CHANGES

XXXX-XX-XX

* The performance of the matrix renderer was improved.
* The Han Xin Code encoder was enhanced with support for ECIs.
* The EMV QR Code encoder was removed since the standard is not followed in practice.


2026-10-26

* The encoders were fixed to leave nothing on the stack when an option is given a value of the wrong type.
* Option passing was improved.
* The performance of most encoders, and of GS1 data processing, input parsing and the Reed-Solomon caches, was improved by sizing their working dictionaries for the entries that they hold.
* The Data Matrix encoder was fixed to make Reader Programming the first codeword, which a latch to C40 could precede.
* The GS1 encoders were fixed to refuse bracketed AI data that ends with an opening parenthesis, which was dropped.
* The Ultracode encoder was fixed to count data positions without ECIs, which let FNC1 in second data position through after a leading ECI and misreported FNC1 in first position after one.
* The DotCode encoder was fixed to keep symbols within its limits of 200 rows and 200 columns, which automatic sizing and fixed rows or columns exceeded, holding a dimension at its limit where the data fits and refusing the data otherwise.
* The DotCode encoder was enhanced with the dotcode.maxrows and dotcode.maxcols global context settings, which change the limits on the rows and columns of a symbol.
* The 2D and stacked encoders were enhanced to report their choices of version, error correction level, mask, columns, rows, format, layers and mode, and the composite encoders their choices of ccversion and cccolumns, in the report dictionary, as the values of the options that select them.
* The Data Matrix encoder was enhanced with the iso144 option, which places the error correction codewords of 144x144 symbols in the order of the ISO/IEC standard.
* The Data Matrix, Code 128, Code 16K, Codablock F, Code One, DotCode, Ultracode and PosiCode encoders were enhanced with the readerinit option, which marks the symbol for programming the reader, and the Data Matrix, Ultracode, PDF417 and MicroPDF417 encoders accept it with raw codewords.


2026-10-25

* Support for Aztec Mesas was added, attached to Code 128, Code 39, Code 93, Code 93i, Interleaved 2 of 5, EAN-13 and UPC-A host symbols.
* The Code 128 encoder was fixed to refuse empty raw data.


2026-10-24

* The Ultracode encoder was fixed to refuse the link1 option without raw codewords, which produced symbols that signalled a Symbol Control Region that was absent.
* The Ultracode encoder was enhanced with the adctype option, which links the symbol to an Associated Data Carrier.
* The Ultracode encoder was enhanced with the rows and columns options, which specify the symbol size.
* The Ultracode encoder was changed to raise the error correction level to fill the symbol, unless the new fixedeclevel option is given.
* The Code 128, Interleaved 2 of 5, Aztec Code, Code 16K and Code 49 encoders, and the encoders based on them, were changed to state their quiet zones in the structure that they return.
* The Codablock F encoder was fixed to provide its 10X quiet zones to the left and right of the symbol, which widens the background and the border when they are drawn.
* The renderers were enhanced to record in the report the factors by which grid-fitting rescales the physical dimensions, as gridscale.


2026-10-23

* The HIBC encoders were enhanced to check that the data has the structure of the HIBC Supplier Labeling Standard or the HIBC Provider Applications Standard, unless the new dontlint option is given.
* The HIBC encoders were changed to raise the shared errors bwipp.HIBCbadCharacter and bwipp.HIBCbadCheckDigit in place of their own.
* The Ultracode encoder was enhanced to choose the shortest encodation, compacting digits in Numeric Submode and text in C43 groups, which makes most symbols smaller.
* The Ultracode encoder was changed to use the Start Characters of ISO/IEC CD 25449, [256] for ISO/IEC 8859-1 data and [273] for GS1 data, in place of [257], except in legacy revision 1.
* The Ultracode encoder was enhanced to encode ECIs.
* The Ultracode encoder was enhanced to compress ISO/IEC 15434 Format 06 messages with the Insert 06 Macro.
* The start option of the Ultracode encoder was restricted to raw codewords and legacy revision 1.
* The Ultracode encoder was changed to refuse ECIs with FNC1 in first position, and FNC1 in second position, which readers do not transmit faithfully.


2026-10-22

* Support for Code 93i was added.


2026-10-21

* The QR Code encoder was fixed to choose the mask by evaluating the complete symbol, including its format and version information, as the specification requires, which changes the mask of some symbols.
* The Code 128 encoder was fixed to encode the extended ASCII digits (byte values 176 to 185), which it could encode in code set C, losing their extended value.
* The Code 128 encoder was enhanced to always choose a shortest encodation, resolving ties in a fixed order of preference, which changes some symbols, including GS1-128 and other symbols based on Code 128.
* The suppressc and unlatchextbeforec options of the Code 128 encoder were made to apply without the newencoder option, which was removed.
* The GS1 Composite encoders were fixed to encode an X that follows the leading digits of AI (90), which readers decoded as a W.
* The GS1 Composite encoders were enhanced to encode a W that follows the leading digits of AI (90) in the shorter form, which can make symbols smaller.
* The GS1 DataBar Limited Composite encoder was fixed to make the four leftmost modules of the separator pattern light, rather than three.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Composite encoder was fixed to align the 2D component with the first symbol character of the linear component when it has other than four segments.
* The GS1-128 Composite encoder was fixed to give CC-C components with just over 40, 160 or 320 data codewords the recommended minimum error correction level.
* The GS1-128 Composite encoder was fixed to make CC-C components of automatic width narrower than four times their height, counting the start, stop and row indicator columns.
* The GS1 DataBar Limited Composite encoder was fixed to leave a quiet zone to the left of a CC-B component.
* The composite encoders other than GS1-128 Composite were fixed to refuse ccversion=c, which built a CC-C component that the specification does not permit.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded Composite encoder was fixed to raise an error for ccversion=c, which caused a PostScript error.
* The GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional, Truncated and Limited Composite and GS1-128 Composite encoders were fixed to centre the human readable text on the linear component, from which it could be offset.
* The GS1 DataBar and GS1-128 Composite encoders were fixed to make the linear component no shorter than the linear symbol, which a specification height could lose up to a module from.
* The Rectangular Micro QR Code encoder was enhanced to select the smallest symbol that holds the data when no version is given, and the narrowest symbol of a given height with version=R7 to version=R17.
* The Code One encoder was enhanced to select the smallest S-type or T-type symbol that holds the data with version=S or version=T.
* The Code One encoder was enhanced to encode a final character in ASCII in the last codeword after Decimal data, which can make symbols smaller.
* The DotCode encoder was fixed to evaluate the masks of large symbols without exceeding the operand stack limit of some interpreters.
* The DotCode and GS1 DotCode encoders were fixed to accept input up to the capacity of the largest symbol, which they refused beyond 2000 characters.
* The Telepen and Telepen Numeric encoders were enhanced with an aimstartstop option for the AIM start and stop characters that mark compressed numeric data, with which DLE in Telepen data switches to compressed numeric.
* The PDF417 and MicroPDF417 encoders were enhanced to encode a short run of text in Text Compaction where that needs no further latch, which can make symbols smaller.
* The Australia Post encoder was enhanced to encode the Null Customer Barcode, FCC 00, at the shortest length that holds the customer information.
* The Code 11 encoder was amended to use two check digits for data of any length with includecheck or validatecheck, as the symbology is designed to use, which changes symbols of fewer than 10 characters that previously had one.
* The Code 11 encoder was enhanced with a numcheckdigits option, which selects one check digit for data of up to 10 characters.


2026-10-20

* Support for Stacked PosiCode was added to the PosiCode encoder.
* The PosiCode encoder was fixed to encode digits at the widths of the specification, which readers following the reference decode algorithm rejected.
* The PosiCode encoder was fixed to encode the start character of PosiCode A at the widths of the specification.
* The Han Xin Code encoder was enhanced to choose the shortest encodation among its numeric, text, binary byte and Chinese character modes, making symbols smaller.
* The Grid Matrix encoder was improved to use less memory for large symbols.


2026-10-19

* The Codablock A encoder was fixed to run the start and stop characters through the row separators, which interrupted them.
* The Codablock A encoder was fixed to extend the top and bottom row separators across the start and stop characters.
* The quiet zones of the Mailmark 4-state, PostBar, CEPNet, DPD, LOGMARS, Codablock A, PPN-Code and DX Film Edge encoders, and of the patch codes of the symbol encoder, were set to those of their specifications.


