What is a Plessey UK barcode?
Plessey is one of the earliest barcode symbologies, created by the Plessey Company in the UK. It was widely used in British library systems and some retail shelf labeling, and it formed the basis of MSI Plessey.
It encodes hexadecimal characters, the digits 0-9 and the letters A-F, with each character stored as four bits. The symbology includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), which is generated as part of the barcode, so you only enter your data.
Plessey is now a legacy format. Use it to match existing library or shelf systems; for anything new, Code 128 or Code 39 is far better supported.
What data can Plessey UK hold?
Digits 0-9 and uppercase letters A-F. Lowercase a-f is offered for conversion to uppercase; other letters and symbols are not allowed.
Recommended size
Keep a quiet zone of at least 10 times the narrowest bar on each side. Keep data short, since each character takes four bar-and-space pairs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Plessey encodes each character in four bits, which gives 16 values: 0-9 and A-F. Other letters cannot be represented, so use Code 39 or Code 128 for full text.
No. MSI Plessey is a modified, digits-only version with different start and stop patterns and check digit options. Choose the one your scanner and system expect.
No. The Plessey check is generated automatically as part of the symbol, so enter only your data.