InDesign Merge Mail Bar Codes

[Tracy]

Has anyone done Mailing bar codes with InDesign?
I have never done any kind of bar codes with excel so not sure what is required

[David]

I've done bar code merges before, you just have to set up a column in the Excel file with an image tag (@graphic).
I keep the .txt file in the same folder with the images.

[Tracy]

so you created the bar codes? what program
is there a fast way to put them into excel?
have you created bar codes within InDesign?

 so many questions
Thanks man!

[David]

yes, I made the barcodes in a program called Bar Code Studio.
When these are made, they all have consecutive numbers, which helps with setting up the Excel file.
Here is how the data is set up in Indesign for the merge:



you can see the tag will pick up the column in excel for the images from the b column (@graphic) and the code number associated with the graphic will be place above the image, which have to be all in the same folder along with any other data and the .txt file.

[DCurry]

If you just need to create the IMB barcode, is the data already in your list? We use a certain font that just shows the characters in the data as the barcode - all the characters are either A, D, F or T and the font is USPSIMBCompact.

Of course, our data processing department does whatever needs to be done to generate the characters - I'm not doing any sort of encoding, just representing the characters with a particular font.

Here's a screenshot showing with the barcode font, and what the characters are in Arial.

[Tracy]

No screenshot!
I just found out they are sending the excel with the barcode in the data, not sure yet.
I do want to learn how to do this.

@David I'm assuming your field name is "graphic" for the bar code, correct?

[David]

yes, it swaps an image for the data (text) you would normally do in a merge.

[AaronH]

We do this all the time too. Our barcode font is called USPSIMBStandard.ttf and our mail house says the font needs to be 16pt with default spacing.

USPSIMBStandard.ttf.zip

[Tracy]

coolio! and thanks for the font Aaron

oh I see the @ symbol in front of graphic

[Slappy]

We do this all the time too. Our barcode font is called USPSIMBStandard.ttf and our mail house says the font needs to be 16pt with default spacing.

USPSIMBStandard.ttf.zip

Yup, that's what we use too - once the Mail Dept Magicians have generated the Plain Text part of the data to encode the IMB. I always run internal Proof PDFs past them too, the spacing & position of mail info gives me fits.

[DigiCorn]

coolio! and thanks for the font Aaron

oh I see the @ symbol in front of graphic

Watch how you say his name and never take it in vain. Dude's a gangsta and he doesn't like joking around; he's still pissed at Weird Al.

[DCurry]

And yet that song is Weird Al's masterpiece, IMHO!

Funny story - Several years ago, my pre-teen daughter really wanted to see Lindsey Stirling in concert, but the closest she was playing was about 90 minutes away. We told her if she came up with the ticket money we would take her, not thinking she would. Well, she opened a little bake sale/lemonade stand and earned her $90 in one afternoon so we made good on the promise (I had to buy my own ticket.)

Around the same time, she had discovered Weird Al and we were listening to all of his music on random shuffle on the drive to the Lindsey Stirling concert. The route from my house to the venue took us through Amish country (about 70 minutes into the drive), and as soon as we saw our very first horse and buggy the iPod was just starting to play Amish Paradise! The timing was perfect.

[AaronH]

coolio! and thanks for the font Aaron

oh I see the @ symbol in front of graphic

You bet!

[Tracy]

Holy Cow! I did it
I made the barcode 16pt using the USPSIMB font
I thought it didn't work at first (operator error) and tried it again!
I walked my proof over to the mailing guy and he said it was perfect

Ha ha I learned something!

Thanks all, I really thought I wasn't going to get