2026-10-18

* Kodak patch codes were added to the symbol encoder.
* Support for the Royal Mail Mailmark 4-state barcodes C and L was added.
* Support for EPC QR Code (GiroCode) was added, with validation of the SEPA credit transfer data.
* Support for UPU S10 postal item identifiers was added.
* Support for DPD parcel label barcodes was added.
* Support for Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) barcodes was added.
* Support for the Brazilian CEPNet postal barcode was added.
* Support for the IFA PPN-Code for pharmaceutical packs was added.
* Support for Anker Code, a variant of Plessey, was added.
* Support for the Codablock A symbology was added.
* Support for the Canada Post PostBar 4-state barcodes C10, D22, G12 and S21 was added.
* Support for the DX Film Edge barcode was added.
* Support for LOGMARS was added.
* Support for the EMV merchant-presented QR Code for payments was added, with validation of the payment data.
* Support for UPS MaxiCode was added, with validation of the UPS message.
* Support for the Korea Post customer barcode was added.
* The USPS Intelligent Mail encoder was fixed to render at the specified width under strictspec.
* The USPS Intelligent Mail encoder was fixed to derive bar heights in proportion to the bar width under propspec.
* The strictspec option was fixed to refuse, and loosespec to fall back from, an X-dimension of zero, which raised a PostScript error.
* The strictspec option was fixed to refuse, and loosespec to fall back from, a negative X-dimension, which drew the symbol reflected through its origin.
* The linear encoders were fixed to leave the stack clean when propspec refuses an hnom without a nominal X-dimension.
* The renderers were fixed to leave the stack clean when the background, border or bearer bar color is invalid.
* The matrix renderer was fixed to refuse a colormap that is not a dictionary, which raised a PostScript error.
* The Ultracode encoder was fixed to refuse a start character or link1 flag out of range, which raised a PostScript error.
* The PosiCode encoder was fixed to refuse an unknown encoding, which raised a PostScript error.
* The Aztec Code encoder was fixed to refuse raw data other than the bits 0 and 1, which raised a PostScript error that disrupted later symbols.
* The Aztec Code encoder was fixed to refuse raw data of digits other than 0 and 1, which was encoded wrongly.
* The GS1 encoders were fixed to leave the stack clean when the parse option refuses an invalid ordinal in an AI value.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded encoders and the Composite Components were fixed to refuse characters that they cannot encode when dontlint is given, which raised a PostScript error.
* The GS1 encoders were fixed to refuse bracketed data without AIs, which produced a symbol without data.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded encoders were fixed to refuse bracketed data without AIs, which raised a PostScript error.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded encoders were fixed to refuse data that needs more than 21 data characters, which raised a PostScript error.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Composite encoder was fixed to refuse a composite component wider than the rows, which raised a PostScript error.
* The Swiss QR Code encoder was fixed to restore the graphics state when rendering raises an error, which disrupted later symbols.
* The MSI Plessey encoder was fixed to calculate the mod10 check digit of long data, which raised a PostScript error.
* The Datastrip 2D encoder was changed to render the quiet zone as a border, which excludes it from the modules and dimensions of the symbol.
* The Swiss QR Code, Royal Mail Mailmark, GS1 Digital Link QR Code and GS1 Digital Link Data Matrix encoders were fixed to ignore the parsefnc option, which altered data containing a caret.
* The Swiss QR Code, Royal Mail Mailmark, GS1 Digital Link QR Code and GS1 Digital Link Data Matrix encoders were fixed to ignore the parsefnc option, which refused data containing a caret.


2026-10-17

* Support for the Grid Matrix symbology was added.
* Support for the Datastrip 2D symbology was added.


2026-10-16

* Support for reader initialisation was added to the PDF417 and MicroPDF417 encoders via a new readerinit option.
* Support for FNC1 in second position was added to the Code 128, Code 16K, Code 49, PosiCode, Data Matrix, Aztec Code, Code One, DotCode, QR Code, Rectangular Micro QR Code and MicroPDF417 encoders, declared with ^FNC@ followed by an AIM application indicator of one letter or two digits.
* The QR Code, Data Matrix, Aztec Code, DotCode and Code One encoders were changed to refuse ECIs with FNC1 in first position, which denotes GS1 AI syntax.
* The QR Code encoder, including GS1 QR Code, was fixed in FNC1 mode so that a % encoded in byte mode is no longer doubled.
* The QR Code encoder was fixed in FNC1 mode so that an FNC1 followed by % or another FNC1 is no longer misread.
* The Code 49 encoder was fixed to encode a numeric run of one more than a multiple of five digits that follows other data, which raised an error.


2026-10-15

* Support for Structured Append was added to the QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF417, MicroPDF417, Aztec Code, DotCode, Code One and Ultracode encoders via new sampos, samtotal, samid and samparity options.
* The Code 16K, Code 49 and MaxiCode encoders were amended to accept sampos and samtotal as alternatives to sam.
* The validatecheck option was added to the Interleaved 2 of 5, Code 93 and MSI encoders.
* The QR Code encoder was amended to report the Structured Append parity of its message, and the Code 93 encoder to report the check characters that it adds.
* The ITF-14 encoder was fixed so that includecheck no longer adds a further check digit.
* The Two-track Pharmacode encoder was changed to take the height option in inches, like the other encoders, rather than millimetres.
* The Two-track Pharmacode encoder was fixed to honour hdim under strictspec.
* The Swiss QR Code encoder was amended to always use error correction level M, as required by the Swiss Implementation Guidelines, and to refuse any other eclevel.
* The MaxiCode encoder was fixed to accept an empty secondary message in modes 2 and 3.
* The spacing of the FIM B symbol was fixed.
* The GS1 DataBar Expanded encoder was fixed to validate barxmult only for the expandedstacked format.
* The QR Code encoder was fixed to accept FNC1 in first position following ECIs, and to raise a proper error for FNC1 following data.
* The EAN/UPC light margin indicators were fixed so that their ink, rather than the centre of their stroke, meets the edge of the quiet zone, regardless of the caller's line join and miter limit.


2026-10-14

* The report dictionary was amended to also receive the message of the error that loosespec suppressed.


2026-10-13

* The gridfit option was fixed so that a griddpi equal to the device resolution gives the same output as leaving it unset.


2026-10-12

* The gridfit option was fixed to align to the griddpi pixel grid when it differs from the device resolution.
* The renderers were amended so that a background without a border or bearer bars covers the whole quiet zone.


2026-10-11

* Check digit errors were amended to give the expected and the provided check digit.
* The report dictionary was amended to receive the check characters that an encoder adds on the user's behalf.


2026-10-10

* The report dictionary was amended to receive the bar height that the specification calls for.
* The mag option was fixed to also scale the bar height of wrapper and composite symbols under strictspec.
* The SSCC-18 and EAN-14 encoders were amended to use the GS1-128 Application Specification Tables.


2026-10-09

* The width and height options of matrix symbols were amended to behave as for linear symbols under strictspec and loosespec.
* Support for reporting the rendered physical dimensions via a caller-provided uk.co.terryburton.bwipp.report dictionary was added.


2026-10-08

* The GS1 Application Specification Table profiles were reconciled with Release 26.0 of the GS1 General Specifications.
* The gs1.sst2 profile for EAN-8 and the gs1.sst1, gs1.sst1.dl and gs1.sst8 profiles for GS1 QR Code were removed, since the GS1 General Specifications do not define them.
* Each AST profile was added to the encoder metadata.


2026-10-03

* Wrapper encoders were fixed to validate spec options and apply the global spec defaults.


2026-09-28

* The metadata for MaxiCode was fixed.


2026-09-17

* The performance of Reed-Solomon error correction was improved for the Aztec Code, PDF417, MicroPDF417, QR Code, Data Matrix, Han Xin Code, MaxiCode, Code One and Ultracode encoders.
* The Aztec Code encoder was fixed to account for bit stuffing when selecting the symbol size, and to limit compact symbols to 64 data codewords.


2026-09-16

* The MaxiCode renderer was reworked to draw hexagons at their specified size, to apply inkspread as for other symbologies, and to render pixel-exact symbols under gridfit.
* The matrix renderer was amended to draw dotty symbols with uniform round dots under gridfit.


2026-09-06

* The Data Matrix encoder was fixed to always emit the Macro 05/06 codeword in the first position, and to never emit an empty Base 256 segment.
* The Data Matrix and DotCode encoders were amended so that their output does not depend on the precision of real number arithmetic.
* The performance of the QR Code encoder was improved for data that mixes character classes.


2026-07-06

* The performance of the DotCode encoder was improved by sharing a single codeword placement walk between the mask candidates, by deriving each candidate's error correction codewords from those of the unmasked message, and by scoring each candidate together with its lit-edge variant in a single evaluation pass.


2026-07-04

* The QR Code, Han Xin Code and Aztec Code encoders were optimised.
* The performance of QR Code, Aztec Code, MaxiCode, Data Matrix, Code One and the Han Xin Code symbologies was optimised by preparing log-domain coefficients and two-period anti-log tables once in advance of Reed Solomon computation.
* The performance of punctuation compression in the Aztec Code encoder was improved via using lookahead.


2026-06-13

* The bearer bars were reworked to render as filled paths rather than stroked lines, matching the border and the data bars for consistent rendering at small scales.
* The hooks framework was amended so that hook procedures are activated by the presence of a hooks dictionary in the global context, without requiring the enabledebug option.


2026-05-31

* The PDF417, MicroPDF417 and Aztec Code encoding was optimised.
* Reed-Solomon error correction for the QR Code, Aztec Code, MaxiCode, Data Matrix, Code One and Han Xin Code symbologies was made more efficient.


2026-05-29

* The GS1 Application Identifier element string parsing and validation was made more efficient.


2026-05-28

* The QR Code, Aztec Code, Ultracode, PDF417, MicroPDF417, MaxiCode, Data Matrix, Han Xin Code, Code One and Codablock F encoders were amended to bound their parsed message length.
* The DotCode encoder was amedned to cap the rows and columns options at 200.
* The renmatrix intermediate dictionary key for per-row module heights was renamed from rowmult (a per-row array) to rowheights, eliminating a collision with the public scalar rowmult option of the PDF417 and MicroPDF417 encoders.
* The Code 128, Codablock F and Code 16K encoders were amended to avoid quadratic-time encoding of long digit runs.


