Which barcode is more space efficient? This question is often brought up. The below shows you the sizes that encode alphanumeric and numeric-only in a handful barcode formats. Among all barcode formats, datamatrix is the most efficient symbology that encode small amount of data. Code 128 is the most linear symbology that encode alphanumeric data.

Table 1. Barcodes Encoding BARCODE1234567890

Code 39	Code 128
PDF417	DataMatrix
QR Code (EC Level L)	Micro QR Code

Table 2. Barcodes Encoding 1234567890

Code 39	Code 128
PDF417	DataMatrix
QR Code (EC Level L)	Micro QR Code