PDF417 Barcode Generator
The wide stacked barcode on the back of a driver's license or a boarding pass. It holds far more than a linear barcode and does not need a 2D imager to read.
It was chosen for identity documents because it stores the record itself rather than a reference to one, so a reader with no network still gets the data. That is also why the symbols are large. If your content is a short link, almost every other format here will be smaller.
- Driver's licenses and ID cards
- Boarding passes
- Shipping labels
- Inventory with embedded detail
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About PDF417
Stacked code used on driver's licenses, boarding passes and shipping labels.
Any text
What is PDF417?
PDF417 is a stack of small linear barcodes read as one symbol. Each row carries its own start and stop pattern and a row indicator, so a scanner can work out where it is even if it reads the rows out of order or misses one. That structure is why it holds far more than a linear barcode while still being readable by a laser scanner sweeping across it, and why it was chosen for documents that have to be read by equipment already in the field — driver's licenses, boarding passes, shipping labels.
Technical characteristics
- Symbol
- Stacked linear: 3 to 90 rows, 1 to 30 data columns
- Capacity
- Up to 1,850 text characters, 2,710 digits, or 1,108 bytes
- Error correction
- Nine levels, 0 to 8, selected against expected damage
- Character set
- Full ASCII, plus a binary mode
- Reading
- Works with laser scanners as well as 2D imagers
How the stack works
PDF417 is not really a two-dimensional symbology in the way a QR code is. It is a stack of linear rows, each one a sequence of codewords, with a start and stop pattern at either end of every row and an indicator saying which row it is. A scanner can therefore read it a row at a time and reassemble the result.
The name records the geometry: Portable Data File, built from codewords of four bars and four spaces spanning seventeen modules. You choose how many columns wide and how many rows tall, which is why the same content can be laid out as a long thin strip or a compact block depending on the space you have.
Why identity documents chose it
A driving license carries a PDF417 holding the whole record: name, address, date of birth, license class, expiry. Not a reference to a record, the record itself.
That decision was made for a setting with no network. An officer at a roadside, an agent at a gate or a bartender with a handheld reader gets the data from the card rather than from a database, and the card keeps working when the connection does not. It is also why these symbols are large: they are storing a document, not a pointer to one.
Truncated PDF417, and when not to use it
There is a compact variant that drops part of the structure on the right-hand edge to save width. It reads fine in good conditions and it is genuinely narrower.
PDF417 FAQs
Why is it so wide?
Because it is a stack of linear barcodes rather than a matrix. Width carries the data and height adds rows; a long payload gets wide before it gets tall, which is why licenses and boarding passes give it a full-width strip.
PDF417 or Data Matrix?
PDF417 holds more and can be read by laser scanners already deployed for linear barcodes. Data Matrix is far more compact for the same data. If the reader is a 2D imager and space is tight, Data Matrix; if it must work with existing laser equipment, PDF417.
What does the 417 mean?
Each pattern in the symbol is four bars and four spaces spanning seventeen modules: 4 and 17.
How much data should I actually put in one?
Less than the maximum. Capacity grows by adding rows, and every row makes the symbol taller and the scan more demanding, so a PDF417 stuffed to its limit is one that fails on a worn card or a cheap reader. If a payload is pushing the format, the usual answer is to carry a reference and keep the record in a system, rather than carrying the record itself.