2026-05-06

* The D3 AQR encoder was amended to invert the p0 parity module.


2026-05-05

* A provisional encoder for the D3 AQR symbology was added based on a draft specification. Details are likely to change if it is standardised.
* The Han Xin Code encoder was expanded with support for GS1 mode and numeric compaction.
* The JAB Code encoder was removed since the standard is unstable.


2026-04-26

* The ISBN, ISMN, ISSN and GS1 North American Coupon encoders were amended so that all regular text processing options work.
* The textsubspace and textsplit options were added as aliases of text1subspace and text1split, complementing the other text* aliases. The legacy alttextsubspace and alttextsplit aliases continue to work.


2026-04-22

* The DataBar variants were fixed to honour the mandatory 1X LHS guard space and 5X RHS guard space for DataBar Limited.


2026-04-21

* An addondescent option was added to EAN/UPC symbols to control the descent of add-on bars independently of guarddescent. It defaults to the value of guarddescent so the add-on matches the primary unless overridden.


2026-04-17

* Reed-Solomon encoding was harmonised and factored into shared rsecbinary and rsecprime helpers.


2026-04-16

* The renderer was changed to gridfit in the same direction when fitting independent axes.


2026-04-15

* The modunit option may now only be set within global context.


2026-04-09

* A guarddescent option was added to specify the descent of EAN/UPC guard bars in multiples of the X-dimension.
* EAN/UPC guards now correctly descend below the baseline so that height relates to the nominal bars.


2026-04-08

* Under propspec, the height option now acts as a multiplier on the spec-derived bar height.


2026-04-07

* The spec-based options were renamed to propspec, strictspec and loosespec and can be set via global_ctx.
* The hdim option now correctly sets bar height under strictspec and loosespec.
* EAN/UPC guard bar descent is now 5X.


2026-04-05

* Text alignment options for composite symbols was fixed.
* The primary symbol height option for composite symbols was fixed.


2026-04-03

* Text group support was added to the MaxiCode symbology.
* A new physspec option was added to simplify the generation of vector symbols with specification-compliant physical dimensions.
* Nominal and bounding metrics can be looked up in per-symbology application specific tables with the new ast option.
* In physspec mode the gridfit option validates the effective X-dimension against specification bounds, trying alternate rounding directions when the initial snap falls outside the allowed range.


2026-03-31

* gridfit and griddpi options were added to the renderers to snap module boundaries to device pixel grid.


2026-03-30

* Alias option handling was simplified and improved.


2026-03-29

* The text rendering system was generalised to support up to 9 independent text groups. The existing text and extratext options are retained as aliases.


2026-03-28

* The position of the whitespace guards for EAN/UPC symbols was simplified and better aligned with the text.


2026-03-27

* The position of the whitespace guards for standalone EAN/UPC addons was fixed.


2026-03-26

* The text{x,y}align=justify options were fixed for the linear and matrix renderers.


2026-03-25

* The text processing for the Code 39 Extended and Code 93 Extended encoders was fixed.


2026-03-24

* The text renderer now centres each character using stringwidth and pathbbox for font-independent alignment in the direct text positioning path.
* Text offsets were adjusted for EAN/UPC-based symbologies and addons to account for ink-centre anchoring. Non-EAN encoders with per-character text placement were converted to use centre-aligned single string rendering.


2026-03-13

* FMLY was added to the encoder metadata.
* The C API and SWIG bindings were expanded with support for lazy loading of resource bodies.


2026-03-03

* Input validation was hardened across all encoders, including data length checks, empty data rejection, and implementation limit guards for large allocations.
* The renderers now validate their input structures and the text renderer handles single-character justify alignment correctly.
* All resources now clean up the dictionary stack when an error is raised, preventing dict stack leaks in caller contexts.
* Renderer error handling was improved: correct graphics state restoration, operand stack cleanup for invalid colors, and redundant gsave/grestore removal from composite rendering paths.
* Raw mode input validation was improved for Code 128, Code 16K, Data Matrix, PosiCode, Ultracode, PDF417 and Micro PDF417, including ^NNN format and codeword range checks.
* Data exceeding the maximum symbol capacity is now rejected during encoding for QR Code, Data Matrix, Code One, PDF417 and JAB Code.
* Codablock F, Code 16K and the matrix renderer now handle large symbols without overflowing the operand stack.
* GS1 input validation was improved for DataBar Expanded, DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional, GS1 Composite Component and GS1 North American Coupon.
* JAB Code now validates eclevel, mask, colors, rows and columns options. PRNG constants now avoid integer literals exceeding the signed 32-bit range.
* PDF417 and Micro PDF417: Fixed text submode optimizer crash with long all-text inputs by increasing the sentinel value used in the Viterbi cost comparison.
* JAB Code: Fixed crash in slave symbol mode where metadata encoding referenced an undefined variable.


2026-02-27

* The AusPost encoder now supports FCC 87 (Routing) and FCC 92 (Redirection) barcodes.
* The renderers now support a `default_inkspread` global context setting.


2026-02-01

* The GS1 AI linter was realigned with the latest release of the GS1 Syntax Dictionary.
* User option validation was improved for the Codablock F, Code 16K, Code 49, Micro PDF417 and PDF417 encoders.
* User option validation was improved for the linear, matrix and maximatrix renderers.


2026-01-21

* The encoder for DotCode was fixed to ensure a minimum symbol dimension when the opposite dimension is large.
* The performance of the PDF417, Micro PDF417, Code One, OneCode, Data Matrix and GS1 Composite Component encoders was improved.


2026-01-15

* The time to generate error correction polynomials was improved using a FIFO cache for the QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF47, Micro PDF417, MaxiCode, Dot Code, Han Xin and Ultracode symbologies.
* The performance of the Code 128, Codablock F, Posicode and Code 16K encoders was improved.


2026-01-13

* Stack leaks during error handling were fixed for the Data Matrix, PDF417, Micro PDF417, ISBN, ISMN, AusPost and Telepen symbologies.


2026-01-12

* The performance of generating the error correction codewords for AusPost symbols was improved.
* Several stack leaks were fixed for GS1 AI and DL data processing.
* The debug and dontdraw options of all encoders must now be enabled using a pair of global switches.


2026-01-09

* The performance of generating the error correction codewords for Aztec Code, Han Xin Code, QR Code, Data Matrix, Code One, Maxicode, PDF417, Micro PDF417, Ultracode symbols was improved.


2026-01-07

* The Ultracode encoder was fixed so that colours are correctly selected for rendering.


2026-01-06

* The performance of the matrix renderer was further improved.
* Common colour handling code was factored out of the renderers into its own resource.


2026-01-05

* The performance of the matrix renderer was significantly improved.


2026-01-04

* The QR Code encoder performance was enhanced by precalculating the mask function patterns and applying them simultaneously to the data bitstream.
* A mechanism to "preload" the lazy variables via global context was added.


2026-01-02

* Switch from loadctx/unloadctx mechanism to a more direct method of preloading static state, with lazy initialisation.
* The Two-Track Pharmacode encoder's text positioning was fixed.
* The USPS Intelligent Mail encoder's text positioning was fixed.


2025-11-18

* Common text rendering code was factored out of the linear and matrix renderers into its own resource.


2025-10-24

* The ITF-14 encoder's text positioning was fixed.


2025-10-16

* The Code 128 encoder's raw mode was fixed.
* The linear and matrix renderers were enhanced to accept top and bottom for the textyalign option.
* The linear and matrix renderers were enhanced with a textdirection option.


2025-06-16

* The linear and matrix renderer were enhanced with support for extratextsubspace, extratextsplit and extratextlinegaps options corresponding to the alttext equivalents.


2025-06-13

* The linear and matrix renderers were enhanced with alttextsubspace that allows given characters to be substituted for spaces.
* The linear and matrix renderers were enhanced with alttextsplit and alttextlinegaps options that may be used to render multi-line blocks of text.


2025-04-19

* The GS1 AI linter was realigned with the latest release of the GS1 Syntax Dictionary.


2025-04-09

* The encoder for EAN-8 was changed to forbid the use of a two-digit or five-digit addon unless a permitaddon option is supplied.


2025-03-14

* The high-level encoder for MaxiCode was replaced with a new algorithm that may result in significantly shorter messages.
* The encoder for Aztec Code was fixed so that punctuation compression works correctly after a binary sequence.


2024-11-16

* The GS1 AI linter now reports the mandatory association specification that is not being met.


2024-10-13

* The baseline of EAN/UPC add-ons is now correctly aligned with the guard bars in the primary symbol.


2024-08-17

* Support for HRI text was added to the GS1 Digital Link variant symbologies.


2024-08-15

* Support for extra text was added to the renlinear and renmatrix renderers.


2024-07-20

* The encoder for QR Code was amended to opportunistically raise the error correction level when better fit to the matrix possible.


2024-07-07

* The renders were amended to lookup default colours from the global context when unset and available.


2024-07-06

* The renlinear render was amended to not apply inkspread compensation in the vertical direction.
* The composite encoders were amended to not clobber the separator pattern when a background colour is set.


