IBE Barcode Studio: from commercial Windows app to a free, open-source barcode toolkit — and how to use it
Between 2004 and 2020, IBE Barcode Studio was a commercial Windows program: a Standard Edition at US$19.99, a Professional Edition at US$39.99, PayPal checkout, a registration code in your inbox. In 2026 the name came back as something better: two free, open-source (MIT) applications with no registration code, no trial and nothing to buy. This article shows what changed and walks through the full round trip — generate a label sheet, print it, and scan it back with a phone.
The two halves
| IBE Barcode Generator | IBE Barcode Scanner | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Designs and prints barcode labels, exports PDF label sheets | Reads printed labels, QR codes and NFC tags with a phone |
| Runs on | Windows, Linux, macOS (desktop app) and any browser (web app) | iOS and Android |
| Formats | All 16 formats of the legacy Professional list, plus QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF417, Aztec | Everything the Generator prints that phone hardware can read — including MSI Plessey and USPS Postnet, which no scanning SDK supports and which the app decodes itself |
| Source | GitHub: IBEBarcodeGenerator | GitHub: IBEBarcodeScanner |
Both are built with C# and .NET; every barcode encoder is written in-project, with no third-party barcode library. Downloads (installers, portable archives, Android APKs) are on each repository's Releases page, and there is a download guide on the product site, ibebarcode.com, which also carries the original site's logo, favicon and color scheme.
Step 1: generate a label sheet
The fastest path is the web app — nothing to install, everything runs client-side in your browser:
https://ambitious-sky-08399211e.5.azurestaticapps.net/Type a value (say 1234567890), pick Code 128, and the preview renders as
you type. For a real label sheet, choose a paper template from the catalog — Avery 5160,
5161, 5163 and friends — set the number of labels, and export a print-ready PDF. The
desktop app does the same with a native save dialog:
git clone https://github.com/bobhuang1/IBEBarcodeGenerator.git
cd IBEBarcodeGenerator
dotnet run --project src/IBEBarcode.DesktopStep 2: print it
Print the PDF on ordinary office paper for testing, or on actual label stock — the template handles the layout. Two practical notes from testing: a laser printer gives the sharpest bars, and keep the labels at least a label-width apart so the scanner sees one code at a time.
Step 3: scan it back
Install IBE Barcode Scanner on your phone — grab the APK for your
architecture from the
v1.0.0.0 release (arm64-v8a for most phones since ~2016,
armeabi-v7a for older 32-bit devices, or the larger universal APK if unsure),
or build from source:
git clone https://github.com/bobhuang1/IBEBarcodeScanner.git
cd IBEBarcodeScanner
dotnet build src/IBEBarcode.Scanner -t:Run -f net10.0-androidThe app is deliberately simple: the camera preview stays live for aiming, and one big Scan button takes a single frame and reads it. There is no mode to pick — the frame goes to the platform engine (ML Kit on Android, Apple Vision on iOS) and to the app's own decoders for MSI Plessey and USPS Postnet. Hold the label flat, fill maybe a third of the frame, tap Scan, and the value appears on a result card with Search Google, Copy and Share actions. If the payload contains a link, it gets its own tappable link row. Nothing leaves the phone: no account, no analytics, no database.
What made the revival interesting
Two engineering details are worth calling out. First, the scanner reads MSI Plessey and USPS Postnet — formats no mobile scanning SDK supports — with scanline and bar-height decoders written for this project, following the exact bit encodings the Generator prints. Second, the whole pipeline is reproducible from source: CI builds every artifact from these public repositories, so the toolkit cannot rot the way the 2010 binaries did.