Basically, a barcode is a bunch of lines and spaces that represent some machine-readable information. From grocery store products to confidential information, barcodes have a broader range of applications. The objective of this tutorial is to explain barcodes in detail, add barcode font in Excel, and generate a couple of barcodes in detail.
What Are Excel Barcode Fonts?
Generally, barcodes look like black bars and white spaces and store machine-readable information. With the addition of Barcode, Microsoft Excel has some minor additions, such as a new font.
Different Barcode Fonts
The Excel program can generate a variety of barcodes, such as:
- Code 128
- Code 39
- UPC-E
- QR
- Postnet
- UPC/ EAN
- I2of5
- Intelligent Mail
If you want to create a barcode in Excel, you need to ensure that you have the proper barcode fonts. These will not be included by default. The best way to accomplish this is to walk through each step step-by-step.
If the barcode font is not available in Excel, then you might be able to get one for free. You can now install a barcode font in Excel using the following instructions.
Step 1: Downloading a Suitable Barcode Font Package
The internet is full of websites that sell and distribute barcode font software, both for free and for a fee. One of the highly recommended ones is 3 of 9 Barcode TrueType.
Please download a suitable barcode font package.
Step 2: Running the Setup File and Installing
Run the setup file included in the download package by double-clicking on the file. A 3 of 9 Barcode (True Type) dialog box will appear.
Now, click on the Install button to install the font, as shown below.
Read More: How to Create Barcode Without Font in ExcelÂ
Step 3: Inserting Barcode Font in Excel
Now, we will see how to use these fonts to create barcodes successfully.
Steps:
- Create an empty table by opening Microsoft Excel.
- Let’s start with the first column and enter the data there. Data types are generally general by default. Excel implicitly converts the data based on your input. Excel will implicitly convert general data to float if you enter float data.
For your own safety, you should manually assign the column data type as text, since this helps you create barcodes.
- Now, write down a few random numbers of 8 digits into the cells (B5:B10) of the Number column. These numbers will be transformed into barcode fonts.
- You can create barcodes in Excel using a variety of formulas. Below are two straightforward methods you can use. It would help if you wrote the formula below in the adjacent cell to your input. Here, the input column is B.
="*"&B4&"*"
Or,
="("&B4&")"
- To apply the same formula to all cells below, drag down the formula after writing it.
Here is the result after dragging.
- Now select the cells of the Barcode column as shown in the following image.
- From the fonts menu drop-down, choose the barcode font you want to use for the resultant column, in my case column C.
- This will result in the following final table.
Read More: How to Generate Barcode Numbers in ExcelÂ
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the following practice workbook that we have used to prepare this article
Conclusion
In this tutorial, I have discussed barcodes in detail, and how to add barcode font in Excel and generate a couple of barcodes in detail. I hope you found this article helpful. Please, drop comments, suggestions, or queries if you have any in the comment section below.
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