includes a robust error correction system, and the GdPicture.NET goes a step further in the recognition process thanks to research work on the preprocessing and postprocessing phases.
Just before the end of 2021, we released reading and writing support for another 2D barcode: MaxiCode barcodes.
It completes the list of our 2D barcode support that already includes:
And of course, 1D or linear barcode with dozens of symbologies.
What makes Maxicode barcodes specific?
The United Parcel Service (UPS) created MaxiCode barcodes in 1992. Now in the public domain under the standard ISO/IEC 16023, the MaxiCode symbology is primarily used in the US postal and shipment industry.
What makes Maxicodes different from other 2D barcode symbologies is the series of hexagonal dots and the bullseye pattern in the middle.
While the bullseye pattern allows a quick and easy reading of labels, the hexagonal grid can store about 93 characters. You can chain up to 8 MaxiCodes to store more data if needed.
The barcode includes all information related to shipping, such as the address, tracking number, invoice information, service class, and more. In addition, its robust error correction system (using the Reed–Solomon error correction) allows it to be read even if a portion of the symbol is damaged.
The GdPicture.NET barcode SDK
The GdPicture.NET barcode recognition SDK benefits from our research and development work on OCR and MRC compression. In these three cases, and when dealing with poor-quality documents, skewed, and partial images, a thorough cleanup phase tremendously enhances the results of the various recognition engines.
Thanks to the MaxiCode addition, the barcode SDK now supports all major barcode symbologies, which makes it perfect to create applications for the following industries:
- Retail (1D, DataMatrix, QR code on labels)
- Food & Beverage (DataMatrix, 1D on labels)
- Advertising, Marketing (QR code on ads and packaging)
- Transportation (PDF417, Aztec on boarding passes)
- Postal services, Shipping (1D, MaxiCode on labels)
- Health (the unfortunately famous QR code on Covid passes…)
- ID cards (PDF417)
- And more!
Online demo
For this demo, we’re using the DocuVieware HTML5 viewer.
As usual, you will find the GdPicture.NET demo in the installation package.
We’ve also updated our documentation with the different methods.
Let us know if you encounter any issues with your barcodes!
Remember to update the SDK to benefit from the latest improvements. We update the toolkit weekly!
Cheers,
Elodie
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