2024-07-05

* The renderers were amended to apply inkspread compensation to the no-border background.


2024-07-04

* The renderers were amended to not stretch the background when no border or bearer is present.


2024-06-18

* The encoder for QR Code was amended to avoid encoding certain double byte pairs using Kanji Mode encoding.


2024-06-14

* The QR Code was fixed so that certain message characters will not be erroneously adopted as the low-order byte of a Kanji Mode pair.


2024-06-05

* Hex digit evaluation via data as code constructions were removed from the GS1 linter and renderers.


2024-04-31

* Support for named colours was added to the renderers.


2024-04-23

* The GS1 DL URI linter now permits an uppercase scheme.


2024-01-03

* The default whitespace guard position, test position and border positions for standalone EAN/UPC add-ons was amended to align with their use alongside EAN/UPC symbols.


2023-12-25

* The GS1 Digital Link validation no longer allows an AI to be specified as a regular attribute (within query parameters) if it would be a valid key qualifier (within path information).


2023-12-11

* The GS1-128 Composite, GS1 Expanded Stacked Composite and GS1 North American Coupon Code symbologies were fixed to honour the parse options for their 2D component.


2023-12-07

* A workaround was introduced to address an issue with the packager creating a broken resource due to improper binarisation of large integers.


2023-07-23

* A showbearer option was added to the linear renderer to render bearer bars above and below the symbol.
* The encoder for ITF-14 was amended to ensure that border and bearers in their default position will touch the bars when default inkspread is used.


2023-07-12

* The encoder for Aztec Code was fixed to allow encoding of long messages that end with binary data.
* The GS1 AI linter was realigned with the latest release of the GS1 Syntax Dictionary.
* The encoders for EAN and UPC variants were amended so that exterior digits and guard symbols better protect the quiet zone.
* The default options for the border positions were amended to align with the symbology-specific quiet zones, where appropriate.
* The border options were enabled for the MaxiCode symbology.
* The matrix and maximatrix renderer were altered to provide a small amount of inkspread compensation by default.


2023-07-05

* The renlinear renderer was changed so that any border is plotted outside of the zone defined by the border{left,right,top,bottom} options and so that inkspread is applied to the border.
* Border support was added to the renmatrix renderer.


2023-06-22

* The encoder for MaxiCode was amended to apply hexagon size reduction which can be adjusted by inkspread.
* The encoder for MicroPDF417 was improved to provide automatic Macro 05/06 compression of structured data.


2023-04-11

* Input validation fixes where applied to the Australia Post 4-State barcode, KIX, Code 11, Japan Post, Code 39, Code 39 Extended, Code 2 of 5, DataBar family, EAN-14, SSCC-18, Plessey, Posicode, Codabar, Composite Component, DAFT and HIBC symbologies.


2023-04-03

* The MSI symbology was fixed to permit the madmod11 options with the mod11 check type.
* The encoder for Data Matrix was fixed.
* The PDF417 symbology was fixed to perform ECC levels from 0 to 8.
* The Code 49 symbology option concat was renamed to append.


2023-04-01

* User option validation was added to Code 93 Extended, Codablock F, GS1-128, US Postal Service Intelligent Mail, Code 16K, Code 49, MSI, Code One, GS1 Composite Components, Hanxin, DotCode, GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional and GS1 DataBar Expanded.
* The GS1 AI linter was realigned with the latest release of the GS1 Syntax Dictionary, including the addition of a linter for AIDC media types.


2023-03-26

* User option validation was added to PDF417 and MicroPDF417.


2023-03-24

* User option validation was added to MaxiCode and the Australian Postal 4-state barcode.


2023-03-23

* The version information for QR Code version 33 symbols was fixed.
* User option validation was added to the Telepen and Japan Post QR Code.
* A font sizes less than or equal to zero is now forbidden.


2023-03-20

* User option validation was added to the encoders for QR Code, Aztec Code and Data Matrix.
* Aztec Code was amended to generate only full-range symbols by default.
* Support for legacy DIN DMRE models was removed from Data Matrix.


2023-03-16

* User input validation was added to the setting of RGB and CMYK colours.


2023-02-16

* The mailmark option in the encoder for Data Matrix was replaced with a generic c40headerlength option.


2022-10-19

* The GS1 North American Coupon Code symbology was fixed.


2022-10-15

* The text positioning options for renlinear and renmatrix were fixed.


2022-10-14

* The value type validation of the options parser has been further improved.


2022-10-13

* The vertical position of the left whitespace guard was fixed.
* User input validation was added to JapanPost and Code 93.


2022-10-10

* The options parser has improved value type validation.


2022-09-28

* Documentation updates only, to reflect GS1 example data ranges.


2022-09-26

* No user-visible changes.


2022-09-18

* The Composite symbologies now honour the dontdraw option.


2022-08-21

* The codeword generation for QR Code and Micro QR Code symbols was optimised.


2022-07-29

* GS1 data processing was significantly refactored.


2022-07-25

* The GS1 linter was extended to add support for Digital Link URIs.
* Helper encoders for GS1 Digital Link URI variants of QR Code and Data Matrix were added.


2022-07-20

* Mandatory AI linting is now disabled by default and can be enabled using the new lintreqs option.


2022-07-18

* The GS1 linter was fixed to work with GS1 DataBar Truncated Composite Composite symbols by considering the combined AI element string.
* A GS1 linter error message was fixed.


2022-07-17

* The GS1 linter was fixed to work with Composite symbols by considering the combined AI element string.


2022-07-16

* The GS1 linter was enhanced to apply mandatory and exclusive AI association rules.


2022-07-06

* A mechanism for preserving initialisation data between encoder invocations was added.


2022-07-01

* The parse option was extended to perform replacement of control character names such as ^NUL and ^RS with their ASCII value.


2022-06-10

* The horizontal alignment of text in matrix symbols was fixed.
* Various fixes were made for the encoding of Data Matrix, DotCode and Micro QR Code symbols.
* The encoding of QR Code symbols was optimised.
* The encoding of Rectangular Micro QR Code symbols was aligned with the final release of the specification.


2022-04-04

* The linear render now uses filled polygons rather than stroked lines.
* Code 93 Extended was amended to not shift encode "$%+/" symbols.
* Support was added for USPS FIM E marks.
* Support for AI (715) was added to the GS1 linter.


2021-09-28

* Ultracode tile colours are now defined as RGB rather than CMYK. New tile colour patterns are defined for the upcoming revision.
* A bug in the encoding of certain Aztec Code symbols was fixed.
* A bug in the encoding of certain DotCode symbols was fixed.
* A bug in the encoding of QR Code symbols containing Kanji compression was fixed.
* The rMQR encoding was optimised, potentially resulting in smaller symbols.


2021-07-15

* The colours for Ultracode symbols were changed to RGB values rather than CMYK.


2021-07-14

* The metrics for Ultracode symbols was updated and a raw mode was added.


2021-02-06

* Linting of GS1 AI (4308) was fixed.
* Linting of the check character pair for AI (8013) was added.


2021-01-15

* Linting for GS1 coupon AIs (8110) and (8112) was added.


2021-01-05

* Linting for GS1 AI syntax data was expanded and fixed.


2020-12-28

* A convenience encoder for GS1 DotCode was added.


2020-12-26

* GS1 Composite Component symbols were fixed.


2020-12-25

* Linting was added to GS1 Composite Components.


2020-12-24

* Linting for GS1 AI syntax data was added.


2020-12-09

* A bug in the compact encoding methods 0110X for GS1 DataBar Expanded formats was fixed.


2020-10-23

* The parse and parsefnc options are now processed by a single routine that allows their escape patterns to coexist in the input data.
* Bugs in ECI processing with PDF417 and MicroPDF417 were fixed.
* A bug in the separator pattern for GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Composite was fixed.


2020-10-11

* A bug in leaving punctuation mode in Aztec Code was fixed.


2020-10-02

* An inefficiency in the QR Code encoding was fixed.
* ECI support was added to Code One.


2020-09-13

* A bug in Data Matrix for ECI checks at end of data was fixed.


2020-09-11

* ECI support was added to Data Matrix, Aztec Code, QR Code, PDF417, MicroPDF417, MaxiCode and DotCode.
* GS1 DataBar Limited was updated to include a right whitespace guard.
* Code 32 was fixed to avoid overwriting the provided barcode string.


2020-07-20

* A new encoder for Swiss QR Code was added.
* The Codablock F encoding was optimised potentially resulting in smaller symbols.


2020-07-09

* The GS1 DataBar Stacked, GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional and GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked separator patterns were fixed.
* A bug in GS1-128 that sometimes prevented encoding with a Composite Component was fixed.
* Bugs in GS1 Composite Component encoding were fixed.


2020-04-01

* The encoder for GS1 QR Code was fixed.


2020-03-08

* Changes were required to the package build script due to new defaults in recent versions of GhostScript.
* Preliminary support for the Rectangular Micro QR Code symbology was added.


2019-11-08

* The encoders were amended to workaround a non-standard operator on Harlequin RIPs.


2019-10-31

* A distinct encoder was added for Data Matrix Rectangular Extension.


2019-10-29

* The encoder for Data Matrix was enhanced to include the ISO formats for DMRE.


