Fonts

  Label Programs

  Reading Programs

  Plug-ins, VBX, etc.

  Printer Drivers

  UNIX Programs

  MAC Programs

  DOS Programs

  OCR Programs

  Web Page Apps.

  Applications

  Everything Else

Software Wedges

Software wedges allow input from a serial port to act like the input was being typed. There is a very good tutorial about wedges here.

• SimKey is A serial wedge program that allows you to input serial data directly into OS/2, DOS, or Windows application without any programming. Ideal for interfacing with Bar Code readers, Portable Terminals, Magnetic Card readers, Electronic Scales, and Laboratory instruments. Provides predefined filters: Convert to Lower-case, Convert to Upper-case, Numeric Only, Alpha-Numeric Only. Windows and OS/2 programs allow you to log received data to a file in the background. DOS program supports up to 10 User-Defined COM ports in addition to support for COM1 - COM4. Includes separate programs for OS/2, DOS, and Windows in one package. More information about this product is available at the ID Innovations Incorporated. web page.
• Keyport is a software wedge that converts the data from any RS-232 device (such as a bar code scanner or scale) into keystrokes on your PC. Keyport can automatically detect the application running and process different "transactions" for each one. Keyport can also prompt the user with audio prompts and error messages. Keyport can be downloaded, tested, and purchased on-line. Keyport has been installed in 1000's of sites worldwide. More information about this product is available at the Data Technologies, Inc. web page
• Tconnector by tec-it makes data acquisition easy! Insert TConnector into your application or into VB, VC++, Excel, Access, WinWord, Delphi... and you are able to connect to a barcode reader (or any device) within minutes. Supported modes: synchronous (read/write), event-triggered communication (OnData event) and keystroke simulation of incoming data (wedge mode). The built-in TCP/IP support simplifies intranet-based applications considerably. The unified API supports serial port (COM), parallel port (LPT), Intranet (TCP/IP), NULL device and File-IO with only 5 function calls!

Bar Code Decoding Software

Here are programs designed to take output either from the joystick port or images from a image scanner and decode bar codes.

• Joseph Chiu's Code 39 and Interleaved 2 of 5 Barcode Decoder. You attach a barcode wand to the joystick port and run the software on a 486 or better. It was a project that Joseph did in his senior year at Caltech. You can e-mail Joseph directly in case you cannot get into the server.
• Axtel has released several Software Development Kits that bring 2D barcode recognition and output capability to all versions of Windows. Software developers may now plug this capability into their applications. Image import may be from capture devices such as document scanners or camera/frame grabbers. The programs support PDF417, Code1, and a variety of linear barcodes. Reading is in any orientation, skewed, flipped, or mirrored.
• VisionShape sells an IBX (VBX, DLL and UNIX available too) that allows added bar code and OMR recognition using flat-bed image scanners. 
• Smartscan Xpress is an ActiveX control that offers reading of barcodes and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) analysis. Designed for developers. There are full-featured demos at the site.
• Softek Software provide toolkits to read barcodes from images and memory bitmaps. The standard version includes support for both linear and PDF-417 barcodes, with a variety of interfaces including Java and .Net. One feature of the software allows a multi-page TIF document to be split by barcode position. The Windows download is a full evaluation and includes many sample projects. Versions are also available for Linux, Solaris and OSX.
• libdmtx is a shared library for Linux that can be used to read (scan & decode) and write (encode & print) 2D Data Matrix barcode symbols. It is released under the LGPL and can be used and distributed freely under these terms. (Sourceforge link.)
• Data Matrix Reader For Symbian OS cellphones at sourceforge.