Method and Apparatus for Generating a Barcode with a Human Readable Interpretation, a Printing Apparatus, and a Program

An apparatus for generating a barcode with a human readable interpretation, the apparatus comprising:

• an input unit configured to receive characters as an input data set that comprises a series of unique data sets each comprising a unique application identifier and a unique data portion, each data set including a first special character immediately before its application identifier, and a second special character immediately after its application identifier, wherein, for each individual character in the input data set, there is a corresponding symbol in the human readable interpretation;
• a first generating unit configured to generate a barcode encoding data set for encoding the barcode based on the input data set;
• a second generating unit configured to generate a data set for the human readable interpretation based on the input data set;
• and
• a merging unit configured to combine the barcode encoding data set and the data set for the human readable interpretation.

A method of generating a barcode with a human readable interpretation, comprising the steps of:

• receiving characters as an input data set that comprises a series of unique data sets each comprising a unique application identifier, wherein, for each adjacent pair of data sets, a special character is inserted between the two data sets of the pair;
• generating a barcode encoding data set for encoding the barcode based on the input data set, including interpreting the special character as a separator between data sets;
• generating a data set for the human readable interpretation based on the input data set, including converting the special character to a “_” (space);
• and
• generating the barcode with the human readable interpretation, including combining the barcode encoding data set and the data set for the human readable interpretation.