ISBN

ISBN

An ISBN barcode is a variant of EAN-13 that is used to identify books.

Also known as: ISBN-13, International Standard Book Number, Bookland EAN, Bookland EAN-13.

Uses:

• Books.

Variants:

• ISBN-10 is a legacy format that was deprecated for public use after 1st January 2007.

Standards: ISO 2108, ISO/IEC 15420, BS EN 797, GS1 General Specifications.

Data and Options

• The data should contain twelve or thirteen digits separated appropriately by dash characters -.
• The data can also be provided in legacy ISBN-10 format as nine or ten digits separated appropriately by dash characters -. This will be automatically upgraded to the ISBN-13 format.
• If the last digit of the primary data is not given then the ISBN check digit is calculated automatically, otherwise it will be verified.
• The primary data can optionally be followed by a space then five digits if an EAN-5 add-on is required, typically to encode the book's price (see Price Add-On below).
• The includetext option should normally be supplied.
• The guardwhitespace option enables the display of whitespace guard marks.
• The following options control the placement and styling of the ISBN text above the symbol. Each is equivalent to the corresponding extratext* option:
  • isbntext: Override the ISBN label content
  • isbntextfont: PostScript font name for text above symbol
  • isbntextsize: Font size for the text above symbol, in points
  • isbntextcolor: Colour for the text above symbol
  • isbntextxalign, isbntextyalign: Alignment of the text above symbol
  • isbntextxoffset, isbntextyoffset: Position of the text above symbol, in points
  • isbntextdirection: Direction of the text above symbol
  • isbntextgaps: Gap between characters in the text above symbol, in points
  • isbntextsubspace, isbntextsplit, isbntextlinegaps: See Text Properties
• Deprecated. The legacy option shows the ISBN-10 above the symbol in place of the ISBN-13. The bars are the same.

Price Add-On

A five-digit add-on encodes the book's price as a currency digit followed by four digits of price, under conventions set by each market's book industry. The International ISBN Agency's users' manual says the add-on carries a price only in the United States and Canada, and that elsewhere it may be used for a publisher's in-house purposes. Check the local convention with the ISBN agency or trading partners.

Add-on	Conventional Meaning
00001 to 09999	Price in pounds sterling, £0.01 to £99.99
10000 to 49999	Price in US dollars, US$100.00 to US$499.99
50001 to 59998	Price in US dollars, US$0.01 to US$99.98
59999	Formerly, a price in US dollars above US$99.98 (US$99.99 cannot be encoded)
60001 to 69999	Price in Canadian dollars, CA$0.01 to CA$99.99
90000 to 98999	For the publisher's own in-house use, such as handling returns
99990	A used book (US college stores)
99991	A desk copy (US college stores)

• In the UK, booksellers look up a book's price from its ISBN, so the symbol without an add-on is generally recommended. UK publishers selling into the US add the US price.
• In Korea, the add-on carries the Korean book number's additional code rather than a price: a readership digit, a publication form digit and a three-digit subject classification from the Korean Decimal Classification.
• Sources: International ISBN Agency, ISBN Users' Manual; Book Industry Study Group, Barcoding Guidelines for the US Book Industry; Book Industry Communication, Bar Coding for Books; BookNet Canada, Product Bar Codes; National Library of Korea, Korean ISBN and ISSN Manual.

Examples

ISBN-13

Identical symbols, input provided with and without an ISBN check digit:

Data:    978-1-873671-00-9
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

Data:    978-1-873671-00
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

An ISBN with a five-digit add-on:

Data:    978-1-873671-00-9 54499
Options: includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn

The following ISBN-10 input will be automatically upgraded to a valid ISBN-13 symbol:

Data:    1-86074-271-8
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

Data:    1-86074-271
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

ISBN-10 label (Legacy)

The following show the ISBN-10 above the symbol:

Data:    1-86074-271-8
Options: legacy includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn

Data:    1-86074-271
Options: legacy includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn

Styling the ISBN label

The ISBN label can be styled using the isbntext* options (or the equivalent extratext*):

Data:    978-1-873671-00-9
Options: includetext isbntextcolor=FF0000 isbntextxalign=center
Encoder: isbn