The EAN (European Article Numbering) code is primarily used in supermarkets. EAN-8 is a shortened version of the EAN-13 code. It is a numeric-only code that includes a 2 or 3 digit country code, 4 or 5 data digits (depending on the length of the country code), and a checksum digit that is automatically added by Barcode Xpress. If there are eight digits specified during a write, the eighth digit will be replaced with the correct checksum.

Unlike the UPC-E symbol, which compresses data that could also be printed as a full-size UPC-A symbol by squeezing out zeros, the data digits in an EAN-8 symbol specifically identify a particular product and manufacturer. Since a limited number of EAN-8 codes are available in each country, they are issued only for products with insufficient space for a normal EAN-13 symbol.

Barcode Xpress will generate an error if you have characters in your barcode value that are not allowed. You can have 7 or 8 digits in the EAN-8 barcode value. You don’t have to include the 8th digit (checksum) since Barcode Xpress automatically adds it.

EAN-8 requires a quiet zone, which should be at least the width of 10 narrow bars. This means that if you set the MakeBarcodeBarSize property to 3 pixels (narrow bar size), you should set the MakeBarcodeBWidth property to 30 pixels.

The EAN-8 barcode is also commonly written with 2 different bar heights. Typically, the height of the left and right guard bars are greater than the height of the bars encoding the actual barcode value, essentially creating a notch in the barcode where the text value can be written. Barcode Xpress provides the user with control over the size of this notch with the MakeBarcodeUPCNotchPercent property.

The MakeBarcodeUPCNotchPercent property can be set to a value of 0 to 50. This number represents the percentage of the tall bar height the short bars will be shortened by. For example, if the notch percent is 10, and the bar height is set to 100 pixels, the tall bars (left and right guard bars) will be 100 pixels tall, and the short bars (bars encoding the value) will be 90 pixels tall.