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Change log

What's new

Dated changes to the tools, guides and pages on this site, newest first.

Every entry comes from the site's own change history and is dated by the day the change was made. Internal work that you would not notice as a visitor, such as build checks and notes, is left out. Each guide also shows its own “updated” date, and corrections to a guide are listed on that guide.

  • The barcode generator, the QR code generator, the label sheet tool, the check digit calculator and the tools overview now explain each setting, the common mistakes and how to avoid them, with a worked example and the primary sources they rely on. The generator, QR and label sheet pages also cover choosing sizes for your printer and labels.
  • The contact address is now hello@plainbarcode.com. The Privacy Policy explains how messages to it are forwarded.
  • New: this What’s new page, linked from the footer of every page.

  • A light and dark mode switch in the header. The “Make a barcode” button on the home page now also shows on phones and jumps straight to the generator.
  • New photos to match the new design. As before, they are AI-generated and none shows a barcode, QR code or printed label.

  • New guide: How to Make Barcode Labels for a Small Business
  • A new design for the whole site: a navy frame, light paper and safety yellow for actions. The generator is laid out like a proof bench, with rulers and dimension lines around the preview; tool pages show the title and the tool together; guides have a title block, a contents list and a shorter line length for easier reading.
  • Ad positions that have no ad unit yet are hidden instead of showing an empty box.

  • New guide: How to Create SKU Numbers: A 6-Step Method With Examples
  • New guide: Barcode Scanner Types Wrong Characters? Causes and Fixes
  • The SKU generator page now covers SKU formats by industry, one CSV column per segment, importing SKUs into Shopify, Etsy and Amazon, and common questions.
  • New page: label printers and scanners, a short list of professional hardware that also appears at the end of seven guides. Its Amazon links are affiliate links, each marked “(paid link)”.
  • Guide source lists can show the date each source was read. Two dead links to Zebra printer documentation were replaced with the current pages.
  • Clearer titles and descriptions for four guides, and canonical addresses for the Etsy help pages that the SKU generator and the SKU guide cite.
  • The About page and the legal pages describe the operator as an individual based in the United States.
  • The sitemap now dates each page by its last real change.

  • Every page is now credited to Plain Barcode, and the old author page redirects to About.
  • New guides are announced to search engines that use IndexNow when they are published.

  • New guide: How to Check Who Owns a UPC and Prove a Barcode Is Yours
  • Verified by GS1 links in the check digit calculator and the generator, and the label sheet tool now flags values that appear twice.
  • A first redesign, styled as a technical drawing of a label, with a live Code 128 in the home page art. It was replaced on October 17.

  • plainbarcode.com went live with its first 20 guides, dated October 1, and the barcode and QR code generators. Before launch, every claim flagged for checking in the guides, 30 in all, was checked against public primary sources.

Spotted something wrong, or missing from this list? Use the contact page.