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These are the retail barcodes. EAN-13 and EAN-8 are the forms used in most of the world. UPC-A and UPC-E are the North American forms. The small add-ons sit beside a main barcode. The camera app returns the digits. It does not look up a product.

• EAN-2 / UPC 2-digit add-on

  The two-digit add-on is a small extra barcode printed to the right of an EAN-13 or UPC-A. Publishers use it to show the issue number, so the same product code can be reused for every edition of a magazine.

• EAN-5 / UPC 5-digit add-on

  The five-digit add-on is the short barcode you often see beside the ISBN on a book cover. In many markets it carries a suggested price, and on periodicals it can carry extra issue information.

• EAN-8

  EAN-8 is the shortened sister of EAN-13, made for packs that are too small for a full-size retail barcode. It holds a GTIN-8: seven digits plus a calculated check digit.

• EAN-13

  EAN-13 is the barcode on almost every consumer product outside North America. Its 13 digits form a GTIN made of a GS1 prefix, a company number, an item reference and a final check digit.

• Variable-measure (in-store) EAN-13 / UPC-A

  When a deli label starts with 2, the barcode usually is not a global product number. Retailers use the 20-29 range to embed an item code plus a weight or price, so the till can charge the exact amount.

• UPC-A

  UPC-A is the classic 12-digit barcode on North American products. It was the first retail barcode in widespread use and is fully compatible with EAN-13 scanners, which read it as a 13-digit number with a leading zero.

• UPC-E

  UPC-E is a space-saving version of UPC-A for small items. It drops runs of zeros from the 12-digit number so the code can be printed with only six encoded digits, and a scanner expands it back to the full UPC-A.