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User Guide for Python

In this guide, you will learn step by step on how to build a barcode reading application with Dynamsoft Barcode Reader (DBR) SDK using Python.

System Requirements

  • Operating Systems:
    • Windows x64
    • Linux (x64, ARM32, ARM64)
    • macOS1 (10.15+)
  • Python Versions:
    • Python 3.9
    • Python 3.8
    • Python 3.7
    • Python 3.6
    • Python 3.5 (for versions below DBR 7.5)
    • Python 2.7 (for versions below DBR 7.2.2.3)

1 DBR Python is not compatible with the M1 (ARM64) Mac devices.

Installation

Start terminal or command prompt to run the following command:

pip install dbr

Build Your First Application

Let’s start by creating a console application which demonstrates how to use the minimum code to read barcodes from an image file.

You can download the entire source code here.

Create a New Project

Create a new source file named DBRPythonSample.py.

Include the Library

Import dbr package in the source file.

   from dbr import *

Initialize a Barcode Reader Instance

  1. Create an instance of Dynamsoft Barcode Reader.

    reader = BarcodeReader()
    
  2. Initialize the license key.

    reader.init_license("<insert DBR license key here>")
    

    Please replace <insert DBR license key here> with a valid DBR license key. You can request a free trial from Customer Portal.

Configure the Barcode Scanning Behavior

DBR provides multiple APIs for you to customize the barcode scanning behavior. Here we set the barcode format and barcode count to read.

   settings = reader.get_runtime_settings()
   settings.barcode_format_ids = EnumBarcodeFormat.BF_ALL
   settings.barcode_format_ids_2 = EnumBarcodeFormat_2.BF2_POSTALCODE | EnumBarcodeFormat_2.BF2_DOTCODE
   settings.excepted_barcodes_count = 32
   reader.update_runtime_settings(settings)

For better performance, we recommend that you only enable the barcode formats your application requires. Check out Barcode Format Enumeration for fully supported barcode formats.

If you know exactly the count of barcodes you want to read, specify excepted_barcodes_count to speed up the process and improve the accuracy.

Decode and Output Results

  1. Decode barcodes from an image file.
  2. Get and output barcode results.

    try:
       image = r"[INSTALLATION FOLDER]/Images/AllSupportedBarcodeTypes.png"
       text_results = reader.decode_file(image)
       if text_results != None:
          for text_result in text_results:
             print("Barcode Format : " + text_result.barcode_format_string)
             if len(text_result.barcode_format_string) == 0:
                print("Barcode Format : " + text_result.barcode_format_string_2)
             else:
                print("Barcode Format : " + text_result.barcode_format_string)
             print("Barcode Text : " + text_result.barcode_text)
    except BarcodeReaderError as bre:
       print(bre)
    

    For the error handling mechanism, the SDK throws BarcodeReaderError for each function. You can add code for exception handling based on your needs.

    The SDK returns multiple barcode information items, including barcode count, barcode format, barcode text, location, barcode raw data, etc. Check out TextResult for fully supported result data.

Release Resource

Destroy the instance to release all resources.

del reader

Build and Run the Project

  1. Start terminal or command prompt and change to the target directory where DBRPythonSample.py located in.
  2. Run the sample
python DBRPythonSample.py

You can download the entire source code of this simple sample here.

Find more Dynamsoft Barcode Reader Python samples in the Github repository.

This page is compatible for:

Version 7.5.0

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