How can I scan barcodes on iOS

Question

How can I simply scan barcodes on iPhone and or iPad

User · Answer

If support for the iPad 2 or iPod Touch is important for your application, I'd choose a barcode scanner SDK that can decode barcodes in blurry images, such as our Scandit barcode scanner SDK for iOS and Android. Decoding blurry barcode images is also helpful on phones with autofocus cameras because the user does not have to wait for the autofocus to kick in.

Scandit comes with a free community price plan and also has a product API that makes it easy to convert barcode numbers into product names.

(Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder of Scandit)

User · Answer

HOWTO  Add a barcode reader to an iPhone app  that points to ZBar iPhone SDK  looks helpful  from another thread

User · Answer

If you are developing for iOS  10 2 with Swift 4 then you can try my solution  I mixed up this and this tutorial and came up with a ViewController which scans a QR Code and print   it out  I also have a Switch in my UI to toggle the camera light  might be helpful as well  For now I only tested it on a iPhone SE  please let me know if it doesn t work on newer iPhones   Here you go   import UIKit import AVFoundation  class QRCodeScanner  UIViewController  AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate        let captureSession  AVCaptureSession   AVCaptureSession       var videoPreviewLayer  AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer      let qrCodeFrameView  UIView   UIView       var captureDevice  AVCaptureDevice       override func viewDidLoad                Get the back-facing camera for capturing videos         let deviceDiscoverySession   AVCaptureDevice DiscoverySession deviceTypes    builtInWideAngleCamera   builtInDualCamera   mediaType  AVMediaType video  position   back           captureDevice   deviceDiscoverySession devices first         if captureDevice    nil               print  Failed to get the camera device               return                    do                  Get an instance of the AVCaptureDeviceInput class using the previous device object              let input   try AVCaptureDeviceInput device  captureDevice                   Set the input device on the capture session              captureSession addInput input                  Initialize a AVCaptureMetadataOutput object and set it as the output device to the capture session              let captureMetadataOutput   AVCaptureMetadataOutput               captureSession addOutput captureMetadataOutput                  Set delegate and use the default dispatch queue to execute the call back             captureMetadataOutput setMetadataObjectsDelegate self  queue  DispatchQueue main              captureMetadataOutput metadataObjectTypes    AVMetadataObject ObjectType qr                  Initialize the video preview layer and add it as a sublayer to the viewPreview view s layer               videoPreviewLayer   AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer session  captureSession               if let videoPreviewLayer   videoPreviewLayer                   videoPreviewLayer videoGravity   AVLayerVideoGravity resizeAspectFill                 videoPreviewLayer frame   view layer bounds                 view layer addSublayer videoPreviewLayer                      Start video capture                  captureSession startRunning                    if let hasFlash   captureDevice  hasFlash  let hasTorch   captureDevice  hasTorch                       if hasFlash  amp  amp  hasTorch                           view bringSubview toFront  bottomBar                          try captureDevice  lockForConfiguration                                                                         QR Code Overlay             qrCodeFrameView layer borderColor   UIColor green cgColor             qrCodeFrameView layer borderWidth   2             view addSubview qrCodeFrameView              view bringSubview toFront  qrCodeFrameView             catch                  If any error occurs  simply print it out and don t continue any more              print  Error    error                return                         MARK  Buttons and Switch       IBAction func switchFlashChanged   sender  UISwitch            do               if sender isOn                   captureDevice  torchMode    on               else                   captureDevice  torchMode    off                                       MARK  AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate      func metadataOutput   output  AVCaptureMetadataOutput  didOutput metadataObjects   AVMetadataObject   from connection  AVCaptureConnection                Check if the metadataObjects array is not nil and it contains at least one object          if metadataObjects count    0               qrCodeFrameView frame   CGRect zero             return                       Get the metadata object          let metadataObj   metadataObjects 0  as  AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject          if metadataObj type    AVMetadataObject ObjectType qr                  If the found metadata is equal to the QR code metadata then update the status label s text and set the bounds             let barCodeObject   videoPreviewLayer  transformedMetadataObject for  metadataObj              qrCodeFrameView frame   barCodeObject  bounds              print  QR Code    metadataObj stringValue

