Introduction
Many documents that are to be electronically processed contain barcodes to encode important information that is extracted via barcode decode software. There are a number of issues that should be considered when choosing a barcode symbology. The largest distinguishing characteristic to be considered is whether a linear (1D) or 2 Dimensional (2D) symbology is to be employed. 1D symbologies, as the name implies, typically consist of width modulated bars and spaces that encode the user information. There is no information contained in the vertical dimension of a 1D symbol. 2D symbologies encode information in both dimensions of the symbol and as a result, have much higher data density. 2D symbols typically use a regular grid of possible cell positions, where a cell is either black or white.
This article will focus on the use of 2D symbols in document processing applications because of the significant data density advantage of 2D symbols over 1D symbols. In particular, we will compare the relative merits of three popular public domain 2D symbologies: Data Matrix, QR Code and Micro QR Code. Following a brief overview of each symbology, we will compare them...