News

Barcode 2.2 beta

08 Feb 2022

This update improves custom texts and adds some barcode and markup parameters. Keep reading for more details.

Custom Texts Improvements

Custom texts got anchor and alignment options which let you easily position text elements against the barcode. Another big new feature is text variables which allows you putting barcode data into the text objects.

Read more about new custom text features

Canvas, Crop Marks and Scaling

Canvas parameters were added to the right–most Marks panel. Canvas lets you specify the maximum size of the barcode graphics and position the barcode inside that area. That’s pretty much the same as artboards in Illustrator.

Crop marks parameter is now deprecated and is hidden by default. You can show it back using settings, but it will be eventually removed in one of the next updates.

Another big change of this update is that barcode scale now only affects the barcode itself. It doesn’t affect margins, custom texts and other elements anymore. Barcode will automatically convert your old projects, so you shouldn’t see any difference.

Other Changes

Besides that, some other changes have been made. First of all, the barcode filtering is added to the main panel. Simply start typing the letters and the software will filter the list according to what you typed. You can also press Ctrl/Cmd+F to activate the filtering.

Clicking the export icon in the toolbar while holding Shift switches exporting to the alternative mode (same as File → Export with Default Name… in the menu).

Addon texts for EAN, UPC and ISBN symbologies can now have custom fonts configurable next to the main text font on the Appearance panel.

Batch export to multiple files got an extra feature that lets you specify custom file names for barcodes. You can read more about the new option here.

Console wrapper is added for Windows, making it easier to use the software from command line on that platform. Just use the barcode.com file in the application folder instead of Barcode.exe to get the better command line support on Windows.

Note that this is a beta version adding new features, which means the barcodes created with this version may not work well with the older software. Consider making backups if you plan using both old version of Barcode and the new beta. Also note that the software only changes existing barcodes when you make any changes to them. If you don’t touch existing barcodes with the new version — they will not be changed and will be working well with the old version, too.

Cheers!