User · Answer

with Swift 5 it s Simple and Super fast    You just need to add cocoa pods  BarcodeScanner  here is the full code  source  https   github com CocoaPods Specs git   platform  ios   12 0   target  Simple BarcodeScanner   do    pod  BarcodeScanner   end   Make sure add Camera permission in your  plist file   lt key gt NSCameraUsageDescription lt  key gt   lt string gt Camera usage description lt  string gt    And add Scanner and handle result in your ViewController this way  import UIKit import BarcodeScanner  class ViewController  UIViewController  BarcodeScannerCodeDelegate  BarcodeScannerErrorDelegate  BarcodeScannerDismissalDelegate        override func viewDidLoad             super viewDidLoad            let viewController   BarcodeScannerViewController           viewController codeDelegate   self         viewController errorDelegate   self         viewController dismissalDelegate   self          present viewController  animated  true  completion  nil             func scanner   controller  BarcodeScannerViewController  didCaptureCode code  String  type  String            print  Product s Bar code is     code          controller dismiss animated  true  completion  nil             func scanner   controller  BarcodeScannerViewController  didReceiveError error  Error            print error             func scannerDidDismiss   controller  BarcodeScannerViewController            controller dismiss animated  true  completion  nil            Still and any question or challenges  please check sample application here with full source code

User · Answer

For a native iOS 7 bar code scanner take a look at my project on GitHub         https   github com werner77 WECodeScanner

User · Answer

The simplest way is to use 3rd party framework with minimum UI that can be improved  Check QRCodeScanner83 You can simply use the following code  check the documentation on how to create view controller in your storyboard   import QRCodeScanner83  guard let vc   UIStoryboard name   quot Main quot   bundle  nil  instantiateViewController identifier   quot CodeScannerViewController quot   as  CodeScannerViewController else       return   vc callbackCodeScanned     code in     print  quot SCANNED CODE    code  quot       vc dismiss animated  true  completion  nil    self present vc  animated  true  completion  nil

User · Answer

Here is simple code   func scanbarcode         view backgroundColor   UIColor blackColor       captureSession   AVCaptureSession        let videoCaptureDevice   AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType AVMediaTypeVideo      let videoInput  AVCaptureDeviceInput      do           videoInput   try AVCaptureDeviceInput device  videoCaptureDevice        catch           return            if  captureSession canAddInput videoInput             captureSession addInput videoInput        else           failed            return             let metadataOutput   AVCaptureMetadataOutput        if  captureSession canAddOutput metadataOutput             captureSession addOutput metadataOutput           metadataOutput setMetadataObjectsDelegate self  queue  dispatch get main queue            metadataOutput metadataObjectTypes    AVMetadataObjectTypeEAN8Code  AVMetadataObjectTypeEAN13Code  AVMetadataObjectTypePDF417Code        else           failed           return            previewLayer   AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer session  captureSession       previewLayer frame   view layer bounds      previewLayer videoGravity   AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill      view layer addSublayer previewLayer       view addSubview closeBtn      view addSubview backimg       captureSession startRunning       override func didReceiveMemoryWarning         super didReceiveMemoryWarning          Dispose of any resources that can be recreated     func failed         let ac   UIAlertController title   Scanning not supported   message   Your device does not support scanning a code from an item  Please use a device with a camera    preferredStyle   Alert      ac addAction UIAlertAction title   OK   style   Default  handler  nil       presentViewController ac  animated  true  completion  nil      captureSession   nil    override func viewWillAppear animated  Bool        super viewWillAppear animated       if  captureSession  running    false            captureSession startRunning             override func viewWillDisappear animated  Bool        super viewWillDisappear animated       if  captureSession  running    true            captureSession stopRunning             func captureOutput captureOutput  AVCaptureOutput   didOutputMetadataObjects metadataObjects   AnyObject    fromConnection connection  AVCaptureConnection         captureSession stopRunning        if let metadataObject   metadataObjects first           let readableObject   metadataObject as  AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject           AudioServicesPlaySystemSound SystemSoundID kSystemSoundID Vibrate           foundCode readableObject stringValue                dismissViewControllerAnimated true  completion  nil     func foundCode code  String        var createAccountErrorAlert  UIAlertView   UIAlertView       createAccountErrorAlert delegate   self     createAccountErrorAlert title    Alert      createAccountErrorAlert message   code     createAccountErrorAlert addButtonWithTitle  ok       createAccountErrorAlert addButtonWithTitle  Retry       createAccountErrorAlert show       NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults   setObject code  forKey   barcode       NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults   synchronize       ItemBarcode   code     print code     override func prefersStatusBarHidden   - gt  Bool       return true    override func supportedInterfaceOrientations   - gt  UIInterfaceOrientationMask       return  Portrait

