Zint: Manual

Table of Contents

1: Introduction 2: Installation 3: Using GUI 4: Using CLI 5: Using API 6: Symbologies
6.1: One-Dimensional symbols 6.2: Stacked symbologies 6.3: Composite symbols (ISO 24723) 6.4: Two-Track symbols 6.5: 4-State Postal Codes 6.6: Two-Dimensional symbols 6.7: Other Barcode-Like Markings
7: Legal & Version Info A: Character Encoding B: Footnotes

2. Installing Zint

2.1 Linux

The easiest way to configure compilation is to take advantage of the CMake utilities. You will need to install CMake and libpng-dev first. For instance on apt systems: 

sudo apt install git cmake build-essential libpng-dev

If you want to take advantage of Zint Barcode Studio you will also need to have Qt and its component "Desktop gcc 64-bit" installed, as well as mesa. For details see "README.linux" in the project root directory.

Once you have fulfilled these requirements unzip the source code tarball or clone the latest source 

git clone https://git.code.sf.net/p/zint/code zint

and follow these steps in the top directory: 

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

The CLI command line program can be accessed by typing 

zint [options]

The GUI can be accessed by typing 

zint-qt

To test that the installation has been successful a shell script is included in the "frontend" sub-directory. To run the test type 

./test.sh

This should create numerous files in the sub-directory "frontend/test_sh_out" showing the many modes of operation which are available from Zint.

2.2 Microsoft Windows

For Microsoft Windows, Zint is distributed as a binary executable. Simply download the ZIP file, then right-click on the ZIP file and "Extract All". A new folder will be created within which are two binary files:

  • qtZint.exe - Zint Barcode Studio
  • zint.exe - Command Line Interface

For fresh releases you will get a warning message from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen that this is an ‘unrecognised app’. This happens because Zint is a free and open-source software project with no advertising and hence no income, meaning we are not able to afford the $664 per year to have the application digitally signed by Microsoft.

To build Zint on Windows from source, see "win32/README".

2.3 Apple macOS

The latest Zint CLI and libzint can be installed using Homebrew.1 To install Homebrew input the following line into the macOS terminal 

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Once Homebrew is installed use the following command to install the Zint. 

brew install zint

To build from source see "README.macos" in the project root directory.

2.4 Zint Tcl Backend

The Tcl backend in the "backend_tcl" sub-directory may be built using the provided TEA (Tcl Extension Architecture) build on Linux, Windows, macOS and Android. For Windows, an MSVC6 makefile is also available.