Customers implementing barcode for Mp2 often wonder what the maximum number of characters a barcode scanner will read.

There is no definite number of maximum characters that scanners will read. Different characters will have different barcode lengths, for example, 111 will have a shorter barcode label than BP2. When configuring your labels, experiment with different font sizes and styles. Print them out on a sheet of paper (to avoid wasting labels) and test the scanner for readability. Be sure to document your settings.

Best of luck with your barcode implementation!
Jennifer Ohl

Hello Jennifer,

you are right regarding the theoretical limit. But depending on the amount place on your labels there is a (real small) limit when using 1D barcodes.
Labels with a width of 2-3 inches can take approx. 10-15 chars with barcode 39. Using smaller or denser barcodes brings up faults in a short period of time due to dirty labels.
Using BC128 makes it worse as this adds additional checksum "chars" in the barcode.
If you really want to place a lot of information (but why ?) on these labels you better use 2D barcodes. But also here we see limits (2000+ chars). And also here we are faced with the dirt issue again.

I have never seen a good implementation of barcodes that required more than an ID as barcodes and some human readable text (typically the ID and the description).