User · Answer

As with the release of iOS7 you no longer need to use an external framework or library  The iOS ecosystem with AVFoundation now fully supports scanning almost every code from QR over EAN to UPC   Just have a look at the Tech Note and the AVFoundation programming guide  AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode is your friend   Here is a nice tutorial which shows it step by step  iPhone QR code scan library iOS7  Just a little example on how to set it up    pragma mark -  pragma mark AVFoundationScanSetup  -  void  setupScanner        self device    AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType AVMediaTypeVideo        self input    AVCaptureDeviceInput deviceInputWithDevice self device error nil        self session     AVCaptureSession alloc  init        self output     AVCaptureMetadataOutput alloc  init        self session addOutput self output        self session addInput self input         self output setMetadataObjectsDelegate self queue dispatch get main queue         self output metadataObjectTypes     AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode        self preview    AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer layerWithSession self session       self preview videoGravity   AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill      self preview frame   CGRectMake 0  0  self view frame size width  self view frame size height        AVCaptureConnection  con   self preview connection       con videoOrientation   AVCaptureVideoOrientationLandscapeLeft        self view layer insertSublayer self preview atIndex 0

User · Answer

You could take a look at Stefan Hafeneger s iPhone DataMatrix Reader Source Code  Google Code project  archived blog post  if it s still available

User · Answer

Sometimes it can be useful also to generate QR codes  There is a superb C library for this which works like a charm  It is called libqrencode  Writing a custom view for displaying the QR code then is not that difficult and can be done with a basic understanding of QuartzCore

User · Answer

Check out ZBar reads QR Code and ECN ISBN codes and is available as under the LGPL v2 license

