Using the bardecode Shell Tool

The Softek barcode Reader SDK extracts barcode information from image files. The shell tool is available for Linux, Solaris and OSX.

The bardecode command provides an interface to the barcode reader toolkit from the shell. For example, the following command will scan an image file for barcodes and print the values:

bardecode -t any -m -f somefile.tif

The -t flag is used to describe which types of barcode should be read. Values can be combinations of code128, code25, code39, codabar, ean8, ean13, pdf417, upca, upce or any combined with a "|" symbol. e.g. "code39|code128|ean8". 

The -m flag indicates that the tool should extract multiple barcodes from the image rather than stopping as soon as the first barcode is detected.

You can use the shell tool to add barcode reading functionality to shell scripts, perl and php.

Download for Linux

Any property of the toolkit can be set as follows:

--PropertyName Value

e.g.

bardecode --NoiseReduction 10 -f somefile.tif

Click here for a full list of properties.

Other Options

-c min_length	Minimum length of barcode.
-C max_length	Maximum length of barcode.
-d scan_direction	Scan direction mask 1 = Left to Right, 2 = Top to Bottom 4 = Right to Left and 8 = Bottom to Top. default is 15. The scan direction mask controls the directions in which. the barcode reader will look for a barcode. With this version it it now possible to scan for barcodes in any rotation with one call to the reader.
-i page_index	Page number of image indexed from 1
-j jump	Frequency at which scan lines are sampled, default is 1
-k skew tolerance	Skew tolerance 0 = off to 5 = any angle
-L oversample_sep	Distance between the line samples when over-sampling is used. Default value is 3.
-m	Scan for multiple barcodes
-M min_space_width	Minimum space allowed for a space between bars.
-n noise_reduction	Noise Reduction level (0 = off, typical value is 20. Only effective if the -d flag specifies a purely horizontal or vertical search.
-N noise_reduction	Advanced Noise Reduction (0 = off, typical value is 20). Only effective if the -d flag specifies a purely horizontal or vertical search.
-o min_occurs	Minimum number of matching scan lines, default 2
-O	Sample the scan lines in blocks of 3 with each line separated by oversample_sep lines (see below).
-p pref_occurs	Preferred number of matching scan lines, default 5.
-P	Show page numbers.
-q quiet_size	Number of pixels wide for the quiet zone around bar code.
-S file_template	Split a multi-page TIF file into smaller TIF files. The first page of each new file will contain a barcode The template must include %d to index the files e.g. file%d.tif. Must be used with -m flag.
-t barcode_type	Values can be code128, code25, code39, codabar, ean8, ean13, pdf417, upca, upce or any.
-T color_threshold	Set the color threshold.
-w	Print TIF Warnings to STDERR.