Maxicode Program Documentation

Command Line

         The infile and outfile args are required and specify the input and
         output files respectively.   The infile is the input file and contains
          command lines that consist of a two character command ( capital
          letters), followed by a quoted text string.

Postal Code

             The postal code command in the input file is used to specify the postal code
          for the destination of the maxicode. The postal code is all numeric (0-9) and
          must be less than 6 characters long. In the USA, the postal code is the zip
         ( zone improvement) code of the United States Post Office.

<>           And example of the postal code command is given below.

                     PC "54729"

Country Code

             The country code command is specified by CC followed by the
             Iso 3166 country code for the destination country of the barcode.   An example
             is given below for specifying the barcode for the US. The maxicode
             program will use the CC text to look up the 2 character iso country code
             ( for exampe "us" for United States ) and use this two character abbreviation
             in the maxicode barcode.

Sevice Class

The service class command is used to specify the service class of the maxicode
barcode. An example of the service class command is given below.

SC "012345567"

Mode

          The mode command specifies the mode of the barcode. It is a single digit.
      Modes 0 and 1 are depricated. Mode 4 and 5 are enhanced error correction mode.
      Modes 2 and 3 are the commonly used modes.

             MO "3"

Primary Message

          The primary is at most 6 characters.   Primary messages shorter than 6 characters
       will be appended with spaces.   Primary messages longer than 6 characters will
        be truncated to 6 character.

               PM "primar"

Secondary Message

          The secondary message can be an ascii message string of 68 characters max
     (mode = 5) or 84 characters max ( any of the modes except 5). An example
     of the secondary is given below.

            SM "1200 BLINKER STREET, OMAHA NE"

Special Message

          The special message is used as an alternative way to specify the postal, country
      code and message for the maxicode barcode.    The special message string is at
      most 104 characters,   with the first 3 characters =        , the characters 4 to 14
       specify the postal code, characters 15 and 16 specify the iso country code
       abbreviation, characters 17,18 and 19 specify the service class and the
       secondary message is specified in character 20 to 104.   The special message
       characters 20-104 prepended with "[)>\RS01\GS" and used as a new secondary
       message.

Error Correction Code

(x-3)(x-9) = x^2 -12x +27

(x-3)(x-9)(x-27) = x^3 -39x^2 + 351 x - 729

(x-3)..(x-27)(x-81) = x^4 -120x^3 + 3510x^2 -29160x + 59049

(x-3)..(x-81)(x-243) = x^5 -363x^4 + 32670x^3 -882090x^2 + 7085880x - 14348907

(x-3)..(x-243)(x-729) = x^6 - 1092x^5 + 297297x^4 - 23783760 x^3
+ 650129490 x^2 - 5179955427 x
+ 10460353203

A good source for finding these polynomials is at this university site.

The standard suggests the following number of codewords for error correction:

Number of Message Symbols Error Correction Level Number of Error
Code Bytes

                      1-40                                                             2                                    8
                    40-160                                                           3                                   16
                   161-320                                                          4                                   32
                   321-863                                                          5                                   64

Graphic Output Formats

The currently supported output graphic format for the program is postscript.

For comments or questions contact: jtlien@sbcglobal.net
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