POSTNET^TM Delivery Point Barcodes

What is a POSTNET Barcode?

The POSTNET barcode is used by the USPS to help automate the otherwise tedious and manual process of sorting mail. The barcode itself is composed of several ZIP Code-specific fields. Rather than printing digits, the barcode is printed as a series of vertical lines that can be easily read by special, optical scanners at mail processing facilities.

Creating a Barcode

Processing a list with our CASS-Certified Scrubbing service automatically generates a POSTNET barcode for each address. It's appended in the "QA_Barcode" field and can be printed using a special font (below).

To create the barcode for your mailing, you will want to combine the following fields: ZIP+4 Code (QA_FullZip), two-digit delivery point code (QA_DPBC), and the delivery point check digit (QA_CheckDigit). The entire sequence is then "wrapped" with control digits called frames--which use the slash "/" character. All spaces and punctuation is also removed.

Example: For ZIP Code 12345-6789, delivery point code 12, and check digit 3, the barcode would be as follows: /123456789123/

Printing Barcodes

To print a barcode, you need a special font or typeface that renders digits as a special sequence of vertical lines. As a courtesy to visitors and customers, you may download the POSTNET font for FREE.

Once downloaded to your computer, you will need to install it. On Windows-based computers, this is typically done by right-clicking on the downloaded file and clicking the install option.

What About Intelligent Mail Barcodes?

This is a newer barcoding standard that is intended to replace the POSTNET barcodes by the year 2011.

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