RSS - Reduced Space Symbology

The International Symbology Specification was developed by AIM, Inc., the worldwide trade association for manufacturers and providers of automatic identification and data collection (AIDC), products, services and supplies.

The EAN-UCC Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) family contains three linear symbologies to be used with the EAN-UCC system. The use of the symbology is restrict and subject to compliance with the EAN International (EAN) and Uniform Code Council (UCC) rules and registration procedures. They are 4 types of RSS, as follow:

RSS-14: encodes the full 14-digit EAN-UCC item identification in a linear symbol, to be scanned by point-of-sale scanners. Encodable character set: 0 through 9, with error detection mod. 79 checksum.

RSS Limited: encodes a 14-digit EAN-UCC item identification with Indicator digits of Zero or One in a linear symbol for use on small items that will not be scanned at the point-of-sale.Encodable character set: 0 through 9, with error detection mod. 89 checksum.

RSS Expanded: encodes EAN-UCC item identification plus supplementary AI element strings such as weight and "best before" date in a linear symbol to be scanned by point-of-sale scanners. Encodable character set: a subset of ISO 646, consisting of the upper and lowercase letters, digits, and 20 selected punctuation characters in addition to the special UCC/EAN function character, FNC1. The maximum number of characters is 74 for numeric or 41 for alphabetic. Uses the error detection mod. 211 checksum.

RSS-14 Stacked: is a variation of the RSS-14 symbology that is truncated and stacked in two rows and is used when the normal symbol would be too wide for the application. RSS Expanded can also be printed in multiple rows as a stacked symbol.

EAN-UCC RSS bar code symbols are exclusively reserved for encoding identification numbers and data supplementary to the identification. The administration of the numbering system by EAN and UCC ensures that identification codes assigned to particular items are unique worldwide and that they and the associated supplementary data are defined identification codes and supplementary data formats for use in their trading transactions.