Composite Codes

The GS1 Composite symbology consists of an GS-128 linear component associated with an adjacent 2D Composite Component.

The linear component encodes the primary identification so that it is readable by all scanning technologies and so that 2D imagers can use the linear component as a finder pattern for the adjacent 2D Composite Component. The linear components include these bar codes:

UCC/EAN-128 UPC-A EAN-8 EAN-13 GS1 DataBar family The 2D Composite Component encodes supplementary data, such as batch number or expiration date. There are three types of 2D Composite Components that are all based on the PDF417 symbology:

CC-A is a structural variant of MicroPDF417. CC-B is a MicroPDF417 symbol. CC-C is a PDF417 symbol. 2D Composite Components encode characters from the ISO 646 code set..

The data for the linear and 2D components is separated by the <HT> command with the data for the linear component sent first. For example, to print a Composite bar code with the linear component encoding 112233445566 and the 2D component encoding aabbccddeeff, the data is sent to the printer as 112233445566<HT>aabbccddeeff.

This table lists all possible combinations of linear and 2D Composite components:

Linear Component 2D Composite Component Maximum Data Length

Bar Code Type Data Length CC-A CC-B CC-C GS-128 1-48 digits 56 digits 31 char 338 digits 196 char 2361 digits EAN-13 13 digits 56 digits 31 char 338 digits 196 char Not available EAN-8 8 digits 47 digits 26 char 219 digits 127 char Not available UPC-A 12 digits 56 digits 31 char 338 digits 196 char Not available UPC-E 8 digits 47 digits 26 char 96 digits 55 char Not available GS1 Composite, GS1 Composite Truncated 1-13 digits 56 digits 31 char 338 digits 196 char Not available GS1 Composite Stacked, GS1 Composite Stacked Omnidirectional 1-13 digits 47 digits 26 char 96 digits 55 char Not available GS1 DataBar Limited 1-13 digits 47 digits 26 char 219 digits 127 char Not available GS1 DataBar Expanded, GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked 1-74 digits* 1-41 char* 56 digits 31 char 338 digits 196 char Not available Data lengths with an asterisk (*) indicate that the actual maximum amount of data depends on data content.