{"id":486,"date":"2019-09-04T22:14:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T22:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/?post_type=kb&#038;p=486"},"modified":"2019-10-06T21:59:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T21:59:26","slug":"ean-13-vs-upc-a-barcodes","status":"publish","type":"kb","link":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/kb\/ean-13-vs-upc-a-barcodes\/","title":{"rendered":"EAN-13 vs UPC-A barcodes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><span>UPC-A barcodes are effectively a <em><strong>subset<\/strong><\/em> of EAN-13 barcodes:<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-490\" src=\"http:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/Barcode_Subsets_01_200px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/Barcode_Subsets_01_200px.png 200w, https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/Barcode_Subsets_01_200px-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span>Both barcodes are easily scanned by most scanners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Differences in appearance:<\/h4>\n<p><span>If the first digit on the EAN-13 number is a \u20180\u2019 (identified with the blue arrow in the image below), then<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><em><strong>The bars<\/strong><\/em> of both the EAN-13 (with the leading &#8216;0&#8217;) and the UPC-A (without the leading \u20180\u2019) will be identical<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><strong>The difference<\/strong> is then in how the human-readable numbers are positioned below the bars, as you can see in the image:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-489\" src=\"http:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/UPC-A_vs_EAN-13-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/UPC-A_vs_EAN-13-2.png 611w, https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/09\/UPC-A_vs_EAN-13-2-239x300.png 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>When should you use an EAN-13 vs a UPC-A?<\/h4>\n<p>UPC-A Format barcodes have traditionally been used in the USA, whereas EAN-13 format barcodes have been used throughout the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, the majority of stores throughout the world accept barcodes in either format.<\/p>\n<p>However, some older systems may only accept one or the other, so to be safe&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>if your product is being sold in the <strong>USA<\/strong>, the <strong>UPC-A<\/strong> format barcodes are best,<\/li>\n<li>if your product is international, or sold in a <strong>country other than the USA<\/strong>, the <strong>EAN-13<\/strong> format is best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Troubleshooting:<\/h4>\n<p>If a store has difficulty reading your EAN-13 or UPC-A barcode, they can either\u00a0<strong><em>ignore<\/em> <\/strong>the leading \u20180\u2019 or <em><strong>add<\/strong> <\/em>a leading \u20180\u2019 depending on how many digits their system prefers.<\/p>\n<p>This enables the barcode to be read exactly the same as the opposite format (as the bars are identical regardless), and the barcode will still be globally unique.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Purchasing:<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><em>I<\/em><em>f you require a UPC-A format barcode<\/em><\/strong>,<\/span> <strong>please specify this in the Additional Information section when you are checking out.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can purchase both UPC-A and EAN-13 numbers\u00a0from our\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/internationalbarcodes.net\/barcode-suppliers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">International Barcode Network members\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-385\" src=\"http:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/175\/2019\/08\/Icon_OpenInNewTab.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"17\" height=\"18\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPC-A barcodes are effectively a subset of EAN-13 barcodes: Both barcodes are easily scanned by most scanners.\u00a0 &nbsp; Differences in appearance: If the first digit on the EAN-13 number is a \u20180\u2019 (identified with the blue arrow in the image &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/kb\/ean-13-vs-upc-a-barcodes\/\">Continuado<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kbtopic":[13],"kbtag":[558,518,601,560,573,54,55,535,536,49],"class_list":["post-486","kb","type-kb","status-publish","hentry","kbtopic-getting-started-with-barcodes","kbtag-codigos-de-barras","kbtag-comprar","kbtag-ean-es","kbtag-ean-13-es","kbtag-internacional","kbtag-leading-0","kbtag-leading-zero","kbtag-upc-es","kbtag-upc-a-es","kbtag-us"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/486\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kbtopic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtopic?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"kbtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/support.internationalbarcodes.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtag?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}