User · Answer

You can find another native iOS solution using Swift 4 and Xcode 9 at below  Native AVFoundation framework used with in this solution   First part is the a subclass of UIViewController which have related setup and handler functions for AVCaptureSession   import UIKit import AVFoundation  class BarCodeScannerViewController  UIViewController        let captureSession   AVCaptureSession       var videoPreviewLayer  AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer      var initialized   false      let barCodeTypes    AVMetadataObject ObjectType upce                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType code39                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType code39Mod43                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType code93                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType code128                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType ean8                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType ean13                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType aztec                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType pdf417                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType itf14                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType dataMatrix                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType interleaved2of5                          AVMetadataObject ObjectType qr       override func viewDidAppear   animated  Bool            super viewDidAppear animated          setupCapture              set observer for UIApplicationWillEnterForeground  so we know when to start the capture session again         NotificationCenter default addObserver self                                             selector   selector willEnterForeground                                              name   UIApplicationWillEnterForeground                                             object  nil             override func viewWillDisappear   animated  Bool            super viewWillDisappear animated             this view is no longer topmost in the app  so we don t need a callback if we return to the app          NotificationCenter default removeObserver self                                                name   UIApplicationWillEnterForeground                                                object  nil                This is called when we return from another app to the scanner view      objc func willEnterForeground             setupCapture              func setupCapture             var success   false         var accessDenied   false         var accessRequested   false          let authorizationStatus   AVCaptureDevice authorizationStatus for   video          if authorizationStatus     notDetermined                  permission dialog not yet presented  request authorization             accessRequested   true             AVCaptureDevice requestAccess for   video                                        completionHandler     granted Bool  - gt  Void in                                           self setupCapture                               return                   if authorizationStatus     restricted    authorizationStatus     denied               accessDenied   true                   if initialized               success   true           else               let deviceDiscoverySession   AVCaptureDevice DiscoverySession deviceTypes    builtInWideAngleCamera                                                                                           builtInTelephotoCamera                                                                                           builtInDualCamera                                                                             mediaType   video                                                                            position   unspecified               if let captureDevice   deviceDiscoverySession devices first                   do                       let videoInput   try AVCaptureDeviceInput device  captureDevice                      captureSession addInput videoInput                      success   true                   catch                       NSLog  Cannot construct capture device input                                   else                   NSLog  Cannot get capture device                                   if success               DispatchQueue global   async                   self captureSession startRunning                   DispatchQueue main async                       let captureMetadataOutput   AVCaptureMetadataOutput                       self captureSession addOutput captureMetadataOutput                      let newSerialQueue   DispatchQueue label   barCodeScannerQueue      in iOS 11 you can use main queue                     captureMetadataOutput setMetadataObjectsDelegate self  queue  newSerialQueue                      captureMetadataOutput metadataObjectTypes   self barCodeTypes                     self videoPreviewLayer   AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer session  self captureSession                      self videoPreviewLayer videoGravity    resizeAspectFill                     self videoPreviewLayer frame   self view layer bounds                     self view layer addSublayer self videoPreviewLayer                                               initialized   true           else                  Only show a dialog if we have not just asked the user for permission to use the camera   Asking permission                sends its own dialog to th user             if  accessRequested                      Generic message if we cannot figure out why we cannot establish a camera session                 var message    Cannot access camera to scan bar codes                   if  arch i386     arch x86 64    amp  amp    os macOS                       message    You are running on the simulator  which does not hae a camera device   Try this on a real iOS device                    endif                 if accessDenied                       message    You have denied this app permission to access to the camera   Please go to settings and enable camera access permission to be able to scan bar codes                                    let alertPrompt   UIAlertController title   Cannot access camera   message  message  preferredStyle   alert                  let confirmAction   UIAlertAction title   OK   style   default  handler     action  - gt  Void in                     self navigationController  popViewController animated  true                                     alertPrompt addAction confirmAction                  self present alertPrompt  animated  true  completion  nil                                     func handleCapturedOutput metadataObjects   AVMetadataObject             if metadataObjects count    0               return                    guard let metadataObject   metadataObjects first as  AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject else               return                    if barCodeTypes contains metadataObject type                if let metaDataString   metadataObject stringValue                   captureSession stopRunning                   displayResult code  metaDataString                  return                                    func displayResult code  String            let alertPrompt   UIAlertController title   Bar code detected   message  code  preferredStyle   alert          if let url   URL string  code                let confirmAction   UIAlertAction title   Launch URL   style   default  handler     action  - gt  Void in                 UIApplication shared open url  options       completionHandler     result  in                     if result                           NSLog  opened url                         else                           let alertPrompt   UIAlertController title   Cannot open url   message  nil  preferredStyle   alert                          let confirmAction   UIAlertAction title   OK   style   default  handler     action  - gt  Void in                                                    alertPrompt addAction confirmAction                          self present alertPrompt  animated  true  completion                                self setupCapture                                                                                                          alertPrompt addAction confirmAction                    let cancelAction   UIAlertAction title   Cancel   style   cancel  handler     action  - gt  Void in             self setupCapture                      alertPrompt addAction cancelAction          present alertPrompt  animated  true  completion  nil             Second part is the extension of our UIViewController subclass for AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate where we catch the captured outputs   extension BarCodeScannerViewController  AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate        func metadataOutput   output  AVCaptureMetadataOutput  didOutput metadataObjects   AVMetadataObject   from connection  AVCaptureConnection            handleCapturedOutput metadataObjects  metadataObjects             Update for Swift 4 2   UIApplicationWillEnterForegroundchanges as UIApplication willEnterForegroundNotification

User · Answer

The problem with iPhone camera is that the first models  of which there are tons in use  have a fixed-focus camera that cannot take picture in-focus for distances under 2ft  The images are blurry and distorted and if taken from greater distance there is not enough detail information from the barcode   A few companies have developed iPhone apps that can accomodate for that by using advanced de-blurring technologies  Those applications you can find on Apple app store  pic2shop  RedLaser and ShopSavvy  All of the companies have announced that they have also SDKs available - some for free or very preferential terms  check that one out

User · Answer

liteqr is a  Lite QR Reader in Objective C ported from zxing  on github and has support for Xcode 4

User · Answer

There are two major libraries    ZXing a library written in Java and then ported to Objective C   C    QR code only   And an other port to ObjC has been done  by TheLevelUp  ZXingObjC ZBar an open source software for reading bar codes  C based    According to my experiments  ZBar is far more accurate and fast than ZXing  at least on iPhone

