Talk:EAN-5

Technical Specification
This link: UPC Supplemental Encodings from the Uniform Code Council (now part of the GS1 standards group) forms part of the specification for the 5 character supplemental encodings used by UPC and EAN GTIN codes. It suggests some slight differences is the barcode formation than that currently on this article, if no-one objects, I shall be amending the article to conform to this document.

It's important that I point out that I can no longer find this specification live on the internet, I have double checked it's original veracity at the wayback machine, but I cannot find a current copy on the GS1 group website. It may be available there for group members only.

The specific corrections that are required: The start code is actually 1011, rather than 101, and each character is separated by 01 rather than as the article suggests, each character having a 1 prepended and a 0 appended. The technical difference that this makes is that the article suggests that there is always a 0 at the end of the symbol, which is incorrect. Also, the description in the article that there is a checksum encoded in the pattern is not quite correct. The specification is clear that this is a parity pattern to facilitate checking, but it is not intended as a checksum of the data. David ORourke (talk) 08:11, 29 August 2008 (UTC)