ISBN Barcode Generator

Cómo usar ISBN Barcode Generator

1. 1

   Type your ISBN-13 (978 or 979 prefix). Hyphens are ignored, and the check digit is verified — a mistyped digit is flagged before it reaches your cover.

2. 2

   Enter the 5-digit price add-on: 5 followed by the US price in cents (5 + 2495 for $24.95), or 90000 for no price.

3. 3

   Adjust bar height and quiet zone if your printer asks, and check the preview.

4. 4

   Download as SVG for the print-ready cover file, or PNG for a mock-up or an online listing.

What an ISBN barcode actually is

The barcode on the back of a book is a plain EAN-13 whose number happens to be the book's ISBN. When ISBNs moved from ten digits to thirteen in 2007, they were folded into the EAN system under the 978 prefix — the so-called 'Bookland' country code — with 979 added once 978 began to fill up. That is why the same scanner that reads a tin of beans reads a paperback, and why this page is the EAN-13 generator with the defaults a book needs.

The tool verifies the check digit rather than merely drawing whatever you type. An ISBN with a transposed pair of digits still looks perfectly plausible on a cover; it just fails at every till in the country. Hyphens and spaces in the ISBN are ignored, so you can paste it exactly as it appears on your copyright page.

The five-digit price add-on

The small second barcode to the right of the ISBN is an EAN-5 add-on, and most retailers in the USA expect it. The first digit is the currency — 5 for US dollars, 6 for Canadian dollars, 0 or 1 for British pounds, 3 for Australian dollars, 4 for New Zealand dollars — and the four that follow are the price without the decimal point, so 52495 encodes $24.95 and 51999 encodes $19.99. Prices at or above $100 use 59999.

If you do not want to encode a price — because the book sells in several countries, or the price will change — use 90000, which every system reads as 'no price'. Some UK retailers prefer no add-on at all; leave the add-on blank and only the ISBN is drawn.

• 52495 — $24.95 (USD)
• 61295 — CA$12.95
• 01299 — £12.99 (0 or 1 for GBP)
• 90000 — no price encoded
• 99999 — review or complimentary copy

Placing the barcode on the cover

Printers and distributors have opinions here, and they are surprisingly consistent. The nominal EAN-13 size is 37.29 × 25.93 mm at 100 % magnification; anything between 80 % and 200 % scans, but going below 90 % on uncoated paper invites failures. Keep a white quiet zone of at least 2.3 mm to the left and right of the bars, do not let cover artwork intrude on it, and print the bars in solid black — not a rich black built from four inks, which registers badly and blurs the edges.

Export SVG for the actual cover file so the bars stay crisp at whatever resolution the press uses, and place it on the lower right of the back cover where scanners and booksellers expect it. Use the PNG only for mock-ups, listings and anything on screen.

Why this runs in your browser

Every step runs inside your browser, using the WebAssembly and Canvas APIs your device already ships with. No file is uploaded, no copy is kept, and nothing sits in a queue on a server waiting to be deleted — which is also why the tool keeps working with the network disconnected.

For a barcode there is nothing sensitive to protect, but there is a practical benefit: the barcode you draw here is generated by a library running on your machine, and the same input always gives the same bars. There is no queue, no account, no watermark on the free tier, and no 'upgrade to download SVG'.

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