What is an EAN-8?
An EAN-8 is the eight digit member of the GTIN family - in GS1 terms a GTIN-8. It exists for one reason: some packages are too small for an EAN-13 symbol. Lipsticks, chewing gum, pencils, small tubes and sachets often carry an EAN-8 because its barcode is about 30 percent narrower.
How an EAN-8 is built
- a GS1-8 prefix of the member organisation that issued it,
- an item reference for the product,
- a check digit at the end.
Unlike an EAN-13 there is no company prefix in the middle. With only seven data digits there are far too few numbers for every company to get a block of its own, so GS1 member organisations issue EAN-8 numbers one at a time, on application, and usually only when the packaging really has no room for an EAN-13. Most products therefore get an EAN-13, even small ones.
The check digit
The last digit is the GS1 modulo 10 check digit, the same one EAN-13, UPC and GTIN-14 use: the seven digits are weighted alternately three and one, starting with three at the rightmost one, and the check digit completes the sum to the next multiple of ten.
What the numbers on this page are for
They are test data: structurally valid EAN-8 numbers that were never issued to anyone. Use them to fill a product table in a staging system, to test a scanner, a label printer or an import that has to accept eight digit codes as well as thirteen digit ones, or to show how the check digit works.
They do not identify a product, and a marketplace or retailer will not accept them as one - what is checked there is who the number was issued to, not whether its check digit adds up. GS1 reserves EAN-8 numbers that start with 0 or 2 for use inside a company (restricted circulation, for example in-store labels); a real product sold through retail needs a number from your GS1 member organisation.