Design Barcode Generator

A design barcode is a real, working barcode with a picture worked into it: a tree standing among the bars, a city skyline, mountains, waves, a cat stretching across the top. Japanese brands popularized them on drinks, snacks and stationery in the 2000s, and they're now a small, fun way for packaging to stand out on the shelf.

Start with the Tree template or your own picture. By default the bars hug the picture: they wrap around its outline with a small, even gap you can widen, so the object reads clearly while the barcode surrounds it. If your picture has a transparent background (a cut-out PNG or an SVG), its outline comes from the transparency, so a pale or colorful object keeps its full shape; you can also show it in its original colors. Other styles let the art sit on the bars, cut the bars into the shape, or cut the shape out of them. Size and position sliders compose the picture, and Add artwork to this barcode in the regular generator carries over your number.

Choose Artistic layout to make the picture prominent inside UPC-A, EAN-13, EAN-8 or Code 128 bars. Artwork can occupy up to 95% of the bar height and interrupt retail guards, so it may stop scanning. Protected scan area limits the design to the top 40% and keeps retail guards intact. Both layouts preserve the digits and quiet zones and run a live scan check.

Each design is decoded in your browser as you make it, using the same open-source barcode reader as the scanner, so a design that would hide the number is flagged before you download it, with a Make it safer button that fixes the usual causes. A passed check doesn't replace testing: print a sample and scan it with the equipment your retailer uses, and ask whether they accept decorated barcodes before a large print run.