What is an Interleaved 2 of 5 Barcode?

Essentially, an interleaved 2 of 5 barcode is a barcode -- a series of lines of varying width that can be read by an optical scanner -- used to encode pairs of numbers. Every two digits are combined, or interleaved, to create a single symbol.

Encoding

Clearly, if pairs of digits need to be encoded there needs to be an even number of digits in the first place. If an odd number of digits needs to be encoded, a leading zero is added to create an even number of digits.

Character Set

The character set for interleaved 2 of 5 barcodes includes symbols representing the numbers 00 to 99, the space character and start and stop characters. Unlike some other barcode formats, interleaved 2 of 5 cannot be used to represent letters and symbols.

Density

Interleaved 2 of 5 encodes data in the width of both the bars and spaces. This allows it to achieve a higher density than standard 2 of 5, which only encodes data in the width of the bars.

References

• IDAutomation.com: Interleaved 2 of 5 Barcode Overview
• Barcode Island: Interleaved 2 of 5 Symbology