ZXing-C++

ZXing-C++ ("zebra crossing") is an open-source, multi-format linear/matrix barcode image processing library implemented in C++.

It was originally ported from the Java ZXing Library but has been developed further and now includes many improvements in terms of runtime and detection performance. It can both read and write barcodes in a number of formats. Since version 3.0 the default writing backend is provided by the zint library.

Sponsors

You can sponsor this library at GitHub Sponsors.

Named Sponsors:

• KURZ Digital Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
• Useful Sensors Inc
• synedra

Thanks a lot for your contribution!

Features

• Written in pure C++20 (public API is C++17 compatible), no third-party dependencies (for the library itself)
• Thread safe
• Wrappers/Bindings for:
  • Android
  • C
  • iOS
  • Kotlin/Native
  • .NET
  • Python
  • Rust
  • WebAssembly
  • WinRT
  • Flutter (external project)

Supported Formats

Linear product	Linear industrial	Matrix
UPC-A	Code 39	QR Code
UPC-E	Code 93	Micro QR Code
EAN-8	Code 128	rMQR Code
EAN-13	Codabar	Aztec
DataBar	DataBar Expanded	DataMatrix
DataBar Limited	DX Film Edge	PDF417
	ITF	MaxiCode (partial)

[Note:]

• DataBar used to be called RSS.
• DataBar, DX Film Edge, MaxiCode, Micro QR Code and rMQR Code are not supported for writing (unless the library is configured ZXING_WRITERS=NEW).

Getting Started

To read barcodes:

1. Load your image into memory (3rd-party library required).
2. Call ReadBarcodes() from ReadBarcode.h, the simplest API to get a list of Barcode objects.

A very simple example looks like this:

#include "ZXing/ZXingCpp.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    int width, height;
    unsigned char* data;
    // load your image data from somewhere. ImageFormat::Lum assumes grey scale image data.

    auto image = ZXing::ImageView(data, width, height, ZXing::ImageFormat::Lum);
    auto options = ZXing::ReaderOptions().formats(ZXing::BarcodeFormat::Any);
    auto barcodes = ZXing::ReadBarcodes(image, options);

    for (const auto& b : barcodes)
        std::cout << ZXing::ToString(b.format()) << ": " << b.text() << "\n";

    return 0;
}

To see the full capability of the API, have a look at ZXingReader.cpp.

[Note: At least C++17 is required on the client side to use the API.]

To write barcodes:

1. Create a Barcode object with CreateBarcode() from CreateBarcode.h.
2. The Barcode::symbol() can be used to get access to the bit matrix (1 module == 1 pixel, no quiet zone)
3. Alternatively the 3 WriteBarcodeTo...() functions from WriteBarcode.h can be used to create an Image, a SVG string or a UTF-8 string representation.

A very simple example looks like this:

#include "ZXing/ZXingCpp.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    auto barcode = ZXing::CreateBarcodeFromText("some text", ZXing::BarcodeFormat::QRCode);
    auto svg = ZXing::WriteBarcodeToSVG(barcode);

    // see also ZXing::WriteBarcodeToImage()

    std::cout << svg << "\n";

    return 0;
}

As an example for how to parameterize the process with CreatorOptions and WriterOptions, have a look at ZXingWriter.cpp.

Web Demos

• Read barcodes
• Write barcodes
• Read barcodes from camera

[Note: those live demos are not necessarily fully up-to-date at all times.]

Build Instructions

These are the generic instructions to build the library on Windows/macOS/Linux. For details on how to build the individual wrappers, follow the links above.

1. Make sure CMake version 3.16 or newer is installed. The python module requires 3.18 or higher.
2. Make sure a sufficiently C++20 compliant compiler is installed (minimum VS 2019 16.10? / gcc 11 / clang 12?).
3. See the cmake ZXING_... options to enable the testing code, python wrapper, etc.

git clone https://github.com/zxing-cpp/zxing-cpp.git --recursive --single-branch --depth 1
cmake -S zxing-cpp -B zxing-cpp.release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build zxing-cpp.release -j8 --config Release

[Note: binary packages are available for/as vcpkg, conan, mingw and a bunch of linux distributions.]