2019-10-13

* A crash with a certain encoding of data in GS1 DataBar Expanded based symbologies was fixed.


2019-10-10

* A bug in the encoder for Code 128 when composite component linkage flags were used with data terminating in mode C was fixed.


2019-09-24

* An encoder for the Royal Mail Mailmark symbology was added.


2019-08-05

* The performance of the renmatrix renderer was slightly optimised.


2019-08-03

* The performance of the renmatrix renderer was significantly improved.


2019-04-24

* A recent regression in the encoder for Data Matrix was fixed.


2019-04-23

* The encoder for Data Matrix was fixed to avoid certain cases where switching between C40, Text and X12 encoding might latch repeatedly.


2018-08-27

* Preliminary support for the JAB Code symbology was added.


2018-07-27

* The raw option was added to the encoder for Data Matrix.


2018-05-20

* The base size of Ultracode symbols was increased.
* Support for symbols composed of dots was added to the renmatrix renderer.
* The encoder for DotCode was amended to use the dotty matrix feature.
* A bug in the encoder for DotCode's handling of FNC3 message separator characters was fixed.
* The encoder for DotCode was fixed to support optimised handling of "FNC1 in First" for leading numeric input.


2018-02-04

* The performance of the encoder for Channel Code was improved.
* The base symbol size of the encoder for DotCode was increased.


2017-11-15

* The encoder for DotCode was enhanced to fix weaknesses with the mask evaluation algorithm.
* The encoder for Channel Code's checksum calculation for channels 4 and 7 was fixed.


2017-10-19

* Fixed end of data region encoding error with EDIFACT encoding in Data Matrix.


2017-10-14

* Preliminary support for the Ultracode symbology was added.
* The renmatrix renderer was improved to support colour symbols.


2017-07-10

* The encoder for DotCode was fixed so that a symbol will generate even when all masked variants have negative evaluations.


2017-06-25

* The encoder for DotCode's high-level optimisation was improved.


2017-06-21

* The encoder for DotCode was fixed so as not to incorrectly enable macro compression for inputs beginning with certain characters.


2017-06-20

* The encoder for DotCode was fixed to properly encode 17xxxxxx10 patterns.


2017-06-18

* The encoder for DotCode was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2017-06-09

* The encoder for Data Matrix was fixed to ensure that it correctly unlatches from EDIFACT encoding when the symbol isn't full.


2017-06-07

* The encoder for DotCode was fixed to work with PS VMs without huge integers.


2017-06-06

* Preliminary support for the DotCode symbology was added.


2017-04-04

* The encoder for GS1 North American Coupon was fixed to support the textyalign option.


2017-04-03

* Support for the GS1 North American Coupon barcode was added.


2017-03-25

* Symbologies accepting GS1 Application Identifier formatted data were fixed so as not to clobber successive field values when multiple identical AIs are given.


2016-12-16

* The encoder for ISSN was fixed to correctly parse the sequence variant and add-on components.


2016-12-15

* The encoders for GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional and GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked were extended with a barxmult option to allow the generation of symbols with non-standard bar heights.


2016-11-18

* An error preventing the generation of type-S symbols was fixed in the encoder for Code One.


2016-11-02

* The encoder for QR Code was amended to evaluate the mask patterns with the lone dark module unset.


2016-09-29

* A bug that resulted in FNC1 characters always being encoded in byte mode when ASCII mode was appropriate was fixed.


2016-08-29

* A bug in the encoding of some QR Code symbols introduced by the previous change was fixed.


2016-08-27

* A bug in the encoding of some QR Code symbols having bytes in the ranges 81-9F and/or E0-EB was fixed.


2016-07-20

* inkspreadh and inkspreadv options were added to the matrix renderer.


2016-07-19

* The matrix render was enhanced to produce the minimal number of filled polygons. The inkspread option is now supported.


2016-06-03

* The encoder for Data Matrix was improved to provide automatic Macro 05/06 compression of structured data.


2016-04-21

* The encoder for Han Xin was fixed to not overflow the stack with large symbols.


2016-04-20

* Support for Han Xin code was added.


2016-03-31

* The encoder for Data Matrix was amended to support the new symbol sizes introduced by DMRE (Data Matrix Rectangular Extension).


2016-03-29

* Distinct encoders for rectangular formats of Data Matrix derivatives were added.
* Support for the HIBC Aztec Code symbology was added.


2016-03-28

* The encoder for Data Matrix was amended to allow the user to specify either format=square or format=rectangle.


2015-11-24

* A bug in the generation of certain M1 and M3 Micro QR Code symbols was fixed.
* The encoder for QR Code was amended to allow the selection of a specific mask.


2015-08-10

* The encoder for Data Matrix was amended to make version=RxC synonymous with rows=R columns=C.
* The encoder for MicroPDF417 was amended to make version=CxR synonymous with rows=R columns=C.


2015-07-14

* A bug in the input validation of Code 39 Extended symbols was fixed to permit symbols containing fewer than four characters.


2015-05-23

* The encoder for Codablock F was improved to perform automatic encoding of extended ASCII data using FNC4.


2015-05-22

* The encoder for PosiCode was improved to perform automatic encoding of extended ASCII data using FNC4.
* The encoder for Code 16K was improved to perform automatic encoding of extended ASCII data using FNC4.


2015-05-21

* The encoder for Code 128 was improved to perform automatic encoding of extended ASCII data using FNC4.


2015-05-16

* The encoder for Code One was optimised to minimise the symbol size.
* A minor improvement was made to the Data Matrix optimised encoding.


2015-05-09

* The encoder for Code One was amended to allow direct entry of values for type-S symbols.


2015-03-24

* The encoder for ITF-14 was amended to permit spaces in the human readable text.


2015-03-23

* The encoders for SSCC-18 and EAN-14 were amended to permit spaces in the human readable text.


2015-02-18

* The PDF and HTML documentation has been significantly refreshed and is now built directly from wiki content. It is included in the release tarballs.


2015-01-15

* Convenience encoders for Compact PDF417, Compact Aztec Code and Aztec Runes were added.


2014-12-29

* A convenience encoder for Telepen Numeric was added.


2014-12-27

* Convenience encoders for Micro QR Code, Industrial 2 of 5, IATA 2 of 5, Matrix 2 of 5, COOP 2 of 5 and Datalogic 2 of 5 were added.


2014-12-11

* A bug resulting in the failure to encode certain characters in QR Code was fixed.


2014-11-12

* The encoder for UPC-A was amended to automatically expand UPC-E input.
* The encoder for UPC-E was amended to automatically compress UPC-A input.


2014-11-08

* The encoder for UPC-A was amended to expand UPC-E input using the expandupce option.
* The encoder for UPC-E was amended to compress UPC-A input using the compressupca option.


2014-08-15

* Remove some unused code.
* This project is dedicated to the memory of Craig K. Harmon. https://qed.org/ckh


2014-07-30-1

* Incorrect character mappings for TEXT and C40 encodings in Data Matrix were fixed.


2014-07-30

* The encoder Data Matrix was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2014-07-15-1

* A bug in the encoder for QR Code was fixed.


2014-07-15

* The encoder for QR Code was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2014-06-30-1

* The encoder for MicroPDF417 was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2014-06-30

* The encoder for PDF417 was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2014-06-20-1

* A bug in the encoder for Aztec Code was fixed.


2014-06-20

* A bug in the encoder for Aztec Code was fixed.


2014-06-18

* The encoder for Aztec Code was optimised to minimise the symbol size.


2014-03-12

* A bug in the calculation of the checksum of HIBC symbols was fixed.


2014-03-11

* Support was added for the GS1 QR Code symbology.
* Input validation was added to the ISBN, ISMN and ISSN symbologies.


2014-01-30

* The encoder for ITF-14 was amended to allow override of the height, borderleft, borderright and textyoffset properties.


2014-01-19

* VMusage was added to the DSC data.
* DSC comments were added to the non-packaged resources.


2014-01-07

* The barcolor and backgroundcolor options were enabled for MaxiCode symbols.


2014-01-06

* The renmatrix renderer has been updated to generate 2D symbols using paths.
* The colour option for 2D symbols was renamed from "color" to "barcolor".


2014-01-03

* The arguments to the imagemask operator where changed to explicitly disable image interpolation.


2013-10-06

* Support for C40, TEXT and X12 encodings was added to the Data Matrix symbology.


2013-07-15

* Removed the incomplete input validation from the Telepen symbology.


2013-06-12

* The REQUIRES metadata from the encoder for GS1 DataBar Truncated was fixed.


2013-06-07

* Input validation was added to the Flattermarken symbology.


2013-06-03

* Input validation was added to the Channel Code symbology.


2013-06-02-1

* Input validation was added to the HIBC Code 39, HIBC Code 128, HIBC Data Matrix, HIBC PDF417, HIBC MicroPDF417, HIBC QR Code and HIBC Codablock F symbologies.


2013-06-02

* Code 39 input validation was fixed.


2013-06-01-1

* Input validation was added to the USPS POSTNET and USPS PLANET symbologies.


2013-06-01

* Input validation was added to the KIX symbology.


2013-05-31

* Input validation was added to the RM4SCC symbology.


2013-05-30-3

* Input validation was added to the Plessey UK symbology.


