BarCode Image Generator in Java

Question

How can I create a barcode image in Java? I need something that will allow me to enter a number and produce the corresponding barcode image. Is there a free library available for this type of task?

Answer 1

iText is a great Java PDF library. They also have an API for creating barcodes. You don't need to be creating a PDF to use it.

This page has the details on creating barcodes. Here is an example from that site:

BarcodeEAN codeEAN = new BarcodeEAN();
codeEAN.setCodeType(codeEAN.EAN13);
codeEAN.setCode("9780201615883");
Image imageEAN = codeEAN.createImageWithBarcode(cb, null, null);

The biggest thing you will need to determine is what type of barcode you need. There are many different barcode formats and iText does support a lot of them. You will need to know what format you need before you can determine if this API will work for you.