Real barcodes for goods that have none.

A worked example

Watch the loose ends disappear, step by step.

A shop. House blend 250g is bagged in-house and has never had a barcode. A case of ceramic mugs arrives carrying an EAN-13 printed by the manufacturer.

1. 1

   The coffee gets a code minted from its SKU

   Tare7 turns the coffee’s existing SKU into a Code 128 barcode. The printed text still matches the SKU, so the label remains useful even when the scanner battery is dead.

2. 2

   Odd SKUs still get a stable code

   If a SKU contains characters a barcode cannot use, Tare7 creates a stable fallback. Print it again next month and the same item gets the same code.

3. 3

   The mugs keep the code they came with

   The mugs already have a valid EAN-13 barcode, so Tare7 checks it and keeps it. You do not replace a manufacturer’s working code with another one.

4. 4

   An unencodable value is refused, not faked

   If a value cannot be encoded in either symbology, Tare7 says so. It does not print a barcode that will not scan and let you find out at the counter.

5. 5

   Pick the stock you actually own

   Avery 5160 sheets, a 12-per-sheet layout for bigger labels, or 2×1 thermal stock for a desktop label printer. Same codes, three shapes.

6. 6

   Then it is scannable everywhere else

   The same code pulls the item up on a lookup, adds it to a receiving session, and adds it to a ticket at the register — with the phone camera or any wedge scanner.

The unlabeled shelf can now be scanned, counted, and found by anyone on the team—not just the person who recognizes the boxes.