What Is a Read Rate and Why Do We Care?


A read rate is the number of barcodes read divided by the number attempted. It’s usually expressed as a percentage and the closer to 100%, the better. But why do read rates matter in barcode reading applications?

  • Read rate is a measure of process reliability and robustness
  • No-reads typically cost money, time and effort to remedy
  • The higher the read rate, the higher the throughput

DataMan industrial image-based barcode readers reliably achieve read rates at 99.9%. Can your reader reach anything close? Or are your low read rates due to the use of laser scanners? Thanks to advances in microprocessors, imaging sensors and decoding algorithms, image-based ID readers have become not only more affordable, but also more powerful than traditional laser scanners. Image-based readers view the entire barcode, not just a single line, so they can overcome various barcode defects better than laser scanners. Image-based readers can also read barcodes in any orientation and can decode 2-D (two-dimensional) symbologies like Data Matrix and QR. With these advantages, image-based readers achieve higher read rates than laser-based scanners.

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