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Example of a Code 39 barcode reading 123ABC Example of a Code 39 Full ASCII barcode reading 12ab#! Code 39 is a popular symbology used in manufacturing, military, and health applications. It is framed by a start/stop character represented by an asterisk (*), which is reserved for this purpose and may not be used in the body of a message.

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Basic Code 39 encoding

B-Coder Pro automatically adds the start and stop character to each barcode, so you should not include them as part of your barcode message. If you select the normal version of Code 39 and your barcode text contains lower case characters, B-Coder Pro will convert them to upper case. If your barcode message contains any invalid characters, B-Coder Pro will prompt you with a warning message (if the Enable Invalid Warning Messages option is selected in the Preferences menu).

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Check characters and message concatenation

Code 39 optionally allows for a (modulo 43) check character in cases where data security is important. The health care industry has adopted the use of this check character for healthcare applications. Another feature of Code 39 allows for concatenation of two or more barcodes. It is sometimes advantageous to break long messages into multiple, shorter symbols. If the first data character of a Code 39 symbol is a space, some barcode readers will store the remainder of the symbol in a buffer and not transmit the data. This operation continues for all successive Code 39 symbols with a leading space, with each message appended to the previous one. When a message without a leading space is read, it is appended to the previously scanned data in the buffer, and the entire buffer is transmitted as one long message.

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Full ASCII Code 39

The FULL ASCII version of Code 39 is a modification of the NORMAL (standard) version that can encode the complete 128 ASCII character set (including asterisks). The Full ASCII version is implemented by using the four characters: $/+%. as shift characters to change the meanings of the rest of the characters in the Normal Code 39 character set. Because the Full ASCII version uses shift characters in combination with other standard characters to represent data not in the Normal Code 39 character set, each non-standard character requires twice the width of a standard character in a printed symbol. Note: Because all of the characters used to implement Full ASCII Code 39 are part of the Normal Code 39 character set, readers that do not support Full ASCII Code 39 will still read Full ASCII Code 39 symbols. The reader will output shifted characters as if they were normal Code 39 characters. Overall, Code 39 is a versatile symbology that offers various features for data security and message concatenation. With B-Coder Pro, you can easily generate Code 39 barcodes with the appropriate start/stop characters and ensure that your message is valid and error-free.
Last modified on November 3, 2026