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Industrial 2 of 5 is one of the oldest numeric barcodes. Each digit is five bars, two of them wide, and the spaces carry no data, which makes it simple to print and read but very wide for the amount it holds.

Decode one

Scan or paste a barcode and see every part of it.

Make one

Generate a valid barcode from fields.

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Where you’ll see it

  • Older industrial, warehouse and inventory labels.
  • Rarely on new labels. Interleaved 2 of 5 holds the same digits in far less space.
Scanner vendors also call it Discrete 2 of 5, and some call it Standard 2 of 5. See names across vendors.

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Anatomy

Because only the bars carry data, every space is the same width. That’s what makes it low-density.

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Check digit

There’s no required check digit. Some applications add one, and the scanner has to be told.
  • Interleaved 2 of 5: uses the same five-element digit patterns, in both bars and spaces.
  • IATA 2 of 5: the same digit encoding with shorter start and stop patterns.
  • 2 of 5 barcodes: the whole family, and why its names get confused.

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Gotchas

  • The wrong 2 of 5 setting. Industrial and IATA 2 of 5 encode digits the same way but start and stop differently, so a scanner set for one may not read the other.
  • Short reads. With no check digit, a partial read can look like a valid shorter number. Fix the length.

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Scanning it in your app

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Specification

There’s no current international standard. Scanner and printer manufacturers document it individually.