Barcode Glossary [O-T]

OCR — Optical Character Recognition.

OCR-A; OCR — Abbreviations commonly applied to the character set contained in ANSI Std. X3.17-1974 (A) and ANSI Std. X3.49-1975 (B).

ODETTE (Organization for Data Exchange by Tele-Transmission in Europe) — a group that represents the interests of the automotive industry in Europe; equivalent of AIAG in America.

Opacity — The property of a substrate material that minimizes show-through from the back side or the next sheet. The ratio of the reflectance with a black backing to the reflectance with a white backing. Ink opacity is the property of an ink that prevents the substrate from showing through.

Picket Fence Code — A bar code printed in a horizontal position such that the individual bars appear like the slats in a picket fence. See Ladder Code.

Print Contrast Signal (PCS) — Compares the amount of light reflected by the bars, in contrast to the amount of light reflected by the spaces in a bar code symbol. The Print Contrast Signal value is the bar reflectance expressed as a percentage of the space reflectance.

Print Quality — The measure of compliance of a bar code symbol to the requirements of dimensional tolerance, edge roughness, spots, voids, reflectance, PCS, quiet zone, and correct encoding.

Quiet Zone — See Clear Area.

Resolution — A measure of the smallest “X dimension” printable by a particular device or method. Also the measure of ability of a scanner to distinguish a bar code symbol.

SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code) — with a secure bar code symbology, UCC/EAN-128. This combination allows all participants in the supply chain to use a common, standard solution for their individual tracking and tracing needs.

Self-Checking — A bar code or symbol using a checking algorithm which can be independently applied to each character to guard against undetected errors.

Serial Decoder — See Decoder.

Space — Any of the light elements between the dark bars of a bar code, which may or may not carry encoded information. The space may be formed by the substrate, or by a colored ink which is lighter in color than the bars.

Slot Reader — A bar code reading device requiring the substrate be drawn through a narrow slot to fix the position of the bar code symbol relative to the face of the bar code scanner. Typically used for scanning badges or membership cards.

Spectral Band — A specific range of wavelengths or light, from a minimum to a maximum, often named after a central value. The value of 633 nanometers is visible light, while 900 nanometers represents infrared light. Spectral band B633 includes those wavelengths (plus or minus 5 percent) of the 633 nanometer peak. Spectral band B900 includes those wavelengths (plus or minus 10 percent) of the 900 nanometer peak. The spectral band or scanning device is generally listed in bar code specifications.

STAC (Symbol Technical Advisory Committee) to the Uniform Code Council Inc., (see UCC).

Stacked Codes — 16K, Code 49 and PDF417 are examples where a bar code symbol is broken into sections and “stacked” one upon another in order to increase the information density in the bar code symbol.

Start/Stop Characters — A distinct character or pattern of bars used at the beginning and end of each bar code symbol, which provides initial timing references and direction of read information to the decoding logic.

TSR — An executable program which is loaded into computer memory, is initialized and remains in memory awaiting a specific instruction in order to accomplish its execution. TSR stands for “Terminate and Stay Resident”. The TSR is normally a device driver intended to perform specialized functions such as driving a serial port or directing data from the serial port to the keyboard buffer.