ISSN Magazine Barcodes
Barcode images created from your ISSN number
Purchase ISSN Barcode Images for Magazines
You can buy barcode images for your publication (magazine, journal, newspaper or other periodicals) from here if you already have an ISSN number. You can get an ISSN number from the National Library of Australia.
Apply for an ISSN number and then come back to this page to get your magazine barcode images for it.
The barcode images we supply are standard GS1 format barcodes that are used internationally.
ISSN numbers can either be supplied as a 13-digit number that stays the same for each issue of your magazine, or a 13-digit number with a 2-digit supplement that increases for each edition (e.g. 01-12 for a monthly publication). If you want a set of 2-digit suffixes, let us know in the additional information section when you order or send us an email.
Read more about ISSN barcodes or see below for some FAQs
| Quantity | Price Per Image |
| 1 | $ 30 |
| 2 | $ 25 |
| 3 | $ 20 |
| 4+ | $ 15 |
| 10+ | $ 8 |
| 20+ | $ 5 |
| 50+ | $ 2.50 |
An optional step that some publications do is to add a 2 or 5-digit supplement barcode after the main barcode to allow tracking of each issue. This can then vary with the issue, e.g., it could be 01-12 for 12 monthly issues, or 01-52 for weekly issues, or 01-04 for quarterly issues. These barcodes can be reused each year – they only need to be changed when the price changes. If you are interested in this, let us know and we can create as many supplemental images as you need (note that we charge for these images as per our ISSN pricing structure).
An 8-digit ISSN number is converted into a 13-digit EAN13 barcode in a three step process (note that our system does this automatically, you don’t need to calculate this yourself):
1: The last digit of the ISSN is removed, so ISSN 0123-4560 would become 0123456.
2: 977 is put in front of the 7 remaining digits. All ISSNs start with 977. Our number is now 9770123456.
3: Two more digits are added, which are called the ‘sequence variant’. 00 is the default amount here, and this number is changed every time you want to change the price, as differently priced items need different barcodes. This allows old issues to sell for the previous price, while new editions will be easy to update to the new price. EG 977012345600 would become 977012345601 the first time the price is changed. You will need to order a new barcode image from us if you want to do this, or if you anticipate a future price change you can order it premptively.
4: A check digit is calculated from the barcode number via some mathematical operations. In the case of 977012345600, the check digit is 8. Therefore the total 13 digit barcode number is 9770123456008. If any of the preceding numbers are changed, the checkdigit will change too.
