ISBN

ISBN

An ISBN barcode is an EAN-13 with prefix 978 for the older ISBN-10 format, and others for the new ISBN-13 format, used to identify books. The ISBN-10 format was depreciated for public use after 1st January 2007.

Also known as: ISBN-13, ISBN-10, International Standard Book Number, Bookland EAN-13.

Standards: ISO 2108, ISO/IEC 15420, BS EN 797, GS1 General Specifications.

Data and Options

• The data should contain 12 or 13 digits separated appropriately by dash characters -.
• The data can also be provided in legacy ISBN-10 format as 9 or 10 digits separated appropriately by dash characters -. This will be automatically upgraded to the ISBN-13 format.
• If the last digit of the primary data is not given then the ISBN checkdigit is calculated automatically.
• The legacy option prevents ISBN-10 input from being upgraded to ISBN-13 and will result in a symbol that is obsolete and should not be used at point of sale.
• The primary data can optionally be followed by a space then two or five digits if an EAN-2 or EAN-5 add-on is required.
• The includetext option should normally be supplied.
• The guardwhitespace option enables the display of whitespace guard marks.
• The following options are also relevant to this barcode symbology:
  • isbntextfont: Font name for text above symbol
  • isbntextsize: Font size for the text above symbol, in points
  • isbntextxoffset: Horizontal position of ISBN text, in points
  • isbntextyoffset: Vertical position of ISBN text, in points

Example ISBN

Identical symbols, input provided with and without an ISBN check digit:

0 0 moveto (978-1-873671-00-9) (includetext)
/isbn /uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

Equivalently:

0 0 moveto (978-1-873671-00) (includetext)
/isbn /uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

images/isbn-1.png

An ISBN with a 5 digit add-on:

0 0 moveto (978-1-873671-00-9 54499) (includetext guardwhitespace)
/isbn /uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

images/isbn-2.png

The following ISBN-10 input will be automatically upgraded to a valid ISBN-13 symbol:

0 0 moveto (1-86074-271-2) (includetext) /isbn
/uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

Equivalently:

0 0 moveto (1-86074-271) (includetext) /isbn
/uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

images/isbn-3.png

Example ISBN-10

Note: ISBN-10 is a legacy format not for use at P.O.S.

The following will generate an obsolete ISBN-10 symbol:

0 0 moveto (1-86074-271-8) (legacy includetext guardwhitespace)
/isbn /uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

Equivalently:

0 0 moveto (1-86074-271) (legacy includetext guardwhitespace)
/isbn /uk.co.terryburton.bwipp findresource exec

images/isbn-4.png