Introduced by UPS in 1992, MaxiCode is a medium capacity two-dimensional barcode designed for high-speed scanning application of package sorting and tracking. The barcode's design allows it to scan in any direction.
Encoding
MaxiCode can encode all 128 Standard ASCII values using a three-digit ASCII code, preceded by the character. For example, the carrot symbol ("^") corresponds to ASCII code \094. For a complete list of ASCII values, refer to the ASCII Table.
Structure
MaxiCode has the following structural constants:
Fixed barcode height and width (1.11 in. x 1.054 in. nominal).
Center "Bulls eye" Finder Pattern.
Data Modules arranged in a hexagonal array.
6 Orientation Clusters.
4 Mode bits.
The structure expresses the following components:
Primary Message.
Secondary Message.
Primary Message: The primary message encodes a postal code, 3-digit country code and 3-digit class of service code.
Secondary Message: The secondary message encodes the remaining data.
Requirements
MaxiCode barcodes have a maximum data capacity of 93 characters. Each barcode contains 884 hexagonal modules arranged in 33 rows with each row containing up to 33 modules.
MaxiCode barcodes have 6 different encoding modes. Two of the modes, 0 and 1, are considered obsolete. Modes 2 and 3 respectively have succeeded them.
0 - Primary message is a Structured Carrier Message with a numeric postal code. The Secondary message encodes up to 84 uppercase characters, numeric or punctuation.
1 - Primary message plus secondary message encode up to 93 uppercase characters, numeric or punctuation.
2 - Primary message is a Structured Carrier Message with a numeric postal code. The Secondary message encodes up to 84 uppercase characters, numeric or punctuation.
3 - Primary message is a Structured Carrier Message with an alphanumeric postal code. The Secondary message encodes up to 84 characters.
4 - Primary plus secondary message encode up to 93 "characters".
5 - Primary plus secondary message encode up to 77 "characters" with extended error correction throughout.
6 - Primary plus secondary message encode up to 93 "characters" for reader configuration purposes.
The Primary message contains four mode bits to indicate the mode. Depending on the mode, the Primary message also encodes the structured carrier message in 56 data bits, which contains the information for packing and sorting.
In Mode 0 and 1, the Secondary message consists of four independent sub-messages for error correction. In these modes, the fourth sub-message is prone to misreading.
In Mode 2 through 6, the Secondary message consists of into 2 error-corrected sub-messages, fully interleaved between even and odd characters. This limits the possibility of partial reads.
NOTE: If you specify Mode 2 or 3, the MaxicodeClass, MaxicodeCountryCode and MaxiZipCode properties are required.
