MaxiCode is a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

, machine-readable symbol system originally created and used by

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company ...

. Suitable for tracking and managing the shipment of packages, it resembles an

Aztec Code The Aztec Code is a matrix code invented by Andrew Longacre, Jr. and Robert Hussey in 1995.* The code was published by AIM, Inc. in 1997. Although the Aztec Code was patented, that patent was officially made public domain. Click "images" the ...

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...

, but uses dots arranged in a hexagonal grid instead of

square grid In geometry, the square tiling, square tessellation or square grid is a regular tiling of the Euclidean plane. It has Schläfli symbol of meaning it has 4 squares around every vertex. Conway called it a quadrille. The internal angle of th ...

. MaxiCode has been standardised under

ISO/IEC ISO/IEC JTC 1, entitled "Information technology", is a joint technical committee (JTC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and p ...

16023. A MaxiCode symbol (internally called "Bird's Eye", "Target", "dense code", or "UPS code") appears as a 1-inch square, with a

bullseye Bullseye or Bull's Eye may refer to: Symbols * ◎ (Unicode U+25CE BULLSEYE), in the Geometric Shapes Unicode block * (Unicode U+0298 LATIN LETTER BILABIAL CLICK), the phonetic symbol for bilabial click Animals and plants * Bull's Eye, '' Eury ...

in the middle, surrounded by a pattern of hexagonal dots. It can store about 93 characters of information, and up to 8 MaxiCode symbols can be chained together to convey more data. The centered symmetrical bullseye is useful in automatic symbol location regardless of orientation, and it allows MaxiCode symbols to be scanned even on a package traveling rapidly. MaxiCode symbology was released by UPS in 1992.

Structured Carrier Message

MaxiCode symbols using modes 2 and 3 include a ''Structured Carrier Message'' containing key information about a package. This information is protected with a strong

Reed–Solomon error correction Reed–Solomon codes are a group of error-correcting codes that were introduced by Irving S. Reed and Gustave Solomon in 1960. They have many applications, the most prominent of which include consumer technologies such as MiniDiscs, CDs, DVDs, B ...

code, allowing it to be read even if a portion of the symbol is damaged. These fields include: # A 4-bit indication of the mode in use, currently either mode 2 or mode 3. # A national or international

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

. MaxiCode supports both numeric postal codes (e.g. a ZIP Code), and alphanumeric postal codes. # A 3-digit

country code Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ...

encoded per

ISO 3166 ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., ...

# A 3-digit class of service code assigned by the carrier The structured portion of the message is stored in the inner area of the symbol, near the bull's-eye pattern. (In modes that do not include a structured portion, the inner area simply stores the beginning of the message.)

Application-specific information

Irrespective of mode, a variable amount of application-specific information can be encoded in a MaxiCode symbol. This format of this additional data is not strictly defined, and amongst other information may include: * Purchase order number * Customer reference * Invoice number * Tracking number * Indicator of the originating carrier

Modes

* Mode 0 - Obsolete mode superseded by modes 2 and 3. (Older printers will produce Mode 0 if the firmware is outdated. Mode 0 MaxiCodes can be visually determined by examining the two horizontal hexagons in the upper right-hand corner. They will be white if the Mode is 0. For all other modes, they are black.) * Mode 1 - Obsolete mode superseded by mode 4. * Mode 2 - Formatted data containing a structured Carrier Message with a numeric postal code. (Primary use is US domestic destinations.) * Mode 3 - Formatted data containing a structured Carrier Message with an alphanumeric postal code. (Primary use is international destinations.) * Mode 4 - Unformatted data with Standard Error Correction. * Mode 5 - Unformatted data with Enhanced Error Correction. * Mode 6 - Used for programming hardware devices. UPS labels use Mode 2 or Mode 3 MaxiCodes.

References

External links

Source for official MaxiCode technical specification
* Information about MaxiCode is available in US Patents , , and {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxicode Barcodes United Parcel Service Public domain ISO/IEC standards