User · Answer

I believe this can be done using AVFramework  here is the sample code to do this  import UIKit import AVFoundation  class ViewController  UIViewController  AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate         IBOutlet weak var lblQRCodeResult  UILabel       IBOutlet weak var lblQRCodeLabel  UILabel       var objCaptureSession AVCaptureSession      var objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer      var vwQRCode UIView       override func viewDidLoad             super viewDidLoad           self configureVideoCapture           self addVideoPreviewLayer           self initializeQRView              func configureVideoCapture             let objCaptureDevice   AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType AVMediaTypeVideo          var error NSError          let objCaptureDeviceInput  AnyObject          do               objCaptureDeviceInput   try AVCaptureDeviceInput device  objCaptureDevice  as AVCaptureDeviceInput            catch let error1 as NSError               error   error1             objCaptureDeviceInput   nil                   objCaptureSession   AVCaptureSession           objCaptureSession  addInput objCaptureDeviceInput as  AVCaptureInput          let objCaptureMetadataOutput   AVCaptureMetadataOutput           objCaptureSession  addOutput objCaptureMetadataOutput          objCaptureMetadataOutput setMetadataObjectsDelegate self  queue  dispatch get main queue            objCaptureMetadataOutput metadataObjectTypes    AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode             func addVideoPreviewLayer             objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer   AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer session  objCaptureSession          objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer  videoGravity   AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill         objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer  frame   view layer bounds         self view layer addSublayer objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer           objCaptureSession  startRunning           self view bringSubviewToFront lblQRCodeResult          self view bringSubviewToFront lblQRCodeLabel             func initializeQRView             vwQRCode   UIView           vwQRCode  layer borderColor   UIColor redColor   CGColor         vwQRCode  layer borderWidth   5         self view addSubview vwQRCode           self view bringSubviewToFront vwQRCode              func captureOutput captureOutput  AVCaptureOutput   didOutputMetadataObjects metadataObjects   AnyObject    fromConnection connection  AVCaptureConnection             if metadataObjects    nil    metadataObjects count    0               vwQRCode  frame   CGRectZero             lblQRCodeResult text    QR Code wans t found              return                   let objMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject   metadataObjects 0  as  AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject         if objMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject type    AVMetadataObjectTypeQRCode               let objBarCode   objCaptureVideoPreviewLayer  transformedMetadataObjectForMetadataObject objMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject as AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject  as  AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject             vwQRCode  frame   objBarCode bounds              if objMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject stringValue    nil                   lblQRCodeResult text   objMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject stringValue

User · Answer

We produced the  Barcodes  application for the iPhone  It can decode QR Codes  The source code is available from the zxing project  specifically  you want to take a look at the iPhone client and the partial C   port of the core library  The port is a little old  from circa the 0 9 release of the Java code  but should still work reasonably well   If you need to scan other formats  like 1D formats  you could continue the port of the Java code within this project to C     EDIT  Barcodes and the iphone code in the project were retired around the start of 2014

User · Answer

you can check  ZBarSDK  to reads QR Code and ECN ISBN codes it s simple to integrate try the following code   -  void scanBarcodeWithZBarScanner        ADD  present a barcode reader that scans from the camera feed ZBarReaderViewController  reader    ZBarReaderViewController new   reader readerDelegate   self  reader supportedOrientationsMask   ZBarOrientationMaskAll   ZBarImageScanner  scanner   reader scanner     TODO   optional  additional reader configuration here     EXAMPLE  disable rarely used I2 5 to improve performance   scanner setSymbology  ZBAR I25                config  ZBAR CFG ENABLE                    to  0      Get the return value from controller  reader setReturnBlock   BOOL value         and in didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo we get bar code value       -  void  imagePickerController   UIImagePickerController   reader    didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo   NSDictionary   info             ADD  get the decode results     id lt NSFastEnumeration gt  results        info objectForKey  ZBarReaderControllerResults       ZBarSymbol  symbol   nil      for symbol in results         EXAMPLE  just grab the first barcode     break          EXAMPLE  do something useful with the barcode data     barcodeValue   symbol data          EXAMPLE  do something useful with the barcode image     barcodeImage      info objectForKey UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage         barcodeIV setImage barcodeImage          set the values for to TextFields      self setBarcodeValue YES           ADD  dismiss the controller  NB dismiss from the  reader         reader dismissViewControllerAnimated YES completion nil

User · Answer

The iPhone 4 camera is more than capabale of doing barcodes  The zebra crossing barcode library has a fork on github zxing-iphone  It s open-source

User · Answer

Not sure if this will help but here is a link to an open source QR Code library  As you can see a couple of people have already used this to create apps for the iphone   Wikipedia has an article explaining what QR Codes are  In my opinion QR Codes are much more fit for purpose than the standard barcode where the iphone is concerned as it was designed for this type of implementation

[ios] How can I scan barcodes on iOS?

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