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Standards/issn

ISSN

Type1D Linear (EAN-13)
Completeness81%high

Overview

The ISSN barcode is the way an International Standard Serial Number is carried on the cover of a magazine, newspaper or other periodical. It is not a separate symbology. It is an EAN-13 (GTIN-13) symbol that starts with the GS1 prefix 977, which is reserved for serial publications. That prefix is followed by the first seven digits of the ISSN, two publisher-controlled "variant" digits and a modulo-10 check digit 24. In the newstrade, the EAN-13 is normally followed by a 2-digit EAN Add-on (EAN-2, EAN-5) that identifies the individual issue. Together they form a 15-digit "EAN 13+2" number that is unique to each issue of a title 4.

History

The ISSN system was first drafted as an ISO standard in 1971 and published as ISO 3297 in 1975 1. The ISSN International Centre (CIEPS, Centre international d'enregistrement des publications en série) is an intergovernmental body based in Paris and set up by UNESCO and the French government 16. Sources give different founding dates. Wikipedia says the Centre was created in 1974 by a UNESCO–France agreement 1. Béquet's 2019 history of the Centre says its creation in 1975 was "supported by Unesco and France" 6. From the start, the system has worked through a network of ISSN national centres hosted in national libraries and scientific institutions, and the network grew after the political changes in Europe in the 1990s 6.

ISO 3297:2007 added the linking ISSN (ISSN-L), which groups the different media versions of one continuing resource 1. By the end of 2016 the ISSN Register held 1,943,572 records 1.

The barcode convention joins this bibliographic identifier with the GS1 (formerly EAN) retail numbering system. GS1, based in Brussels, manages the GTIN-13 internationally 2. In the UK, the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) Technical Services Panel, the Association of Newspaper & Magazine Wholesalers (ANMW) and GS1 UK released an updated version of their magazine barcoding guidelines in July 2008 4. The current edition is dated January 2019 4. In Croatia, the ISSN office at the National and University Library in Zagreb and GS1 Croatia published joint guidance for publishers 7.

Technical specification

The ISSN itself. An ISSN has 8 digits, written as two groups of four separated by a hyphen. The eighth digit is a check digit calculated with a modulus 11 algorithm over the seven preceding digits. When the result is 10, the check digit is written as X 13. The ISSN is "a digital code without any intrinsic meaning". It says nothing about the origin or content of the publication 3.

The GTIN-13 / EAN-13 structure 24:

Digits Field Content
1–3 GS1 prefix 977, reserved for serial publications
4–10 ISSN component First 7 digits of the ISSN. The ISSN check digit is dropped because the EAN-13 has its own
11–12 Sequence variant Publisher-defined, e.g. price changes
13 Check digit Standard GS1 modulo-10 check digit
14–15 Add-on (optional) 2-digit issue number, encoded as a separate EAN-2 supplement

The ISSN International Centre says the GTIN-13 "can be completed by a 2 or 5-digit add-on that usually indicates the issue number" 2. The Croatian guidance notes that GS1 recommendations define the structure of the 2-digit add-on, while the 5-digit add-on was left to national organisations 7. The BWIPP reference says 5-digit add-ons are not typically used with ISSN 8.

Sequence variant rules (UK newstrade). A new magazine starts at 00. The value goes up by 01 for every price change, whether the price rises or falls. The actual price does not appear anywhere in the barcode. One-off special-price issues start at 99 and count down (98, 97, …) 4. Any change to digits 11–12 means the check digit has to be recalculated 4. For daily newspapers, the GS1/ISSN-agreed pattern is 977 SSSSSSS P D C WW, where P is the price digit, D is the day of the week (1 = Monday … 7 = Sunday) and WW is the ISO week number carried in the add-on. Weekly newspapers use 977 SSSSSSS PP C WW 4.

Issue add-on numbering (UK) 4:

  • Weekly, fortnightly, three-weekly and four-weekly titles use the ISO week number of the cover date (01–53).
  • Monthly titles use the cover month (01–12). An extra special issue adds 20 to the month number.
  • Bi-monthly titles use the first month on the cover (June/July = 06).
  • Partworks and other numbered serials use the last two digits of the issue number (issue 109 = 09).
  • Titles that fit none of these patterns start at 01 and add 1 per issue within a 12-month period.

Worked example. ISSN 0317-8471 gives the EAN-13 977 + 0317847 + 00 + check 1 = 9770317847001. The playground renders this with Barcode Writer in Pure PostScript (BWIPP), through bwip-js, using the issn encoder. That encoder takes input of the form XXXX-XXXX VV [AA]: the seven- or eight-digit ISSN with its dash, a 2-digit sequence variant and an optional add-on. If the ISSN check digit is supplied, the encoder verifies it. If it is left out, the encoder calculates it 89. A Croatian example from the national ISSN office is ISSN 1330-2787, which becomes 9771330278001 7.

Print specifications (UK minimums). The guidance recommends 100% magnification. 80% is accepted on coated paper, with truncation of up to 50%, while uncoated or newsprint stock needs 90% and no truncation. Bars must be 100% black on white, with a leading 9 and a trailing > chevron marking the light margins 4. Preferred placement is the bottom-left of the front cover, at least 10 mm from any cut or fold 4.

