Completely useless application: Display the EAN code from a number and compute the last digit (checksum)

EAN-13, based upon the UPC-A standard, was implemented by the International Article Numbering Association (EAN) in Europe. This standard was implemented mostly because the UPC-A standard was not well designed for international use, but probably partly because no-one likes the U.S. to be in charge of anything-especially the Europeans. :)

EAN-13 is a superset of UPC-A. This means that any software or hardware capable of reading an EAN-13 symbol will automatically be able to read an UPC-A symbol. The only difference between EAN-13 and UPC-A is that the number system code in UPC-A is a single digit from 0 through 9 whereas an EAN-13 number system code consists of two digits ranging from 00 through 99, which is essentially a country code. Each country has a numbering authority which assigns manufacturer codes to companies within its jurisdiction. The manufacturer code is still five digits long, as is the product code, and the check digit is calculated in exactly the same way.

NOTE: Since EAN-13 is a superset of UPC-A and requires very little additional effort to handle than an UPC-A code, it is recommended that all new designs implement EAN-13 rather than UPC-A. As already mentioned, this guarantees compatibility with UPC-A but also will make your software/hardware appealing to the international community. Otherwise your design will be restricted to the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, the UCC Council has announced that as of January 1, 2005, all barcode systems in the U.S. and Canada must be able to handle EAN-13 barcodes so that international manufacturers do not have to worry about printing a different barcode for their products destined for North America.

More information about ean on BARCODE Island.