Generating Barcodes in Python with Pillow and pyBarcode

First, install the Pillow library (skip if already installed) using:

pip install Pillow

Next, install the pyBarcode library:

pip install pyBarcode

The pyBarcode library supports the following barcode formats: 'code39', 'ean', 'ean13', 'ean8', 'gs1', 'gtin', 'isbn', 'isbn10', 'isbn13', 'issn', 'jan', 'pzn', 'upc', 'upca'.

Method 1: Generate an EAN13 barcode and save it as an image.

# Generate barcode
# Import modules
import barcode
from barcode.writer import ImageWriter

print(barcode.PROVIDED_BARCODES)

img_path = "/Users/XXX/Downloads/demo"
EAN = barcode.get_barcode_class('ean13')
ean = EAN('5901234123457', writer=ImageWriter())
fullname = ean.save(img_path + '')
print(fullname)

Method 2: Generate a Code39 barcode with custom options.

# Import module
import barcode

# Get barcode class for Code39
Code = barcode.get_barcode_class('code39')  # supported format

# Create barcode object
bar = Code("123456")
"""
Code constructor signature: Code(code, writer=None, add_checksum=True)
- code: data to encode (e.g., '123456')
- writer: defaults to SVGWriter; use ImageWriter for PNG/JPEG/BMP
- add_checksum: default True, adds checksum; set False to omit
"""

# Save barcode file (no extension needed)
bar.save("/Users/XXX/Downloads/test-imgs")
"""
save(filename, options=None)
- filename: base name without extension; extension added automatically based on writer
- options: dictionary to customize output, e.g.,
    {'module_width': 0.2, 'module_height': 15.0, 'quiet_zone': 6.5,
     'font_size': 10, 'text_distance': 5.0, 'background': 'white',
     'foreground': 'black', 'text': '', 'write_text': True,
     'center_text': True, 'format': 'PNG', 'dpi': 300}
"""