2013-05-30-2

* Input validation was added to the GS1 DataBar Limited symbology.


2013-05-30-1

* Input validation was added to the GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional, GS1 DataBar Stacked, GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional and GS1 DataBar Truncated symbologies.


2013-05-30

* Input validation was added to the Codabar symbology.
* An altstartstop option was added to the Codabar symbology.


2013-05-29-2

* Input validation was added to the encoders for symbol, raw and DAFT.


2013-05-29-1

* Input validation was added to the Code 11 symbology.


2013-05-28-2

* Input validation was added to the Code 39 Extended symbology.


2013-05-28-1

* Input validation was added to the Code 39 symbology.


2013-05-28

* Input validation was added to the BC412 symbology.


2013-05-27-1

* The validatecheck option was fixed in the Code 2 of 5 symbology.


2013-05-27

* Input validation was added to the Pharmacode, Two-track Pharmacode and Code 2 of 5 symbologies.


2013-05-25

* Input validation was added to the EAN-14, SSCC-18, Italian Pharmacode and PZN symbologies.


2013-05-24-2

* The PREAMBLE section was changed into RESOURCE metadata.


2013-05-24-1

* The renderers are now included in the REQUIRES metadata.


2013-05-24

* Input validation was added to the Interleaved 2 of 5, ITF-14, Leitcode and Identcode symbologies.


2013-05-23

* Input validation was added to the EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-5 and EAN-2 symbologies.


2013-05-22

* The EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E check digits are validated if provided.


2013-05-21

* The EAN-13 check digit is validated if provided.


2013-05-20-1

* The SUGGESTS metadata fields were changed to REQUIRES.


2013-05-20

* The initial error handling facility was added.


2013-05-19

* Fixed generic named resource definition when packed arrays are not available.


2013-02-27

* The encoder for ISSN was modified to permit a five digit add-on.


2013-01-25

* A bug in the generation of the mode message for Aztec Code symbols performing reader initialisation was fixed.


2013-01-17-1

* The isbnfont. isbnsize and isbnpos options were changed to isbntextfont, isbntextsize and isbntextyoffset respectively for the ISBN symbology. Similar changes were made to the ISMN and ISSN symbologies.
* An isbntextxoffset option was added to the ISBN symbology. Similar changes were made to the ISMN and ISSN symbologies.


2013-01-17

* The textxalign option was enabled for EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E.
* The addontextxoffset, addontextyoffset, addontextfont and addontextsize options were added for EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E.


2012-12-12

* The encoding of numeric data following an FNC1 codeword was fixed in the GS1 DataBar Expanded and GS1 Composite Component symbologies.


2012-11-15

* renlinear was modified to avoid a clash with a predefined name in Distiller.


2012-06-26

* The encoder for QR Code was modified to opportunistically raise the error correction level when this does not increase the symbol size.
* The encoder for QR Code was modified to that Micro QR Code symbols do not require the use of raw mode.
* The default error correction level for Micro QR Code symbols was changed to L.


2012-06-25

* The encoder for QR Code was modified to select an optimal encoder based on the data.


2012-06-24

* A bug in the symbol size selection for QR Code was fixed.
* The encoder for QR Code was optimised by allowing the terminator pattern to be trimmed.


2012-06-23

* Support for the alphanumeric, numeric and kanji encodings was added to the encoder for QR Code.


2012-04-26

* The PZN symbology was extended with support for PZN8.


2011-05-10

* The 1.5 scale factor was removed from the encoder for Data Matrix.


2011-04-14-1

* Support for the GS1 DataMatrix symbology was added.


2011-04-14

* A bug in double digit ASCII encodation of the Data Matrix symbology was fixed.


2011-04-13

* The high level encoding for the Data Matrix symbology was changed from byte mode to ASCII mode.
* The EDIFACT, C40, TEXT and X12 encodation schemes were removed from the Data Matrix symbology as these were buggy.
* Support for FNC1 character as added to the Data Matrix symbology.


2011-03-21

* A bug in the options parsing for the encoder for named symbols was fixed.


2011-03-09

* The error correction code for MaxiCode symbols was improved.


2011-03-07

* Codablock F was fixed for short data inputs.


2011-03-06

* Support for the Codablock F symbology was added.
* Support for the HIBC Codablock F symbology was added.


2011-02-28-1

* The optimised encoding of Code 16K symbols was simplified.


2011-02-28

* The optimised encoding of Code 128 symbols was simplified and improved.


2011-02-24

* The optimised encoding of Code 128 symbols was improved.


2011-02-20

* Support for the extended datalength option was added to the Code 16K symbology.


2011-02-19

* Support for the Code 16K symbology was added.


2011-02-17

* The optimal start character selection for Code 128 symbols was improved.


2011-02-13

* Support for the Code 49 symbology was added.


2011-02-05

* Support for the Code One symbology was added.


2011-01-25-1

* The GS1 DataBar Expanded Composite and GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Composite symbologies were amended so that their separator patterns are correctly generated.


2011-01-25

* The GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional Composite, GS1 DataBar Stacked Composite, GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional Composite, GS1 DataBar Truncated symbologies were amended so that their separator patterns are correctly generated.


2011-01-22

* GS1-128 Composite was fixed so that the 2D component is correctly aligned.


2011-01-20

* Preliminary support for the GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional Composite, GS1 DataBar Stacked Composite, GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional Composite, GS1 DataBar Truncated, GS1 DataBar Limited, GS1 DataBar Expanded, GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked symbologies were added.


2011-01-16

* The default height for the GS1-128 symbologies was changed.
* Preliminary support for the GS1 DataBar Limited Composite symbology was added.


2011-01-15-1

* Preliminary support for the EAN-8 Composite, UPC-A Composite and UPC-E Composite symbologies was added.


2011-01-15

* Support for the GS1 Composite 2D components was added.
* Preliminary support for the EAN-13 Composite symbology was added.


2011-01-14

* Renamed rss14 to databaromni, rsslimited to databarlimited, rssexpanded to databarexpanded.
* Added convenience encoders for GS1 DataBar Stacked, GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional, GS1 DataBar Truncated and GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked.


2011-01-07-1

* Support for the HIBC MicroPDF417 symbology was added.


2011-01-07

* Support for the MicroPDF417 symbology was added.


2010-12-24

* Support for CC-A/B amd CC-C composite linkage was added to the GS1-128 symbology.
* The Code 128 symbology was extended with support for composite linkage pseudo characters.


2010-12-19-1

* PDF417 was amended to automatically select an appropriate number of columns when not provided.


2010-12-19

* The default error correction levels for PDF417 symbols were updated.


2010-12-17

* A bug in the encoding of the general purpose field ending in numeric mode of GS1 DataBar expanded symbols was fixed.


2010-12-08

* Renamed occurrences of alpha mode to alphanumeric in GS1 DataBar Expanded symbology to disambiguate it from the standard GS1 alpha encoding.


2010-12-06

* The list of FNC1 exempt GS-1 application identifiers was fixed in the GS1-128 and GS1 DataBar symbologies.


2010-12-03

* Fixed occurrences of a bad programming paradigm that could result in the incorrect generation of certain symbols when including multiple instances.


2010-12-01-1

* Support for the Deutsche Post Leitcode symbology was added.


2010-12-01

* Support for the Deutsche Post Identcode symbology was added.


2010-11-29

* A checkoffset option was added to the posicode encoder to facilitate multirow symbols.


2010-11-28

* Support for the Flattermarken symbology was added.


2010-11-26

* Checksum support for the encoder for Channel Code was added.


2010-11-22

* Support for the PosiCode symbology was added.


2010-11-18

* An option to use a short finder pattern was added to the encoder for Channel Code.


2010-11-17

* Support for the Channel Code symbology was added.


2010-11-16

* Support for the HIBC Code 39, HIBC Code 128, HIBC Data Matrix, HIBC PDF417 and HIBC QR Code symbologies was added.


2010-11-15

* The efficiency of the encoder for Two-Track Pharmacode was improved.


2010-11-10

* The escape sequences for the special shift characters were changed.
* Support for the Code 93 Extended symbology was added.


2010-11-09

* Support for the Code 39 Extended symbology was added.


2010-11-07

* Support for the ITF-14 symbology was added.


2010-11-06-1

* Support for the SSCC-18 symbology was added.
* Support for the GS1-14 symbology was added.


2010-11-06

* Support for the GS1-128 symbology was added.


2010-11-05

* The encoder for Code 128 was modified to automatically encode the input.


2010-10-30

* Support for the Pharmazentralnummer (PZN) symbology was added.


2010-10-29-1

* The text parameters for EAN an UPC symbols are now applied to the add-ons.


2010-10-29

* A bug in the display of the ISSN check digit was fixed.


2010-10-28

* Support for Code 32 (Italian Pharmacode) was added.


2010-10-19

* Added encoder for DAFT symbols to make it easier to create miscellaneous symbols in a custom 4-state symbology.


2010-10-18-1

* Support was added to the Plessey symbology for the unidirectional variant.


2010-10-18

* Support for the BC412 symbology was added.


2010-10-11-1

* A bug in the calculation of the border height was fixed.
* The example for Two-track Pharmacode was changes to display a border.


2010-10-11

* Support for the Two-track Pharmacode symbology was added.


