Bar code generation & readin

[Mikey]

Sarah,

The easiest way to generate a barcode using a font in Code 39 is to:

1) Make sure you have the prefix and postfix characters appended.  For
Code 39 that's an asterisk.  Your reader will eat this character, so
it won't display when you scan it.

2) Figure out if your reader is requiring a checksum.  If it is, email
me privately and I'll send you the algorithm.

3) Figure out what Code 39 characters and symbology you need.  The
place to start is to make a number to encode.  Try 12345...except to
make it code 39 you have to use *12345* (assuming no checksum).  After
you can verify that this works, then you have to decide if you want
the full ASCII character set to be encodable, or just a subset
(uppercase alpha characters, number, and a couple of symbols).  Email
me privately for more on this as well so we make sure that you are
properly encoding your string.

Mike.