Introduction

Micro PDF-417 is a 2D, multi-row symbology, derived from and closely based on PDF-417. Micro PDF-417 is designed for applications with a need for improved area efficiency, but without the requirement for PDF-417's maximum data capacity. A limited set of symbol sizes is available, together with a fixed level of error correction for each symbol.

X and Y Dimensions:
The X dimension is the width of the narrowest bar in a printed codeword. The Y dimension is the height of each row within the MicroPDF417 symbol. MicroPDF is usually printed with an X to Y ratio from 1:2 to 1:5. By changing the X to Y ratio to 1:2 or 1:3, a significant amount of space can be saved. However, some scanners cannot read X to Y ratios of less than 1:3 and most read best at 1:4.

There are three compaction modes:
Text Compaction permits all printable ASCII characters 32 - 126 and ASCII 9, 10 and 13.
Binary Compaction permits all 256 ASCII values
Numeric Compaction permits efficient encoding of numeric data

Maximum data characters:
Text -- 250 characters best case, for example, if all characters are uppercase. In text compaction mode, the amount of data that can be encoded varies due to mode switching between different types of characters, such as between numbers, upper case, lower case and punctuation.
Binary -- 150 characters
Numeric -- 366 digits (numbers only)

Number of data columns: 1 - 4

Number of rows: 4 - 44, but only available in defined combinations with number of columns

Micro PDF-417 is designed for applications where the symbol must be smaller than PDF-417 will allow.

For more information visit www.symbol.com and www.pdf417.com.