Skip to main content
The 2 of 5 barcodes are a family of numeric barcodes that all encode each digit as five elements, two of them wide. That’s the “2 of 5”. They differ in which elements carry the digits, and in the patterns that start and stop the barcode. They’re older and less robust than Code 128, and only one of them is still common in new labels: Interleaved 2 of 5, as ITF-14 on shipping cases.

​
The variants

Rarer variants, such as COOP 2 of 5, turn up in a few legacy systems.

​
Names across vendors

The same barcode goes by different names depending on the scanner manufacturer, and the same name can mean different barcodes: When a scanner’s settings list 2 of 5 options, check its manual for the start and stop patterns each option expects. Matching the name isn’t enough.

​
Why they cause bad reads

The 2 of 5 barcodes share three weaknesses:
  • No required check digit. A misread digit can produce a different number that still looks valid.
  • Short reads. A scanning path that crosses only part of the barcode can decode as a shorter number. Interleaved 2 of 5 is the most prone to this, because every element carries data.
  • False reads. With 2 of 5 enabled, patterns on packaging occasionally decode as a short number.
Each has the same fix: accept only the length you expect, use a check digit wherever the data has one, and enable only the 2 of 5 variants you actually use. See Validation.

​
Which readers read them