ZBar (ANA: Bar Code Reader) is an open source and freeware desktop barcode/QR code scanning and reading tool for PC, supports for web camera and image scanning.

The simple understanding of the role of ZBar is - when you need to scan some barcode, QR code and so on, and it happened to be no hardware bar code reader (or smartphone with related apps). In this case, we can install ZBar first and then use any type of camera (e.g., a webcam) to implement the hardware function of the bar code reader with ease!

In addition, ZBar also provides the Android SDK and iPhone SDK for mobile app developers.

Key Features

  • High Speed – real time scanning from video streams
  • Small memory footprint
  • Small Code Size – the core scanner and EAN decoder represent under 1K lines of C code
  • Not limited to images
  • No floating point operations
  • Suitable for embedded applications using inexpensive processors/hardware
  • Modular components can be used together or separately

Supported Codes

ZBar supports many popular symbologies (types of bar codes) including:
  • EAN-13
  • UPC-A
  • UPC-E
  • EAN-8
  • Code 128
  • Code 39
  • Interleaved 2 of 5
  • QR Code

Main Usage

  • Retail
  • Automated document processing
  • Inventory tracking
  • Related mobile application development

Download URLs

 (Homepage)