EAN-13 barcodes for products and books
EAN-13 is the barcode on almost every retail product outside North America — and on every book, where the ISBN is encoded as an EAN-13 starting with 978 or 979. This EAN-13 barcode generator checks your number, adds the correct check digit, shows which country prefix it uses and exports print-ready artwork.
How to create an EAN barcode
- Type the 12 digits (the 13th check digit is calculated) or all 13 to verify them.
- Choose EAN-13 or the short EAN-8 for small packs.
- Pick the print size (80–200%) and add a price add-on for books if you need one.
- Download SVG, PDF or PNG — or a full label sheet.
How an EAN-13 number works
- First 2–3 digits: the GS1 prefix of the organisation that issued the number (e.g. 896 Pakistan, 890 India, 50 UK, 40–44 Germany). It does not prove where the product was made.
- Middle digits: your company prefix and product number.
- Last digit: the check digit that lets scanners catch typing errors.
ISBN barcodes for books
Enter your ISBN-13 (978… or 979…) to create the barcode for the back cover. Amazon KDP adds a barcode for you if you leave space, but IngramSpark and printers often need your own. Our book cover size calculator shows where the barcode goes.
Do I need GS1 numbers?
Yes, for retail. Supermarkets and Amazon check EAN numbers against the GS1 database, so buy a company prefix from your national GS1 office. ISBNs are issued by your national ISBN agency.
EAN-13 and EAN-8
- EAN-13: 13 digits — the standard retail barcode used in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Europe and most of the world.
- EAN-8: 8 digits for very small packages where an EAN-13 won’t fit.
What the digits mean
The first digits are the GS1 prefix of the office that issued the number — for example 896 for GS1 Pakistan, 890 for India, 629 for the UAE. They show where the number was registered, not where the product was made. The last digit is a check digit, added automatically.
Example
Type 590123412345 and the generator adds the check digit 7, giving 5901234123457. Scanning the downloaded barcode returns exactly that number.
Getting a real EAN
To sell in supermarkets or on Amazon, the number must be licensed to your company by GS1 (for example through GS1 Pakistan). For your own warehouse labels you can use internal numbers — or Code 128 — instead.
Print sizes
The nominal EAN-13 size is about 37.3 × 25.9 mm. Stay between 80% and 200% of that size, keep the white margins, and print the exact-size PDF at 100%.