Bar Code Font?

[Mike Lassiter]

Reading and repling from phone and only saw 1 barcode image; but if I am following you right you are engraving on black anodized aluminum.
The barcode needs to have black bars but the laser is burning then into the aluminum which is reverse of what you need. As already noted, you will have to invert in CD to laser away the black around the barcode bars to leave them black and remove the area surrounding them. That should give you black bars with lighter surrounding area for code reader to work.

[Mike Null]

I believe an earlier response will work. Make a white box, convert the bar code to curves and invert it. Position it on the white box.

[Peter Meacham]

Thanks all for your inputs. I will try the old bar code in the white box trick. I have ordered a bar code scanner as well

Well, the problem is that a bar code in Corel is very protected.

You can't edit or convert to curves for example. You can convert to a bitmap (which is pixelated and not suitable for scanning) and then put into a white box. But the thin lines are way too thin and are pixelated and the thick lines don't look healthy either!! Does not scan with my iPhone (Scan Life app).

[Tony Lenkic]

Do you have to use black anodized sheet?
If not, white LaserIt sheet will render black image for scanning. I have used silver that engraves black LaserIt sheet and it scanned perfectly every time.

[Mike Null]

Pete

I converted it to curves before I posted my response.

[Peter Meacham]

Mike

Thanks for your help. The convert to curves function on My X5 is grayed out when I select the bar code. And the keyboard shortcut does not work either.

Pete

[Mike Null]

Pete
You are correct. I had done it the wrong way. However following the steps in the bar code creator then save as pdf, open pdf as curves and following the other steps will get you there.

[Robert Silvers]

There are a gazillion free barcode generators online.

Search for: bar code creator

[Zlatko Kursar]

Here is my QR code on black anodized aluminium.
inventarske_plocice.jpg

[Dewey Schramm]

You are getting lots of good advice in this thread (I never would have known that was Bar Code 39!), but it sounds like at this point that you are "fighting the tool". Yes, corel has it built in, but if the limitations or protections around it are making use of it difficult, then perhaps finding an alternative is useful. This site (barcodesinc dot com/free-barcode-font/) offers a free TTF (windows compatible) Bar Code 39 font. I personally would download it (or something similar), type the number of the bar code you need, set the color to what you need, create a box around it the color you need and try that. You'll need to experiment with sizing to get what corel produced "natively", but you would then have something that worked in your 'normal' work flow.

Just my two cents...

Edit to add: I acknowledge that a font is what you asked for initially. I guess I am saying, going back to your original thinking now that you have more knowledge might be the path of least resistance. Often on these 'quests to make something work' I learn a lot, and then in hindsight realize that the smoothest method was a simplified version of where I ended up.