2010-10-08-1

* Support for the ISSN symbology was added.


2010-10-08

* Support for the ISMN symbology was added.


2010-10-07

* The encoder for ISBN was improved to upgrade ISBN-10 input to ISBN-13.


2010-10-05

* The encoder for Code 2 of 5 was improved to support the IATA, matrix, COOP, and Datalogic versions of the symbology.


2010-10-04-1

* A bug was fixed that could allow the generation of invalid MSI symbols when using a modulus 11 check digit.


2010-10-04

* Support for the Telepen symbology was added.


2010-10-01

* A bug in the placement of human readable text for Plessey and MSI symbols was fixed.


2010-09-30-1

* The bar-space widths were amended for Plessey and MSI symbols were amended to better conform to their specifications.


2010-09-30

* A bug in the calculation of the checksum of Plessey symbols was fixed.


2010-09-27

* A bug in the calculation of the checksum of MSI symbols was fixed.
* Additional checksum types where added to the MSI symbology.


2010-07-16-1

* A bug in the determination of the error correction level of PDF417 symbols was fixed.


2010-07-16

* A bug in the determination of the error correction level of PDF417 symbols was fixed.


2010-06-20

* A bug in QR Code mask evaluation was fixed.


2010-05-20

* Support for the USPS PLANET symbology was added.
* An input handling bug in the encoder for USPS POSTNET was fixed.


2010-01-27

* The list of FNC1 exempt application identifiers in GS1 DataBar Expanded was fixed.


2010-01-26

* A bug in the numeric encoding of the general purpose field of GS1 DataBar Expanded symbols was fixed.


2010-01-15

* Support for UPC-E1 was added to the encoder for UPC-E.


2010-01-05

* Converted to a set of PostScript named resources rather than a procedure list.


2009-11-15

* A bug in the symbol selection algorithm for QR Code was fixed.
* Ensure that auto-encoding a micro-format QR Code symbol fails rather than produces a full-format symbol.


2009-11-06

* The encoder for Interleaved 2 of 5 was converted to use barratio and spaceratio to set the narrow to wide bar ratio.


2009-11-05

* Ensure that the encoder for UPC-E does not fail silently when an invalid input is given.


2009-10-13

* Changed the barcode dict to pass an encoder reference rather than a procedure name.


2009-08-12

* A bug in the Reed-Solomon error correction routine for PDF417 was fixed.


2009-08-06-1

* A bug in the Code 11 start character was fixed.


2009-08-06

* A parse option was added to the encoders for PDF417, Data Matrix, QR Code and Aztec Code to allow input characters to be represented using ^NNN notation.


2009-07-31

* The encoders for RSS 14 and RSS Limited were amended to require the input to start with the (01) application identifier.
* The encoders for RSS 14 and RSS Limited were amended to automatically generate the human readable check digit if it is not supplied.


2009-07-30-1

* A bug affecting the padding of GS1 DataBar Expanded symbols was fixed.


2009-07-30

* An autoencoder was added to the encoder for GS1 DataBar Expanded.
* A finder pattern selection bug in GS1 DataBar Expanded symbols was fixed.
* A check digit calculation bug in GS1 DataBar Expanded symbols was fixed.


2009-07-19

* Added support for GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked to the encoder for RSS 14 Expanded with option segments=2n.


2009-07-17

* A bug in the placement of the final finder pattern in GS1 DataBar Expanded symbols with an odd number of segments was fixed.


2009-07-14

* The GS1 DataBar Limited default height was changed to match the minimum permitted height.


2009-07-12

* Added support for GS1 DataBar Truncated to the encoder for RSS 14 with option format=truncated.
* Added support for GS1 DataBar Stacked to the encoder for RSS 14 with option format=stacked.
* Added support for GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional to the encoder for RSS 14 with option format=stackedomni.


2009-07-06-1

* Fixed bug in the padding of MaxiCode symbols where the data terminates in code set C, D or E.
* Cleaned up the MaxiCode implementation by inlining the high-level encoding procedure.


2009-07-06

* The font height calculation performed by the linear renderer was improved.
* The human readable text for OneCode symbols was improved to match the specification.


2009-07-03-2

* The pad characters from character set B of the encoder for MaxiCode were disambiguated.


2009-07-03-1

* A bug with the ordinal parser in the encoder for MaxiCode was fixed.


2009-07-03

* An autoencoder was added to the encoder for MaxiCode.


2009-06-22

* C40, TEXT and X12 encoders were added to Data Matrix.


2009-06-21

* Added checksum support to encoder for EAN-8.
* Fixed breakage in EAN-8 when includetext not in use.


2009-06-20-1

* Fix looping in Data Matrix ASCII-mode encoder.


2009-06-20

* The ASCII-mode encoder for Data Matrix was improved to compact pairs of digits.


2009-06-19

* An EDIFACT-mode autoencoder was added to the encoder for Data Matrix.


2009-06-03

* A byte-mode autoencoder was added to the encoder for Data Matrix and set as default.


2009-05-20

* A byte-mode-only autoencoder was added to the encoder for PDF417 to simplify its use for common tasks.


2009-05-17

* A byte-mode-only autoencoder was added to the encoder for Aztec Code to simplify its use for common tasks.


2009-05-15

* A byte-mode-only autoencoder was added to the encoder for QR Code to simplify its use for common tasks.


2009-05-13

* An ASCII-mode-only autoencoder was added to the encoder for Data Matrix to simplify its use for common tasks.


2009-04-28

* Update the descriptions of the RSS symbologies to GS1 DataBar.


2009-03-16

* A textgaps option was added to adjust the inter-character gap in non-default text alignment modes for linear barcodes.
* A justify mode was added to the textxalign option in linear barcodes.


2009-03-06

* The encoders were amended to automatically invoke the appropriate renderer.
* The dispatcher procedure was removed.
* A dontdraw option was added to each encoder to suppress automatic rendering.
* The encoders were reordered by their dependency chain and references to dependent procedures were changed to use immediately evaluated name syntax.


2009-02-26

* Minor fix ups were made to the add-on positioning.
* The samples were amended to demonstrate the new dict option passing mechanism and alttext option.


2009-02-25-1

* The encoders for EAN-5 and EAN-2 add-ons were folded into the encoders for EAN, UPC and ISBN.


2009-02-25

* The options parser of each encoder was improved to also accept a dict of options.
* An alttext option was added to the renlinear renderer which allows alternative human readable text to be specified.


2009-02-10

* Support for the JapanPost symbology was added.


2009-01-11

* The efficiency the RSS symbol generation was slightly improved.


2008-12-28

* The efficiency of Data Matrix symbol generation was further improved.


2008-12-27

* The efficiency of Data Matrix symbol generation was improved.


2008-12-26

* Minor efficiency improvements where made to the Reed-Solomon error correction routines.


2008-12-22

* The efficiency of the mask evaluation for full QR Code symbols was significantly improved.


2008-12-14

* A bug in the placement of error correction modules within 144x144 Data Matrix symbols was fixed.


2008-12-07

* Switched from the image operator to the imagemask operator for rendering of 2D matrix symbologies.
* Support for color and backgroundcolor for 2D matrix symbologies was added.


2008-12-06-1

* The line caps are explicitly squared off to prevent interference from the environment.


2008-12-06

* The syntax for constructing the dictionary for passing the barcode parameters to the renderer was updated.


2008-12-01

* Removed unnecessary DSC comment %%EndProlog.


2008-11-25

* The encoder for QR Code was improved so that it performs mask evaluation for full mode symbols.


2008-11-16

* A bug introduced in version 2008-10-17 that resulted in incorrect checksum handling for UPC-E symbols was fixed.


2008-10-27

* The efficiency of the RSS symbologies was significantly improved.


2008-10-24

* The efficiency of the RSS symbologies was improved.


2008-10-17

* The ability to override the automatic checksum calculation for EAN-13, UPC-A, UPC-E and ISBN was removed.


2008-09-14

* Support for hiding the asterisks in the human readable text of Code 39 symbols was added.


2008-07-10

* The efficiency of the encoder for OneCode was improved by replacing routines that generate tables of constants by the tables of constants themselves.


2008-04-06-1

* The encoder for Data Matrix was shortened by replacing the list of all possible generator polynomials by a routine that derives only the required set.


2008-04-06

* The encoder for PDF417 was shortened by replacing the list of all possible generator polynomials by a routine that derives only the required set.


2008-03-30-1

* The superfluous size option was removed from the encoder for QR Code.


2008-03-30

* The encoder for QR Code was amended to select full format symbols unless instructed otherwise.


2008-03-29

* Support for the QR Code 2D symbology was added.


2008-03-13

* Added support for FCC type 45 (Reply Paid Barcode) to the AusPost symbology.


2008-03-08

* A bug in the treatment of the human readable text when using special text alignment with Code 128C was fixed.


2008-03-01

* A bug in the check-bars calculation for the RSS Limited symbology was fixed.


2008-02-25

* Bugs in the Reduced Space Symbologies were fixed.


2008-02-17

* Support for the Aztec Code 2D symbology was added.


2008-02-15

* Fixed some occurrences of a bad programming paradigm that could result in the incorrect generation of certain symbols when including multiple instances.


2008-01-25

* A bug in the generation of the pseudo-randomised padding characters for Data Matrix was corrected.


