Why are 2D Barcodes Taking Over?

If everything goes to plan, the ubiquitous, venerable UPC will soon be relegated to barcode history. It leaves a 50-year history and big boots to fill, but the successor QR Code is well up to the task. But what exactly makes this 2D barcode better when UPC did it so well for so long?

Barcode: from a solution to a problem

The answer you hear most often is data capacity. The handful of bytes stored in a UPC just aren’t up to the task anymore. This is a significant difference. Barcodes today are required to do more than just product identification—and it’s not just the consumers that want more. So do retailers, environmentalists and the regulators. The ability to encode a URL along with the product identification gives health-conscious consumers nutritional, allergy information and menu ideas. Retailers get freshness and expiration data. Environmentalists get package material and recycling information. Regulators obtain sourcing specifics in the event of recalls.  The UPC couldn’t do any of this.

…and back to a solution

For years, these same groups have struggled to get their information on the product package, and the precious space for the barcode was often viewed as the enemy of these competing forces. Now the barcode will be their savior and everybody wins—especially the consumer. The QR Code needs about half as much space, and has the capacity for as many as 4,300 alphanumeric characters—and that’s just the barcode itself. The URL it points to can be a multi-page document such as a User Guide, a receipt (or an entire cookbook), a website, a video—you get the idea.

A Solution for everyone

The new 2D barcode has some important advantages for the packages.  The format has more tolerance for printing inaccuracies, making it easier for printers to reproduce thousands of scannable barcodes. However, there is another significant benefit to the QR symbol. It has the ability to recover missing data from a damaged barcode image. No UPC could ever do that!

The migration from UPC to QR code is a real game-changer.

It puts the power of data collection right into the hands of the people who can benefit the most—you and me.