ISBN Barcode Generator

What is ISBN Barcode Generator?

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifies one edition of a book. Since 2007 it has 13 digits, starting with 978 or 979, followed by a registration group (country or language area), a registrant (publisher), a publication number and a check digit. Older ISBN-10 numbers use 10 characters, the last of which may be an X standing for 10.

The barcode on a book is simply the ISBN-13 drawn as an EAN-13 symbol. This is often called a Bookland barcode because the 978 and 979 prefixes were reserved for books. That is why the tool outputs a standard EAN-13 that every retail scanner reads.

The tool checks and draws an ISBN; it does not issue one. ISBNs are assigned by your national ISBN agency, and each format of a book (paperback, hardback, e-book) needs its own number. The ISBN-13 barcode drawn here has no separate price add-on.

When should you use it?

• You are self-publishing and your ISBN must become a barcode for the back cover.
• You hold an old ISBN-10 and need its ISBN-13 for a retailer or distributor.
• You want to check that an ISBN is correctly typed before sending files to print.
• A print-on-demand or bookshop upload asks for a barcode image in SVG or PNG.
• You are cataloguing a library and want to verify a number quickly.

Converting ISBN-10 to ISBN-13

To convert, drop the last character of the ISBN-10 (its check digit), put 978 in front of the remaining nine digits, then recalculate the check digit with the EAN-13 rule. The other digits never change, only the prefix and the final digit.

Worked example with 0-306-40615-2. Remove the final 2, leaving 030640615, and add 978 to get 978030640615. Weight the twelve digits 1, 3, 1, 3…: the odd positions are 9, 8, 3, 6, 0, 1 and add up to 27; the even positions are 7, 0, 0, 4, 6, 5 and add up to 22. Then 27 + 3 × 22 = 93, and the check digit is (10 − 93 mod 10) mod 10 = 7. The result is 978-0-306-40615-7, or 9780306406157.

ISBN-10 uses a different checksum (weights 10 down to 1, modulo 11), which is why the check digit changes. Numbers beginning with 979 have no ISBN-10 equivalent and can only exist as ISBN-13.

Privacy

This tool runs in your browser. What you type, paste or open is processed on your device by JavaScript and is not sent to our servers, stored or shared. Your data stays on your device.

The ISBN is validated and drawn locally with JavaScript. It is neither uploaded nor stored, and the barcode contains only the 13 digits.