Free GS1-128 barcode generator

This page usually gets found the day a routing guide arrives. A retail or 3PL trading partner sends labeling requirements, somewhere in them is "carton label must carry a GS1-128 with (01), (17) and (10)", and the plain Code 128 generator you've been using turns out to produce something scanners read but the partner's system rejects.

The difference is invisible to the eye. GS1-128 is Code 128 carrying an FNC1 character in the first position — that's the flag that tells the receiving system "what follows is GS1-structured data, not a free-form string". The payload is then a chain of application identifiers: (01) says the next 14 digits are a GTIN, (17) an expiry date as YYMMDD, (10) a batch number, (00) an SSCC for pallet labels, (21) a serial. Fixed-length fields run together; variable-length ones get another FNC1 as a separator, in positions the spec dictates. Type the element string with parentheses — (01)09501101530003(17)261231(10)LOT1 — and this generator handles both FNC1s; the parentheses themselves are never encoded, they're notation.

Validation here does what the receiving dock would: GTIN and SSCC check digits verified, dates checked as YYMMDD (day 00 is legal — it means end of month), field lengths enforced, and the GS1-128 limit of 48 data characters per symbol applied. The AI table covers the identifiers that do the actual work in retail and logistics — 00, 01, 02, 10, the date family 11–17, 20, 21, 22, 30, 37, trade measures 310x–369x, 240/241/250/251, the 400s, GLNs 410–417, 420, 422, 8005, 8008, 8017/8018, and the internal-use 90–99. An AI outside that set is rejected by name rather than encoded on a guess; the full GS1 registry runs to several hundred identifiers, most of which never appear outside one industry's spec sheet.

Two things this tool doesn't do, said plainly. It doesn't hand out numbers — GTINs and SSCCs come from a GS1 company prefix, which is a membership, and a symbol built on invented digits fails at the first partner that looks it up. And it doesn't replace the partner's label spec: symbol placement, dimensions, and human-readable formatting vary by routing guide, so treat this as the encoder, with the layout rules coming from their document.

Element strings render on a local canvas in your browser — payloads never reach a server, and export libraries load only at download time.

GS1-128 marks what ships out; the gear that stays behind usually wears a plain Code 128 or Data Matrix tag. UNIO24's inventory management sits behind both kinds: scan to receive, issue, and count, with stock levels and movement history per item.