2008-01-19

* Fixed logic error that resulted in incorrect codeword lengths for modes 4, 5 and 6 in MaxiCode.


2008-01-15

* Support for the Data Matrix ECC200 2D symbology was added.


2008-01-02

* The encoder for PDF417 was amended to opportunistically raise the error correction level if there is a better fit to the derived size of the matrix.


2008-01-01

* Support for the PDF417 2D symbology was added.


2007-12-21

* The encoder for ISBN was slightly improved so that it generates the check digit even when the user does not omit the final dash.


2007-12-03

* Human readable text support was added to RSS-14, RSS Limited, OneCode and Pharmacode symbologies.
* Default font and spacing for specifically aligned text was change to make it more consistent with default text placement.
* A bug that made textxalign=left ineffective was fixed.


2007-12-01

* Added textxalign and textyalign options to control the positioning and formatting of human readable text.


2007-07-02

* Support for the MaxiCode 2D symbology was added.


2007-06-16

* Code was refactored to support multiple renderers.
* Added parsable renderer field to each encoder.
* Renderer for MaxiCode symbols was added, but there is no encoder for this yet.


2007-05-19

* Added parsable example options field to each encoder.


2007-05-18

* An encoder for the Pharmaceutical Binary Code symbology was added.


2007-04-22

* Added CMYK colorspace support.


2007-02-25

* Fixed incorrect checksum calculation for UPC-E symbols.


2006-09-26

* Added raw encoder to make it easier to create miscellaneous symbols in a custom symbology.


2006-09-14

* Functional comments were added to the head of the encoders to allow applications to extract the symbology name and example input data.


2006-05-26

* An encoder for the Reduced Space Symbology Expanded was added.


2006-05-25

* The incorrect definition of the USPS FIM-B symbol was fixed.


2006-05-23

* An encoder for the Reduced Space Symbology Limited was added.
* The efficiency of RSS-14 was improved.


2006-05-22

* An encoder for the RSS 14 was added.


2006-05-16

* An encoder for the new OneCode symbology used by the US Postal Service was added.


2006-03-04

* The FIM symbols now render according to their specification.


2006-03-03

* The encoders for POSTNET, Royal Mail, AusPost and KIX were amended so that the metrics of their default symbols confirms strongly to their respective specifications.


2006-03-02

* The encoders now pass an array containing the widths of the bar space succession to the renderer allowing for sub-point horizontal precision.


2006-01-19

* The default border positions for EAN and UPC symbols were amended to properly enclose the human readable text.


2006-01-18

* The colour support code was fixed to prevent overwriting of the current colour when values are left unspecified.


2006-01-17

* The logic to guard whitespace in EAN symbols was migrated from the encoders to the renderer.
* The whitespace guard symbols are now drawn directly making them independent of any font.
* The inter-guard bar height of EANs and UPCs was amended.


2006-01-16

* The renderer was amended to support the passing of encoder specific arguments.


2006-01-08

* The options barcolor, textcolor, bordercolor, showbackground and backgroundcolor were added to the renderer.
* A flaw in the derivation of the top border height was fixed.


2005-12-17

* The renderer was amended to plot symbols from the current point rather than the origin.


2005-11-01

* The performance of the renderer was improved by avoiding unnecessary calls of setfont.


2005-10-28

* The encoder for AusPost was extended to support the customer information field.


2005-10-24

* A new encoder for the barcodes used by the Australian Postal Service was added.


2005-10-17

* A checksum was added to the encoder for Code 2 of 5.


2005-10-16

* A checksum was added to the encoder for Code 11.


2005-10-14

* A new renderer option was added that forces any symbol to a user supplied width.


2005-09-26

* A new encoder was added to support the generation of miscellaneous symbols.
* Support for generation of FIM symbols used on US Postal service reply mail was added.


2005-09-15

* A new encoder for the KIX symbology used by the Dutch postal service was added.


2005-09-12

* Options were added that allow precise adjustments to be made to the ratio of bar widths and space widths.


2005-09-11

* Placement problems with the border of EAN-2 and EAN-5 symbols have been fixed by amending the baseline of the bars.


2005-09-10

* The options required to enable a customisable border around any barcode symbol were added to the renderer.


2005-09-08

* An options parser was added to the renderer.
* Each renderer was modified to pass a copy of its user-defined options to the renderer.
* A new user-definable option called inkspread that reduces the width of the bars was added to the renderer.


2005-08-08

* The options parser for each of the encoders was upgraded to remove the 30 character size limitation from individual options within a given option string.


2005-08-07

* The encoder for ISBN was upgraded to support the emerging ISBN-13 symbology.


2005-08-02

* PostScript and PDF documentation is now created using the new pst-barcode LaTeX package to generate the barcode images.


2005-06-21

* The isbnfont, isbnsize, and isbnpos options were added to allow the independent manipulation of the upper part of the human readable text within the ISBN symbology.


2005-06-09

* A minor fix was made to the positioning of human readable text within the Code 128 symbology.


2005-06-06

* Optional whitespace guards have been added to the human readable text of EAN barcodes.
* The position of the first character of EAN-13s has been adjusted to guard the whitespace to the left of the bars.


2005-05-10

* The ability to allow the code to remain resident within most printer's PostScript virtual machines, until a hard reset is performed, was added.


2005-04-12

* The default textpos for EAN-2 and EAN-5 was changed so that it is now a function of the supplied height.
* Delimiter comments were added around the encoders so that the file can be easily parsed as a template.


2005-04-09

* Delimiters were added around individual encoders to simplify parsing.


2005-03-29

* A bug in the calculation of Code 93 barcode length when using extended full ASCII characters was fixed.


2005-03-21

* Support for the Royal Mail/RM4SCC symbology was added.
* A minor fix was made to the positioning of human readable text in the PostNet symbology.


2005-03-05

* The encoder for POSTNET was amended to generate correctly proportioned bars.


2005-02-28

* A bug that resulted in the incorrect generation of Code 93 check digits for data exceeding 15 characters in length was fixed.


2005-02-03

* A user option to override the default barcode height was added.


2005-02-01

* The option passing mechanism was improved to allow the user to override many default variables.


2005-01-25

* Human readable text was added to the remaining encoders.
* Support for a string of options to enable or disable features of an encoder for each barcode instance was added.


2005-01-22

* Human readable text, with an option to suppress display of the check digit, was added to Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, and POSTNET symbologies.
* The ability to suppress human readable text to EANs, UPCs, ISBN, and all other symbologies that show text was added.
* Encoders now pass font information to the renderer.
* The encoders were restructured to prepare for the passing of switches to enable or disable features of the encoder.


2005-01-19

* The ability to suppress checkdigit for Codabar, Code 39, Code 93, and Interleaved 2 of 5 symbologies was added.


2005-01-05

* Support for Code 93 and Code 11 was added.
* A checksum was added to Code 39 and Interleaved 2 of 5.
* Incorrect generation of X human readable check-digit for ISBN was fixed.


2005-01-02

* This release adds support for the EAN-2 and EAN-5 (the EAN/UPC add-ons) symbologies, MSI symbology, and Plessey symbology.
* The narrow:wide ratio for Code 2 of 5 has been changed.


2004-12-29

* This release fixes the incorrect generation of Code 128 check digits.


2004-12-27

* This release adds an encoder for Code 128 that fully supports character alphabets A, B, and C. This allows for UCC/EAN-128 support.
* The obsolete code128b encoder has been dropped.


2004-12-24

* This release fixes a bug in code128b where first ^ character in string of available characters should be &.


2004-12-21

* The Supported Symbologies section of the documentation was enhanced to include samples of all the supported barcode types.


2004-12-14

* Incorrect generation of human-readable check digits for the encoder for ISBN was fixed and the documentation was updated with an example of use from within Perl.


2004-12-11

* Support for the ISBN barcode format was added.


2004-12-09

* Documentation is now available in PDF and HTML formats.
* The original .tex files are shipped in the tarball.


2004-12-07

* Support for human readable text on the EAN and UPC formats was added.
* Redundant code was removed from the UPC-A format.
* Minor code cleanups were made.
* A mailing list and support group is now available.


2004-12-04

* EANs and UPCs now have elongated guard bars.
* The efficiency of the renderer was improved.
* A bug that printed a tiny artifact at the bottom-left of barcodes was fixed.
* All barcodes now default to 1 inch in height with a narrow bar width of 1 pt.


2004-12-03-1

* Support has been added for the POSTNET barcode format.
* The renderer has been improved to allow support for symbologies with variable height bars.


2004-12-03

* This version changes the renderer to accept a dictionary of arguments rather than an sbs string, so that it can have optional arguments such as text and bar heights passed to it. The encoders were upgraded accordingly.


2004-11-30

* Efficiency was improved by adding the bind operator to procedure definitions to make use of early operator resolution.


2004-11-26

* This release adds a PostScript file and a tarball on the homepage to ease downloading and patching.


2004-11-23

* This release added support for the UPC-E barcode format.


2004-11-21

* Support has been added for EAN-13, EAN-8, and UPC-A barcode formats.


2004-11-19

* This release adds support for printing the EAN-13 barcode format.
* The software now supports EAN-13, Code 128-B, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, Code 2 of 5, and Codabar.