Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, we ask you to rewrite a sentence in simple English without changing its general meaning. Essentially, you want to make the sentence easier to read by using simpler words, utilizing more straightforward sentence structures, and omitting non-essential information etc.

The International Article Number ( also known as European Article Number or EAN ) is a standard describing a barcode symbology and numbering system used in global trade to identify a specific retail product type , in a specific packaging configuration , from a specific manufacturer .
The European Article Number ( often shortened to " EAN " ) is a standard to do it barcodes .