Bar Code Zone Setup dialog box

Use this box to name your bar code zone and change its settings. For a complete explanation of each field, click the green field name.

Zone name This name identifies the bar code and appears in Index setup as BC_[zonename] in the list of default values.

The bar code Label does not define or identify an Index field. In the Job Setup dialog box, all index fields must be defined in the Index tab. To use a bar code for an index field, you must assign the appropriate BC_[zonename] as a default value for the index field.— enter the name for your new bar code zone.

Front or Back — select one using the radio buttons.

Keep bar codes with mask The Keep bar codes with mask option should be used when one or more Anywhere bar code zones are defined. The bar code value is only retained for the defined zone when it complies with the mask specified in the Keep bar codes with mask field. This ensures that the bar code values read on a page get assigned to the correct bar code zone.

This option is also useful when more than one bar code zones are in the same physical location on a page but have different values and meanings (e.g., a zone defined for a batch header sheet versus a zone defined for a document header sheet). To comply with a specified mask, each character of the bar code value must match the mask syntax for that character’s position in the mask
.
For example, a mask of A<8> will retain a bar code value of up to, but not exceeding, eight alphabetic characters:

Bar Code Value      Retained?
SURGERY               Yes
ADMISSION             No
— if applicable, enter a mask value.

Minimum length-By default, the Minimum length option is set to the length of the tested bar code value. If a value is not found or the value is equal to or greater than six characters, the default will be set to “6.” It is recommended that the minimum length parameter be set at six characters or fewer to allow the software to retain bar code values in cases of a partial reading.

If the Partial Reading option is not required or enabled, then the mask and minimum length settings can be used in combination to restrict even further the bar code values that are retained.

For example:

Mask:   9(10)
Minimum bytes:   6
retains bar code values between six and ten digits, while
Mask:   9(10)
Minimum length:   10
retains bar code values only if they are exactly ten digits.enter a number for the minimum length of the bar code value.

Bar code width and Bar code height Making an entry in one or both of these fields increases the performance of bar code reading. If one of the dimensions is variable, enter "0". The default bar code width and height is "0".

Bar code dimensions can vary depending on the amount of skew. Therefore, it is recommended that you enter these values only when you are sure of the dimensions of the bar code.

You must specify a bar code height for bar codes that are smaller than 40 pixels high (e.g., at 200 dpi, 40 pixels is 20/100 in.).

When specifying a bar code width and/or height, the tolerance is ±10% (e.g., if you specify 20/100 for the bar code height, any bar code between 18/100 and 22/100 in. will be detected). The values entered in these fields limit the images from which bar codes or OCR(Optical Character Recognition) - the process of recognizing printed characters by a software application. text will be read to only those whose size falls in between these values. This is useful when using bar code header sheets for document separation and indexing that are significantly smaller than the rest of the pages of the document.

This option can increase the performance of scanning into the bar code/OCR application. When this option is enabled, the minimum default value is 1000 bytes and the maximum default value is 100,000 bytes.—if the bar code has a fixed length or height, enter these values in 1/100ths of an inch.

Bar code type You may also select additional bar code types that will be considered valid for this bar code zone. Although it is unusual that more than one bar code type would be found within a zone, it is possible to select multiple bar code types. To view a list of bar code types, click here.

The more bar code types you select, the slower your scanning performance.

When you draw a bar code zone location, the software searches the location for all bar code types. When successful, the software sets the Bar code type to the one found. Otherwise, a bar code type is not selected. There are two exceptions to this rule:

For Code 39 Extended and Code 39 HIBC bar codes, the software may set the Bar code type to Code 39. As a result, you may need to manually select Code 39 Extended and Code 39 HIBC.

For MSIPH bar codes, the software may set the Bar code type to MSI. As a result, you may need to manually select MSIPH.— select one or more bar code types.

Verify checksum Checksum characters help ensure the accuracy of bar code reading. Not all bar code types support checksum verification. Bar code types that optionally support checksum verification include:

Code 3 of 9
CODABAR
Interleaved 2 of 5

Some bar code types like PDF417, UPC, and EAN have a built-in checksum routine that cannot be disabled.
If you disable Verify Checksum for bar codes containing a checksum, the checksum value (usually the last character of the bar code) will appear in the bar code value; otherwise, the check digit will remain hidden.

If checksum verification fails during scanning, a bar code value is not generated, causing the software index field audits to fail.— enable checkbox if the bar code contains a checksum character. For information how the software reads optional and mandatory checksum characters, click hereSome bar code types, such as Code 128, have mandatory checksum characters. The code is always present and must be correct to read. Other codes such, as Code 39, have optional checksum characters which then add an additional code when present.

To read invalid Code 128 symbols, you can select the Minimumpartial readcharacters option. It will report the data characters even if checksum fails. The invalid checksum will not be returned. When the bar code has an optional checksum, it will not be validated by the software. It will operate based on the bar code specification.

