Codabar

• May 22, 2026
• 2 minutes to read

The Codabar is a discrete, self-checking symbology that may encode 16 different characters, plus an additional 4 start/stop characters. This symbology is used by U.S. blood banks, photo labs, and on FedEx air bills. Refer to the following article for more details: Codabar.

View Example

Examples

Configure Barcode Settings (CodabarOptions)

Use the CodabarOptions class to configure Codabar barcode settings.

The following code snippet creates an Codabar barcode and customizes its options:

C#

using DevExpress.Docs.Barcode;
using DevExpress.Drawing;

var codabarOptions = new CodabarOptions();
codabarOptions.StartSymbol = CodabarStartStopSymbol.A;
codabarOptions.StopSymbol = CodabarStartStopSymbol.D;
codabarOptions.WideNarrowRatio = 1.5f;
codabarOptions.ShowText = true;
codabarOptions.Padding = new Padding(5);
codabarOptions.BorderWidth = 1;

using var codabarOptionsStream = new FileStream(Path.Combine(outDir,
          "barcode_symbology_codabar.png"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
using var codabarOptionsGenerator = new BarcodeGenerator(codabarOptions);

codabarOptionsGenerator.Export("0123456789", codabarOptionsStream, DXImageFormat.Png);

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.BarCodes
Imports DevExpress.Drawing
Imports System.Diagnostics

Dim codabarOptions As New CodabarOptions()
codabarOptions.StartSymbol = CodabarStartStopSymbol.A
codabarOptions.StopSymbol = CodabarStartStopSymbol.D
codabarOptions.WideNarrowRatio = 1.5F
codabarOptions.ShowText = True
codabarOptions.Padding = New Padding(5)
codabarOptions.BorderWidth = 1

Using codabarOptionsStream As New FileStream(Path.Combine(outDir, "barcode_symbology_codabar.png"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)
    Using codabarOptionsGenerator As New BarcodeGenerator(codabarOptions)
        codabarOptionsGenerator.Export("0123456789", codabarOptionsStream, DXImageFormat.Png)
    End Using
End Using

Configure Barcode Settings (Fluent API)

Use the CodabarOptionsBuilder class to configure Codabar barcode settings with Fluent API.

The following code snippet creates an Codabar barcode and customizes its options:

C#

using DevExpress.Docs.Barcode;
using DevExpress.Drawing;
using System.Drawing;

var codabarOptions = CodabarOptionsBuilder.Create()
    .WithStartSymbol(CodabarStartStopSymbol.A)
    .WithStopSymbol(CodabarStartStopSymbol.D)
    .WithWideNarrowRatio(1.5f)
    .WithShowText(true)
    .WithPadding(5)
    .WithBorderWidth(1)
    .Build();

using var codabarOptionsStream = new FileStream(Path.Combine(outDir,
          "barcode_symbology_codabar.png"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
using var codabarOptionsGenerator = new BarcodeGenerator(codabarOptions);

codabarOptionsGenerator.Export("0123456789", codabarOptionsStream, DXImageFormat.Png);

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.Docs.Barcode
Imports DevExpress.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing

Dim codabarOptions = CodabarOptionsBuilder.Create() _
    .WithStartSymbol(CodabarStartStopSymbol.A) _
    .WithStopSymbol(CodabarStartStopSymbol.D) _
    .WithWideNarrowRatio(1.5f) _
    .WithShowText(True) _
    .WithPadding(5) _
    .WithBorderWidth(1) _
    .Build()

Using codabarOptionsStream = New FileStream(Path.Combine(outDir, "barcode_symbology_codabar.png"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)
  Using codabarOptionsGenerator = New BarcodeGenerator(codabarOptions)
    codabarOptionsGenerator.Export("0123456789", codabarOptionsStream, DXImageFormat.Png)
  End Using
End Using

Symbology-Specific Options

Property	Description
StartSymbol	Gets or sets the first symbol used to code barcode structure.
StopSymbol	Gets or sets the last symbol used to code barcode structure.
WideNarrowRatio	Gets or sets bar density.