Barcodes and QR codes

Sliick Docs ships dedicated Barcode (Code 128) and QR Code (ISO 18004) blocks. Encoding is fully native, with no external service and no static images, and both block types respect Repeat scope, so per-row barcodes for shipping labels or asset tags are a one-line change.

Add one

1. Click + Add block and pick Barcode or QR Code.
2. In the right rail, bind the block to any merge field: the field whose value will be encoded.
3. For a QR code, set width, height and alignment. For a barcode, pick a scan quality and an alignment; the width follows from the data.

Barcodes render in running headers and footers as well as in the body.

Scan quality rather than a width

How wide a barcode has to be is decided by how much data it carries, which is not something an author can work out by eye. So a barcode block takes a scan quality of Compact, Standard or Rugged, and the width follows from the value being encoded.

• If a value is too long to scan at any quality in the space available, the editor says so, names the width it would need, and says what to change, rather than printing something that looks like a barcode and is not.
• If a value is long enough that the symbol has to narrow to fit the block, you get a warning naming both remedies: widen the block, or shorten the value.

That matters because the narrowest densities are made for a printer and a handheld scanner rather than a phone camera, so it is a trade worth making deliberately.

The value prints underneath the bars

A barcode prints its encoded value as readable text below the symbol, so a scan that fails can still be keyed in by hand. It is on by default and switchable per block.

What prints is what the bars actually encode, which is not always what you typed: characters a Code 128 barcode cannot carry are encoded as spaces, and the printed line shows the same spaces, so the page never disagrees with the scanner. QR codes have no printed value line.

Barcodes and QR codes are PDF-only. The validator rejects a template that enables Word output when either block is present. Authors typically split templates: the PDF-only variant carries the barcode, the Word-friendly variant does not. See Word output.

Barcodes also work in templates you author as a Word file, written as tags. See Word-file templates.