what is a upc symbol
The UPC symbol has become known to most consumers as the barcode. This coded image is made up of a series of stripes located above a numeric code consisting of 12 digits. These stripes form numbers by using differing line widths grouped together. Each of the 12 numbers is represented by one block of 7 segments.
As well as the standard UPC-A, there is another UPC symbol in common use - the UPC-E or zero-suppressed symbol. The UPC-E is used on packages which would otherwise be too small for a bar code symbol. It actually represents a full UPC code and the full code can be re-constructed from the shortened form.