Because the encoded data has a fixed data structure and length, the barcode length is always fixed. Moreover, since the X dimension is required to be 15 mils and the barcode targets a low-resolution printer, we need to take the second approach.

We need a container program to embed the object so we can ask the object to provide the size information. Microsoft Word is such a good container. You can also use any OLE control containers such as Visual Basic. If you do not have these programs, you can write a simple WSH script to measure the size.

Before creating the object you need to set the target printer as the default. This ensures that the measures are taken from the printer. Now we start to create an object based on the specification. First insert the object into Microsoft Word document by selecting Insert Object from the Insert menu. Scroll down to locate Morovia Barcode ActiveX and click on OK. The barcode control appears. Right click on the control and select Propeties. On the pop-up property window, find one called symbology and change its value to mbxCode128. Make sure that Measurement is set to mbxMeasureEnglish. Set message property to KANADA1234567890. Disable the comment by setting ShowComment to FALSE. Since the human readable is required, make sure that ShowHRText is TRUE. Set NarrowBarWidth to 15 and BarHeight to 1000.

The specification also says that the human readable is printed on top of the barcode, with typeface Arial, bold and size 9. Go back to the property window, find property TextOnTop and set it to TRUE. Set TextAlignment to mbxAlignmentLeft. Click on the Font property, then click on the right small button to pop up the Font dialog. Select Arial, bold and 9 from the appropriate boxes. Dismiss the dialog. Now we have a barcode matching the specification.

We keep the symbol margins intact. If you'd like to modify the symbol margins, look at the SymbolMarginXXXX entries.

Now we measure the overall size. From the property window, find LabelWidth and LabelHeight. The program reports Labelheight as 1350 and LabelWidth 2670. Since we are using English imperial units, that translates into 1.350 inches in height and 2.670 inches in width.

After we retrieve the LabelWidth and LabelHeight in logical units, convert them into screen pixels rounding to the closest integer:

We now write an ASP script called barcode-zebra.asp to provide the image feed. This ASP script sets properties one by one. The message property is retrieved from the URL query string. If you are interested with how we did it, take a look at the sample included in the package.

After we finish the back end script, we proceed to add barcode to the front HTML file. Insert the following statement in the place of the barcode:

<IMG SRC="barcode-zebra.asp?message=KANADA1234567890" 
WIDTH="256" HEIGHT="130"/>