The Planet (Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique) barcode is a variable-length, numeric 1D barcode developed with a checksum. Planet was developed by the US Postal Service to encode information for their "Confirm" service. PostNet and Planet barcodes have been superseded by Intelligent Mail, which can encode both of the former barcodes in a single symbol.
The following example barcode encodes the information 0123456789
as an Planet barcode:
Planet is a 2-state barcode, similar to PostNet, and is intended to encode information for the US Postal Service's "Confirm" program to facilitate tracking incoming and outgoing packages. Since this barcode only has two states, it is relatively data sparse - especially when compared to Intelligent Mail which can encode a Planet and PostNet barcode, using less space.
Planet barcodes encode 11 or 13 characters plus one checksum character. Thus, Planet barcodes appear to have 12 or 14 characters. All Planet barcodes include a checksum character that is a 1-digit number which, when added to the sum of the other digits, results in a whole number that is a multiple of 10.
The table below presents a breakdown of the encoding scheme for Planet. Please note that 1
s represent full-bars, and 0
s represent half-bars. Every digit is encoded with 5 bars, 2 half-bars and 3 full-bars.
Digit | PostNet Representation |
---|---|
1 | 11100 |
2 | 11010 |
3 | 11001 |
4 | 10110 |
5 | 10101 |
6 | 10011 |
7 | 01110 |
8 | 01101 |
9 | 01011 |
0 | 00111 |
Planet barcodes have two formats, Destination Confirm and Origin Confirm.
Destination Confrim Planet Barcodes encode the following information:
Origin Confirm Planet barcodes encode the following information:
PostNet barcodes share a similar coding scheme, but the bits are inverted and the barcodes are used for a different purpose.
Planet is also similar to the 2 of 5 symbology (e.g. Industry 2 of 5, IATA 2 of 5, and Interleaved 2 of 5), but 2 of 5 bits are short, rather than wide.
For more information, see the Barcode Xpress SDK product page or try our online demos.