2D Barcode
Linear Barcode
ITF-14
ITF-14
ITF 14 is a linear barcode symbology which based on the standards of GS1. It is also known as GTIN-14 and EAN/UCC-14. ITF is short for "Interleaved Two of Five". It is based on the Interleaved 2 of 5 symbology to encode a Global Trade Item Number. For a GTIN-14 encoded in ITF-14 barcode, it is easy for a scanner to find out the company information of the product. ITF-14, able to handling high density digits, is used in shipping container labeling by factories in many industries. The ITF-14 will always with the length of 14 digits.
Encoding of ITF-14
  • ITF-14 is capable of handling numeric digit from 0 to 9
  • ASCII characters from 48 to 57;
Component of ITF-14
The ITF-14 is the 14-digit GS1 Identification Key which contains of an Indicator digit, GS1 Company Prefix, Item Reference, and Check Digit. The barcode ITF-14 has 5 parts of an ITF-14: The left Quiet Zone, the start pattern, the encoding data, the stop pattern and the right Quiet Zone. The width of the Quiet zones must be at least 10 times the module.


Barcode ITF-14 encodes pairs of digits; each character represents a 2-digit number. Including the checksum digit, barcode ITF-14 encodes total 14 digits. The character density of ITF-14 is 16 to 18 modules per pair.

The first digit is the "Logistic Variant" or "Packaging indicator". It is encoded in the five black lines bars, while the second digit is encoded in the five white lines spaces. Two out of every five bars or spaces are wide-- Interleaved 2 of 5 symbology.

The following 12 digits indicate the product number. The first 2 digits are for UPC numbering system or EAN prefix. The followed 5 digit is Manufacturer identification number. The last 5 digits is the Item identification number.

The last one is the checksum digit. The checksum digit will be calculated automatically by barcode generator.
ITF-14 Check Sum Calculation
Checksum digit must be compute correctly before an ITF-14 is encoded. Short scanning happens from time to time in GS1 System. Scanner may only scan 14 digits while the barcodes contains more than 14 digits. Thus Check Digit offers detection of the error to enhance reading reliability. ITF-14 uses the Mod 10 check digit. Just follow the steps to calculate the checksum digit.
  • Choose the right-most digit of the barcode ITF-14. Put it into the last column and multiply with 3.
  • Put the following 13 digit into the column from right to left in sequence.
  • Multiple the values with "3" or "1" showed in the relevant position.
  • Sum all the result. Add one number with it which could be even divided by 10 with no remainder. The number added is the checksum digit.

For example, the checksum digit is calculated as below if we encode "1234567123456"

3+ 2 + 9 + 4 + 15 + 6 +21 +1 + 6 +3 + 12 +5 + 18 = 105

We need to add No.5 to 105, and it could be even divided by 10. 5+105=110.

The checksum digit of "1234567123456" is 5. ITF-14 barcodes is readable by the scanners may be read by suitably programmed barcode readers that are designed based on ITF and other barcodes.