We make handmade Jewelry along with our candles, and I have been using my printers settings to make my own barcodes that fit on a Barbell Label. Basically I bought a Direct Thermal Printer and use that software and have created my own labels. I can print 1D or 2D barcodes since I use 2D scanner at checkout. The 2D barcodes fit nicely on a Barbell Label and can contain 30 characters. I think the main problem with Square and Barbell labels is what you touched on, with the Length of a 1D barcode that is both Letters and Numbers. Squares auto generated SKU is both numbers and Letters which makes barcodes longer. I avoided this by using 2D barcodes and now all my barcodes are about 3/8" square in size. Both Dymo and Zebra software can make barcodes for labels and have more choices of label size. Dymo software can import CSV information in to make labels, where as Zebra software you need to buy the Professional version to do this. Now I did not make this with Square, all I did was copy the SKU from Square and put it in my printers software, then assigned the Barcode font I wanted. Code 39, Code 128, and UPC-A are 1D barcodes and I also tried different 2D barcodes like QR, Aztec, and a few others and found I like the Aztec ones the best for my barcode reader to read and for sizing. The Aztec code is a little smaller than a QR code and can hold more data. The Micro 2D codes got too small or my Scanner could not read that style. Meaning a 1D Scanner could not read my Aztec code and neither can an Ipad. but the Ipad can read the QR barcodes in Square. That is my work around for using Barbell labels with Square POS for Retail.
We make handmade Jewelry along with our candles, and I have been using my printers settings to make my own barcodes that fit on a Barbell Label. Basically I bought a Direct Thermal Printer and use that software and have created my own labels. I can print 1D or 2D barcodes since I use 2D scanner at checkout. The 2D barcodes fit nicely on a Barbell Label and can contain 30 characters. I think the main problem with Square and Barbell labels is what you touched on, with the Length of a 1D barcode that is both Letters and Numbers. Squares auto generated SKU is both numbers and Letters which makes barcodes longer. I avoided this by using 2D barcodes and now all my barcodes are about 3/8" square in size. Both Dymo and Zebra software can make barcodes for labels and have more choices of label size. Dymo software can import CSV information in to make labels, where as Zebra software you need to buy the Professional version to do this. Now I did not make this with Square, all I did was copy the SKU from Square and put it in my printers software, then assigned the Barcode font I wanted. Code 39, Code 128, and UPC-A are 1D barcodes and I also tried different 2D barcodes like QR, Aztec, and a few others and found I like the Aztec ones the best for my barcode reader to read and for sizing. The Aztec code is a little smaller than a QR code and can hold more data. The Micro 2D codes got too small or my Scanner could not read that style. Meaning a 1D Scanner could not read my Aztec code and neither can an Ipad. but the Ipad can read the QR barcodes in Square. That is my work around for using Barbell labels with Square POS for Retail.
You're welcome. Depending on which printer you have and their software, changing barcodes could be very easy. With the Zebra and Dymo, you select the barcode on your label and then choose the type of barcode you want. When I tested my Barcodes, I made one sample label and for text I would put the name of the font on a regular cheap label or piece of paper. Hit print and then tried the scanner. If it worked I did nothing, if it did not read I put a black line through it. Then I started playing with Size of the ones that read. I found with my scanner printer setup the minimum I can go is .010 mils, but for guaranteed results .015 mils is the smallest I want to go. .010 mils is about 1/4 inch where as the .015 mils is about 5/16 inch square with the Aztec code. QR codes are about 3/8 inch square in size for good read ability for me. You can also try the size with 1D barcodes like Code 39 or Code 128. Just remember that if a barcode does not read with a scanner there is no way to tell what it is especially for a 2D barcode, so label them with text size and type of barcode before printing. The label below was testing the Aztec code at both .010 and .015 mils, this is what what my label software uses for size. I was going to show the list of Barcode fonts I can use but the computer screen image looks terrible and unreadable.