Selecting Minimum partial read characters for a bar code with an optional checksum will return what it finds, whether it is good or bad. There will be occasions when the bar code returns the correct result but the checksum itself fails. Since the checksum is implicit, it is not returned and cannot be directly tested..

Minimum partial read charactersIf Minimum partial read characters is enabled, enter the minimum number of characters that will be allowed for a partial read. This is useful for bar codes that are only used for document or batch separation where the absolute value is less critical.

For indexing purposes, it is recommended that you define field masks and minimum lengths. The software will not produce any bar code value if the bar code is incomplete and the Minimum partial read characters field is disabled.

Minimum partial read characters should not be used when Verify checksum is enabled, as this may result in a bar code value being generated when checksum verification fails.—enable checkbox when you want the software to generate a bar code value, even if a bar code is incomplete.

Filtering — when reading barcodes from fax machines or other devices that may have CCD pixel dropout, applying a filter may help the read rate if bars are missing pixels. Selecting Filter1 will fill a gap in a bar of 1 pixel. Filter2 will fill a gap of 2 pixels, etc.

Process bar code by— when set to Auto, the bar code will be read in the scanner if possible. If the scanner reaches its maximum number of bar codes or the bar code is not supported in the scanner, then the bar code will be read by Capture Pro. When set to Capture Pro, the bar code will be read in the software.

OrientationIf your bar codes all share the same orientation (i.e., all horizontal or all vertical), it is recommended that you indicate the specific orientation; this will increase bar code read and scanning performance.

If your bar codes are predominantly in the same orientation (e.g., horizontal) but may have an occasional bar code in the opposite direction (e.g., vertical) it is recommended that you use the appropriate "and" orientation (e.g., Horizontal and Vertical). This will improve bar code reading performance for these types of bar code applications.

When the bar code zone is first created, the software automatically sets the orientation to the orientation of the bar code, if found. Otherwise, Horizontal is selected by default. — select an orientation option from the drop-down list.

Confidence Use this option when you want to restrict what the software considers to be a successful bar code read.— enter a confidence ratio number to restrict what the software considers a successful bar code read. For example, the higher the value you enter, the chance of misreading bar codes will be reduced.

Quality The highest quality bar codes are printed by a laser printer or pre-printed with an offset printer. Lower quality bar codes are printed with inkjet or dot-matrix technology.

Depending on the quality of bar codes being scanned, set the Quality level accordingly. The higher the quality setting, the faster the bar code read performance.— select a quality setting between Worst and Best.

Position — select AnywhereWhen creating a zone for an Anywhere bar code, draw a location around one bar code somewhere on the page, and select the Anywhere option. This situation often occurs when bar codes on documents.

When looking for Anywhere bar codes, the software searches the image from top to bottom for horizontal and vertical bar codes. This search order is important to understand if you have more than one Anywhere bar code on a page or zone. orZoneThe Zone option increases bar code reading and scanning performance and is the default setting.

Alternatively search on the reverse side — enabling this option increases document/batch separation and indexing accuracy when pages are accidentally reversed before scanning.

Alternatively search on 180° rotated imagesWhen bar code reading is unsuccessful, the software will also look for the zone after rotating an image 180 degrees. This slows down bar code reading, but prevents a bar code read failure because a page was scanned upside down. The image is not permanently rotated unless the Rotate based on bar code option is selected.: can only be used when the Zone option is enabled.

Rotate based on bar codeFor document rotation, all of the pages of the document will be rotated in the same manner as the lead page containing the bar code zone. If required, only one bar code zone should have the Rotate based on bar code option enabled.

The software can determine if a bar code is rotated 180 degrees and will rotate the bar code page 180° to display it in the correct orientation.

Batch rotation is not supported in the software.: rotates the document in the same orientation as the bar code.

Read all bar codes: when this option is checked and the Position is Anywhere, all bar codes on the page will be read. The bar code values will be separated by the ^ character. The order of the values will be the order that the bar codes were found when searching from left to right and top to bottom on the page.

SeparationCreate a new batch - all images after the separation go into a new document in a new batch.

Create a new document - all images after separation go into a new document in the current batch.

Next page stays in current document - the next page after the separation remains in the current document.

Only separate when change in value

No separation — enable a check box for one of five options.

If you checked the No separation option under Separation, indicate the level for the bar code zones. Bar codes can be found on one of the following levels:

Batch levelBatch level bar codes are only read when they are present on a Batch Header page.

A Batch Header page exists whenever batch separation is defined using patch codes or bar codes (at least one bar code zone in the application is configured for batch separation).: bar codes that are located on the Batch level or that separate batches are available for Batch and Document indexing.
Document level: bar codes that are located on the Document level or that separate documents are available for Document indexing. They are not available for Batch indexing.

OK — closes the dialog box and returns to the Bar Code window.