The PDF417 is a high-density 2D barcode created by Symbol Technology and now an ANSI/AIM USA standard, it is read with laser scanner and CCD cameras. This barcode is composed of a stack of rows with small black rectangles arranged in columns. The number of rows and columns can be user defined or set automatically to fit a ratio (2:3 is the most common ratio). PDF417 features built-in error correction capability, automatic data compression and full ASCII and binary character sets. It can encode up to 1848 characters of information per barcode, based on the compression level achieved.
PDF 417 supports two encoding modes: ASCII (Letters, punctuation and digits) and Binary (any binary value between 0 and 244) modes.
ASCII mode has a better data density than the binary mode (maximum 106 versus 177 bytes per cm²) and can encode much more data than the binary mode (maximum 1848 bytes versus 1108 bytes).
Also, note that PDF417 has extensive error correction capabilities.
BarDIMM automatically selects the best encoding (binary or ASCII) for the supplied data.
Number of rows (min/max): 3/90
Number of columns (min/max): 1/30
Note: number of rows x number of columns must be less than 929.
Data too long to be encoded in a PDF symbol can be encoded into a series of linked PDF417 symbols. This is called Macro PDF417
There are many options for the PDF417 symbol, activated using parameters of the font-like PCL sequence.
Read carefully the parameters descriptions in the BARDIMM LANGUAGE SYNTAX