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Quick and Easy Barcode - Photoshop Tutorial

Make a quick and easy Photoshop barcode using a couple of filters. Can be used to generate multiple bar codes if you need variation.

Based on a tutorial created by Travis Ballard of ansimation.net


  1. On a 200x200 canvas, go to 'filter > noise > add noise' and enter these settings:


    Should look like this:
  2. Go to 'filter > blur > motion blur' with these settings:

    That gives you the basic barcode look:
  3. Now refine the barcode a little, by going to 'filter > sharpen > unsharp mask'. Experiment with the settings.

    This will sharpen the image and give the barcode look
  4. Now just crop out whatever area you want to use for the barcode. I used the rectangular marquee tool, copy-pasted my barcode on a new layer, and added some text underneath (Courier New, bold, 14pt). And...done.


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Comments

Sat, 04/26/2008 - 18:19 — Travis Ballard Photography (not verified)

glad that you all like it

hey everyone. it's good to see poeple finding this useful. wrote it a few years ago and have not done anything with it so it was about time. to the people questioning it, it's for looks. it is not useful in any way. it does store any information and the bars are all random in width. if you have any questions, use the contact us form http://www.travisballard.com

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 14:49 — Christian (not verified)

an easy way to get rid of

an easy way to get rid of the grey/multicolored areas is to just use brightness/contrast and bump up the contrast.

Wed, 11/28/2007 - 23:56 — Richard Ward (not verified)

Discoloration

There appears to be a lot of discoloration in your barcode. Even setting the image to greyscale still leaves black/grey/white instead of black/white as the visible colors. Add Noise isn't really the best method to do this with and I see a lot of tutorials using the same method over and over with similar results.

Has anyone come up with a cleaner barcode tutorial than using Add Noise?

Tue, 11/20/2007 - 16:34 — Guest (not verified)

the person who rote the

the person who rote the below response is thick as shit

Sat, 08/18/2007 - 21:19 — Guest (not verified)

bar codes

I don't get it. Presumably a bar code should contain some sort of data in the form of bars which are different widths and which re related to the numbers below. How does this "bar code" related to that? It seems just to "look" like a bar code but I can't imagine how it would function as one or how one would create a meaningful pattern of bars. Please explain. Thanks

Tue, 10/23/2007 - 14:30 — Guest (not verified)

Just for use, or looks

It's just to use, I highly doubt someone would actually use this as a valid barcode. It's for looks or for fun.

Fri, 07/13/2007 - 13:35 — Manish chauhan (not verified)

Thnx for a nice tutorial.......

I like this tutorial it is very nice and cool and simple too....

Thanx a lot again..

Manish chauhan