PDF417, MicroPDF417, MacroPDF417.

PDF417 | MicroPDF417 | MacroPDF417

Introduction
Multirow, variable length symbology, high data capacity, error correction included.
Stacked symbology, can be read with linear scanners, laser or two dimensional scanners.

Capacity

1108 bytes
1850 characters
2710 digits

Large files can be encoded into a series of PDF417 symbols - names as Macro PDF417.

Major features of PDF417:

Character set: All 128 ASCII characters, all 128 extended ASCII, 8 bit binary data
Symbol size: 3 to 90 rows
Bidirectional encoding: Yes
Error correction level :0-no error correction to 8 - maximum correction level
Additional level: Macro PDF417, Truncated PDF417, Global Label Identifier (GLI)

Symbol structure :
A typical PDF417 symbol contain 3 to 90 rows, each row consists from lrft to right :

Leading quiet zone
Start pattern
Left row indicator
1 to 30 data symbol chracters
Right row indicator
Stop pattern
Trailing quiet zone

Each symbol character can contain 0 - 928 values which is called "codewords".

Symbol character encodation:

4 bars and 4 spaces
total 17 modules - this is name PDF417
Each bar or space can be 1-6 modules in length

Row encoding: Each row uses character patterns from single cluster : in sequence 0,3,6,0,3,6,0,3,6 ....
ClusterNumber=((RowNumber-1) mod 3)*3

Compaction mode:

Three compaction modes

Text compaction mode - alphanumerics and punctuation
Binary compaction mode - all 8 bit chracters
Numeric compaction mode - only digits - high density

Symbol characters 900-928 are reserved for control purposes.

Global Label Identifier (GLI)
GLI 0 - correspondends to ISO 8859-1 character set.It is possible to encode data to other languages.

Error correction level	Number of Error correction codewords
0	2
1	4
2	8
3	16
4	32
5	64
6	128
7	256
8	512

MicroPDF417

Reduced version of PDF417, smaller, but smaller capacity. Number of error correction codewiords is fixed for each available row/column combination, from 7 to 50 codewords pre symbol.
Symbol size:

Number of rows : 4 to 44
Number of cols : 1,2,3 or 4

Data encoding mode	Maximum capacity
Text compaction	250 characters
Numeric compaction	366 characters
Byte compaction	150 characters

CW : Codeword, EC : Error correction codewords, RW : Number of non error codewords-really used codewords without error correction codewords

MicroPDF417 characteristics
Number of data columns	Number of rows	Total CW	Number of EC	% EC/CW	Max.data bytes	Max.aplha chars	Max. digits
1	11	11	7	64	3	6	8
1	14	14	7	50	7	12	17
1	17	17	7	41	10	18	26
1	20	20	8	40	13	22	32
1	24	24	8	33	18	30	44
1	28	28	8	29	22	38	55

2	8	16	8	50	8	14	20
2	11	22	9	41	14	24	35
2	14	28	9	32	21	36	52
2	17	34	10	29	27	46	67
2	20	40	11	28	33	56	82
2	23	46	13	28	38	64	93
2	26	52	15	29	43	72	105

3	6	18	12	67	6	10	14
3	8	24	14	58	10	18	26
3	10	30	16	53	15	26	38
3	12	36	18	50	20	34	49
3	15	45	21	47	27	46	67
3	20	60	26	43	39	66	96
3	26	78	32	41	54	90	132
3	32	96	38	40	68	114	167
3	38	114	44	39	82	138	202
3	44	132	50	38	97	162	237

4	4	16	8	50	8	14	20
4	6	24	12	50	13	22	32
4	8	32	14	44	20	34	49
4	10	40	16	40	27	46	67
4	12	48	18	38	34	58	85
4	15	60	21	35	45	76	111
4	20	80	26	33	63	106	155
4	26	104	32	31	85	142	208
4	32	128	38	30	106	178	261
4	38	152	44	29	128	214	331
4	44	176	50	28	150	250	366

PDF417, MicroPDF417, MacroPDF417.

MicroPDF417

MicroPDF417 characteristics