Three years in an Amazon warehouse taught me one lesson about barcodes: the quiet zone matters more than print quality.
Every shift, at least 5 pallets got flagged at inbound receiving. The labels looked fine to the human eye. But the laser scanner could not read them.
The Real Issue
It was never about print resolution or contrast. The quiet zone — the blank space around the barcode — was too narrow. Most online generators do not add proper quiet zones by default.
The rule from GS1: leave at least 10 times the narrow bar width on each side.
What Actually Works
I started using genbarcode.org which generates GS1-compliant barcodes with proper quiet zones built in. The site supports Code 128, EAN-13, UPC-A, ITF-14 — all the formats we used daily.
Barcode checklist:
- GS1-registered prefix (not a reseller code)
- Proper quiet zone on all four sides
- Test scan with actual reader hardware
Zero sidelined pallets after switching tools. Anyone else deal with barcode scanner rejections?
