What ITF-14 is for
ITF-14 (Interleaved 2 of 5) encodes a 14-digit GTIN on trade units: the outer cartons and cases that move through warehouses and distribution centres. Warehouse scanners read it at a distance and often from moving conveyors, so it is printed large, with a thick bearer-bar frame, and it is robust enough to be printed directly on brown corrugated board.
The GTIN-14
A GTIN-14 is made from an indicator digit (1 to 8), the first 12 digits of the GTIN of the item inside (or a separately allocated number), and a check digit. For example, a carton of 12 of the product 9312345678907 might be 1 931234567890 plus check digit 4: 19312345678904. Each packaging level (a 6-pack, a 24-pack, a pallet layer) gets its own indicator. Allocation rules are set by GS1; follow your GS1 office's guidance on when a new GTIN is needed.
Size and bearer bars
ITF-14 is much larger than a retail barcode. GS1 specifies minimum module widths for distribution scanning that are larger than for retail; this tool's default is 152.4 mm wide by 32 mm bars, a common size on cartons. The bearer bars (the frame) should be at least as thick as the narrow bars and, for direct printing on board, much thicker. Keep at least 10 modules of quiet zone inside the frame on each side; the tool includes it.
Placement
Put the code on at least two adjacent sides of the carton, with the bars vertical, the bottom of the bars at least 32 mm from the base of the box, and at least 19 mm from any vertical edge. These are GS1 conventions for automated reading; check your distributor's requirements.
Printing tips
- Print at 100%. In the print dialog choose "Actual size" or 100%, never "Fit to page". Scaling changes the bar widths, and a barcode printed at 94% can fall outside the reader's tolerance.
- Use vector files where you can. The SVG and PDF downloads are vector: bars stay sharp at any size and the PDF page is exactly the barcode's size. Use PNG for software that only takes images, at 300 dpi for office printers and 600 dpi for thermal label printers.
- Dark bars, light background. Black on white scans best. Dark blue and dark green work; red, orange and yellow bars are invisible to red-light laser scanners. The tool warns when the contrast is low.
- Keep the quiet zone. The clear margin either side of the bars is part of the symbol. Do not let text, a box edge or a label edge into it.
- Test before a print run. Print one, then scan it with the scanner your customers or staff will actually use, and with a phone app, before printing hundreds.
Why barcodes fail to scan
- Too small or scaled. Bars printed narrower than the reader can resolve, or a file squashed in one direction when it was placed in artwork.
- No quiet zone. Text, a border or the edge of the label too close to the first or last bar.
- Low contrast. Grey on grey, coloured bars on a coloured background, or bars printed on a shiny or transparent surface.
- Ink spread and blur. Inkjets on absorbent paper and worn thermal printheads widen the bars. Print a test and check the bars look crisp; for thermal printers, use 600 dpi or the printer's native resolution.
- Curved or creased surfaces. Bars wrapped around a narrow bottle or across a fold. Turn the barcode so the bars run with the curve (picket fence across a flat face, ladder around a cylinder).
- Wrong data. A check digit that does not match, or a number with the wrong length. This tool checks both before it draws anything.
Which download to use
- SVG for designers and packaging artwork. It is a vector file sized in millimetres, so it opens at the right size in Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity and Canva, and stays sharp when printed. Do not stretch it in one direction.
- PDF when you send a file to a printer or place it in a print layout. The page is exactly the size of the barcode, quiet zone included, so it can be placed at 100% without measuring.
- PNG for software that only accepts images: label printer apps, spreadsheets, online stores and word processors. Choose 300 dpi for office printers and 600 dpi for thermal label printers. The tool rounds each module to a whole number of pixels so the bars stay crisp, which can make the PNG slightly smaller or larger than the millimetre size; the size line under the preview shows the result. Tick "transparent" to drop the background for placing on coloured artwork, but keep a light background behind the bars when printed.
To make many at once, use the ZIP option below the generator: paste one value per line or load a CSV and download PNG or SVG files named after each value.
How this tool works
Barcodes are drawn in your browser with bwip-js, an open-source (MIT) port of Barcode Writer in Pure PostScript, and PDFs are written with pdf-lib. Nothing you type is uploaded, and the page works offline after the first visit. Single barcodes are free in every format with no watermark. Paid licences cover print-ready label sheets and large batches; see the box above.