Use cases

  • Consumer magazines. Every issue carries an EAN 13+2 so that retail EPoS, sales-based replenishment and wholesaler returns scanning can tell issues apart 4.
  • Daily and weekly newspapers. These use a GS1/ISSN-agreed variant in which digit 12 carries the weekday and the add-on carries the ISO week 4.
  • Partworks and collectables. UK partworks are an exception to the rule against giving ISSNs to finite publications. Test-market partworks use prefix 999 in place of 977 4.
  • Scholarly and other serials. The underlying ISSN identifies journals, annual publications, websites, databases and blogs, in print or electronic form 3.
  • National deployments. In Croatia, the national ISSN office and GS1 Croatia jointly recommend the ISSN-based barcode for serials instead of a manufacturer GTIN 7.

Implementations

Repo Language Kind Stars Last active Notes
metafloor/bwip-js JavaScript encoder 2,420 2026-08 JS port of BWIPP. Has a dedicated issn bcid, used by the Barcoder playground 9
bwipp/postscriptbarcode PostScript encoder 504 2026-10 Upstream BWIPP. ISSN encoder with sequence variant, add-on and ISSN check-digit verification 813
zint/zint C encoder 810 2026-10 General-purpose C barcode encoding library 10
zxing/zxing Java decoder 34,114 2026-09 Reads EAN-13 and "UPC/EAN Extension 2/5". The project is in maintenance mode 11
zxing-cpp/zxing-cpp C++ decoder 2,039 2026-09 Lists EAN-13, EAN-2 and EAN-5 among its EAN/UPC formats 12

Decoders read an ISSN barcode as a plain 977-prefixed EAN-13, plus an add-on if there is one. Getting the ISSN back means taking digits 4–10 and recomputing the mod-11 check digit 21.

Comparison

  • ISSN vs Bookland EAN (ISBN) (ISBN). Both put a bibliographic identifier inside an EAN-13. Books use prefixes 978 and 979, allocated through the International ISBN Agency 5. Serials use 977 15. Books are one-off products, so they do not carry the 2-digit issue add-on, although publishers may add a 5-digit add-on 4. Use an ISSN barcode for a continuing title with recurring issues. Use an ISBN barcode for a monograph or a one-shot special: the UK guidance says one-off magazine specials should not be given an ISSN 4.
  • ISSN vs ISMN. Printed music uses 979-0 in place of a serial prefix 5.
  • ISSN barcode vs a manufacturer GTIN. A title could carry a company-prefix EAN-13. Encoding the ISSN instead registers the publication in the ISSN Register and labels it for retail under GS1 rules in a single step 7.

Fun facts

  • The barcode deliberately drops the ISSN's own mod-11 check digit, so the X check character never appears in the bars. The EAN-13's mod-10 check digit takes over that job 4.
  • The PPA guide shows a real price change. When Good Housekeeping went from £2.80 to £2.90 with its May 2010 issue, its barcode changed from 9770017208 17 1 04 to 9770017208 18 8 05: the sequence variant went up by one, the check digit was recalculated and the issue add-on moved to the new month 4.
  • Under UK rules, a Christmas special cover-dated December gets add-on 32, because special issues add 20 to the month number 4.

Status

Active. The ISSN International Centre still documents the 977 GTIN-13 structure for serials 2. Current open-source encoders (bwip-js, BWIPP, zint) and decoders (ZXing, zxing-cpp) were all maintained in 2026 910111213. No successor symbology has been named for periodicals. The barcode is defined as an application of GS1 EAN-13 2.

Sources

1 International Standard Serial Number — Wikipedia, accessed 2026. 2 International Identifier for serials — GTIN-13 barcode — ISSN International Centre, accessed 2026. 3 What is an ISSN? — ISSN International Centre, accessed 2026. 4 Best Practice for Bar Coding and Issue Numbering of Magazines, Partworks, Collectables and Promotional Vouchers (updated January 2019) — PPA / ANMW, accessed 2026. 5 Publishing (ISSN, ISBN, ISMN) — Seagull Scientific Barcode Guide, accessed 2026. 6 Serials diplomacy at the ISSN International Centre: a unique and sustainable experience (1975–2015) — G. Béquet, Ciência da Informação, 2019, accessed 2026. 7 Korištenje crtičnog koda za označavanje serijskih publikacija — ISSN ured za Hrvatsku (NSK) / GS1 Croatia, accessed 2026. 8 ISSN — BWIPP wiki — Barcode Writer in Pure PostScript, accessed 2026. 9 metafloor/bwip-js — GitHub, accessed 2026. 10 zint/zint — GitHub, accessed 2026. 11 zxing/zxing — GitHub, accessed 2026. 12 zxing-cpp/zxing-cpp — GitHub, accessed 2026. 13 bwipp/postscriptbarcode — GitHub, accessed 2026.

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

  • Universal
source · content/standards/issn/index.md