Barcode scanning with your phone camera, no scanner

Scanner screens — from the app itself

The scanner button sits at the till; a scanned item drops into the basket and can be found in the stock list too. At goods-in the factory code is also looked up in the central catalogue: if the product is there (more than 1,700 verified products), its name and section fill in.

The scanner button and search field at the till, where the camera reads barcodes — **Scanner**The phone camera reads the barcode — no separate scanner to buy.

The till screen with a basket, a search field and a scanner button — **The till**Sales, goods intake and receipt history, with the expected cash shown on top.

The stock screen with the product list, quantities and prices — **Stock**How many lines, at cost and at sale price, with low-stock and near-expiry as separate tabs.

These screenshots come from a demo shop: the products, customers and amounts in them are invented. A real shop’s screen shows customer names and their debts, so we do not publish those. The screens themselves look exactly like this.

Which codes it reads — and which it does not

The codes on most shop goods are read — the full list is in the table below. The rest were left out: better to say so plainly than to promise a code that will not be read.

EAN-13

Status

Read

Where you see it

Most goods in a shop

EAN-8

Status

Read

Where you see it

Small packs: gum, chocolate

UPC-A, UPC-E

Status

Read

Where you see it

Imported goods

Code-128

Status

Read

Where you see it

Cases and warehouse tags

Code-39

Status

Read

Where you see it

Older warehouse tags

Status

Read

Where you see it

Jewellery tags print with this code

DataMatrix

Status

Not read

Where you see it

The small square code on medicine marking

ITF-14

Status

Not read

Where you see it

The large code on a carton

PDF417, Code-93, Codabar

Status

Not read

Where you see it

Documents and special tags

ITF-14 was left out on purpose: it can “read” part of a code and return a wrong short number. Pharmacy marking codes (DataMatrix) are not read either — medicines are tracked by their ordinary EAN code.

What happens once the camera is open

The scanner button

The scanner sits on the till, stock, intake and returns screens alike. Tap it and the phone camera opens — nothing to plug in or install.

You hold up the code

The moment a code is read you get a short beep, the phone vibrates and the screen flashes. If the product is not found the sound is different: lower and twice.

The basket fills itself

During a sale the scanner stays open: you hold up items one after another and anything in the database with enough stock drops into the basket by itself. Below you see the basket name, how many different items are in it and the total.

Guard against double reads

So one item is not added twice, a repeat read is blocked for at least 1.2 seconds. If the code is not in the database the scanner closes and offers to attach it to a product.

For a tiny label on a dark shelf

Camera choice — if the phone has several back cameras, a button inside the scanner switches between them and the choice is remembered on that phone.
Zoom in four steps: 1×, 1.5×, 2× and 3× — read a label without pushing the camera into it.
Torch — if the phone camera supports it, on a dark shelf or late in the day you switch it on from a button in the same place; on phones without support the button does not appear.
Protection against misreads: the check digit is verified and the same code must be read identically several times — a wrong number from a blurred frame never reaches the basket.
Manual entry: if the label is torn or the camera will not open, you type the code in by hand — at least 6 digits.

A code will not read?

Zoom and torch first

On a tiny or glossy label set the zoom to 2× or 3×, and in the dark turn on the torch if the button is there. Line the code up in the middle of the screen and hold the phone still.

Switch the camera

On some phones the main camera cannot focus up close — use the button inside the scanner to move to another back camera.

Reset the scanner

While the camera is open there is a “Reset scanner” button at the bottom, beside a line naming the running camera and the frames checked. If the scanner sits open several seconds reading nothing, twice in a row, the saved camera and zoom choice clears itself.

If the code is not attached to a product

If the code was read but no product matched, the app remembers it and opens your list: tap the product and the code is attached to it.

Do you need a barcode scanner?

For a neighbourhood shop, a pharmacy, a clothing or perfume shop the phone is enough: a customer takes an item or two, the seller holds up the code and the basket fills. To be straight with you: where the queue is long and one customer takes a dozen items, a handheld USB scanner is still more comfortable — it asks for neither focus nor light. The BuySale scanner is built for neighbourhood-shop pace. Which equipment pays off when is on the shop equipment page.

If you work on a computer a USB scanner works too: a Honeywell-style scanner connects as a keyboard, the app tells its reading apart from typing by itself, and the code lands in the right field on the sale, intake and returns screens.
For that the scanner must be set to send Enter (or Tab) at the end of the code.
On the intake screen, step out of the price or quantity field before you scan: if the cursor stays there, the first two characters of the code can land in that field.
On Android, in Chrome and similar browsers, the browser’s own decoding engine reads the code — the fastest route. The iPhone has no such engine, so a library inside the app does the reading and it can be slower.
In the browser version the scanner needs internet: the product is looked up in the database on the server. The Android and Windows apps download products in advance, so their scanner works offline too.

Questions about the scanner

Does a phone camera really replace a scanner?

At neighbourhood-shop pace, yes. Tap the scanner button, the camera opens, you hold up items one after another and the basket fills itself. In a supermarket with a long queue a USB scanner stays more comfortable.

Which codes are not read?

DataMatrix (medicine marking), ITF-14 (the large code on a carton), PDF417, Code-93 and Codabar are not read. ITF was left out deliberately: it could “read” part of a code, return a wrong short number and put the wrong product in the basket.

The code scanned but no product was found. What now?

It means the code is not attached to any product yet. The app remembers it and opens your product list: tap the right one and the code is attached, so next time it is found immediately. If the code already belongs to another product, the app says so instead of moving it silently. One product can carry several codes — the unit code, the case code, an old and a new one.

My goods have no barcode at all — do I have to buy one?

No. For an item with no factory code — home-made goods, a piece of jewellery — the app generates its own 13-digit code starting with “20”, which can never clash with a factory code. You print the label right away, stick it on, and from then on it scans like any other code — see the barcode and label guide.

Does it read a label printed by the scales?

In a grocery-type shop, yes, but it has to be set up first. Each item sold by weight gets a scales number (PLU) in the app, and that number is entered into the scales themselves; the scales must print an in-store 13-digit code starting with 22 for weight or 21 for price. After that, scanning the label reads the weight out of the code and fills the quantity into the basket by itself.

If the scanner stops working, does selling stop?

No. You type the code by hand — in the field inside the scanner or in the search line at the till, at least 6 digits. You can also find the product by name. If the camera will not open, the scanner switches to manual entry on its own.

Barcode scanning with your phone camera

Scanner screens — from the app itself

Which codes it reads — and which it does not

What happens once the camera is open

The scanner button

You hold up the code

The basket fills itself

Guard against double reads

For a tiny label on a dark shelf

A code will not read?

Zoom and torch first

Switch the camera

Reset the scanner

If the code is not attached to a product

Do you need a barcode scanner?

Questions about the scanner

Related pages

POS

Barcodes and labels

Shop equipment

Barcode generator

Phone shop

Try it today and see the difference tomorrow.