^BF
MicroPDF417 Bar CodePreview: partialPDF417 shrunk for small labels, trading capacity for a footprint that fits on a vial or a circuit board.
Syntax
^BFo,h,mParameters
| Parameter | Description and accepted values | If omitted |
|---|---|---|
| o | Rotation of the bar code on the label.N normal, R 90°, I 180°, B 270° | Last ^FW value, else N |
| h | Height of one module row in dots.1 to 9999 dots — height of one module | Height set by ^BY |
| m | Mode — which of the 34 fixed column/row shapes to use. 0 chooses the smallest that fits.0 to 33 — mode, which fixes the column and row count | 0 |
How it works
^BF prints MicroPDF417, a cut-down PDF417 that drops the wide start and stop patterns and fixes the column count. What remains is a stacked symbol small enough for labels where a full PDF417 would not fit.
Capacity is modest — up to 150 bytes in the largest of its 34 fixed shapes — so it is used for identifiers rather than payloads: a lot number on a vial, a part number on a board, a GS1 composite component above a linear code.
The mode parameter picks one of those fixed shapes, each with a set number of columns and rows. Mode 0 lets the encoder choose the smallest one the data fits.
Example
^XA
^BY2,3,80
^FO60,60^BFN,4,0^FDZPL Toolkit^FS
^XZRendering…
How the preview on this site handles it
Drawn with a real MicroPDF417 encoder, so it scans, and rotation is applied. The mode from `m` is left to the encoder, which picks the smallest shape the data fits — asking for a larger fixed shape does not change the preview.
Common mistakes
- Overfilling it. MicroPDF417 holds far less than PDF417; past its limit the field simply does not encode.
- Reading `h` as the symbol height. It is the height of one row, as with every stacked symbology.
- Using it where a scanner expects a composite. In GS1 composite symbols the MicroPDF417 sits above a linear code and means nothing on its own.