2D Barcode Integration Tips for Adobe InDesign

by Nate Schubert

Adobe InDesign is a powerful application that allows graphic designers, production artists and others to create print media such as magazines, posters, brochures and more in addition to publications intended for digital consumption. Given the business-centric nature of these uses, the integration of 2D barcodes for InDesign works is likely to become a necessity for many users.

IDAutomation provides a range of solutions to enable 2D barcode generation in Adobe InDesign.

• Barcode Image Generators provide an easy method of generating one-off barcodes which can be saved as image files, or copied and pasted directly into InDesign works.
• 2D Barcode Font and Encoder packages allow a roundabout method of generating barcodes where the data is first encoded within Excel and then that encoded data is imported into InDesign where the appropriate font can be applied to it to generate an accurate barcode.\
• Hosted Barcode Generators include custom URLs that can be integrated into InDesign works that are intended for internet viewing, thus allowing easy dynamic barcoding.

These are all dependable solutions when an organization has a need to add 2D barcodes to their InDesign documents. For those looking for an all-in-one solution, consider the 2D Barcode Module for InDesign by Meadows Printing Solutions. This powerful component installs directly into InDesign and appears as a toolbar selection in the application itself. Simply mark out a text box where you want the QR Code, Data Matrix or PDF417 barcode to appear and refer to the "MPS" toolbar menu to create your barcode. Meadows Printing Solutions also offers a free QR Code Generator for InDesign which can be used to demonstrate it's seamless compatibility and ease-of-use.

It's no secret to users that the latest version of InDesign (CS7) will include QR barcodes, and this is an excellent feature to add. However, it is important to note that QR is not the only 2D barcode type and that many organizations will have a need to generate others such as Code 128, Intelligent Mail, Data Matrix, PDF417 and others. Adobe's latest feature addition supports QR Code, but the products listed above support many more as well.