The EAN-13 barcode was created based on the UCC-A barcode as an extension of the EAN.UCC system used outside the United States. EAN-13 is the European version of UPC-A. EAN-13 is a high density, fixed length continuous cord. EAN-13 is a high density, fixed length continuous cord used primarily in trade and for labeling goods sold in retail stores.

The structure of the EAN-13 barcode is the same as that of UPC-A. Each character in the barcode consists of two bars and two spaces, each with a width of 1 to 4 modules. The first digit is always placed outside the symbol, and the quiet zone indicator (>) on the right is used to indicate the quiet zone required for the barcode scanner to work properly. The barcode also contains three sets of elongated strokes, a left and right border mark and a central separator mark. The left part of the barcode is coded with the first and second combinations of variable parity according to the 13th digit, and the right part is coded with the third combination of even parity. The check digit is calculated automatically regardless of the input data.

The barcode contains the following data:

2 (3) digits-country code

5 (4) digits – manufacturer code

 5 digits – product code. ..

 1 digit – check digit

As you can see, the barcode does not contain any information about the characteristics of the product, but only the unique number associated with the entry in the international database that contains all the information about a particular product. EAN-13 format barcode example:

"EAN-13" barcode.