ZXing-C++ ("zebra crossing") is an open-source, multi-format linear/matrix barcode image processing library implemented in C++.

It was originally ported from the Java ZXing library but has been developed further and now includes many improvements in terms of runtime and detection performance. It can both read and write barcodes in a number of formats. Since version 3.0 the default writing backend is provided by the zint library.

• Written in pure C++20 (public API is C++17 compatible), no third-party dependencies (for the library itself)

• Thread safe

• Wrappers/Bindings for:

  Android	C	Go
  iOS	Kotlin/Native	.NET
  Python	Qt	Rust
  WebAssembly	WinRT	Flutter (external project)

[Note:]

• ᵂ : write support only
• ᴿ : read support only
• DataBar used to be called RSS.
• DataBar, DX Film Edge, MaxiCode, Micro QR Code and rMQR Code are not supported for writing if the library is configured with ZXING_WRITERS=OLD.

You can sponsor this library at GitHub Sponsors.

	Named Sponsors:
	Jake Nelson
	KURZ Digital Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
	Moonshine AI
	SAP (Open Source Program Office)
	Somco Software
	synedra information technologies GmbH

Thanks a lot for your contribution!

1. Load your image into memory (3rd-party library required).
2. Call ReadBarcodes() from ReadBarcode.h, the simplest API to get a list of Barcode objects.

A very simple example looks like this:

#include "ZXing/ZXingCpp.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    int width, height;
    unsigned char* data;
    // load your image data from somewhere. ImageFormat::Lum assumes grey scale image data.

    auto image = ZXing::ImageView(data, width, height, ZXing::ImageFormat::Lum);
    auto options = ZXing::ReaderOptions().formats(ZXing::BarcodeFormat::QRCode);
    auto barcodes = ZXing::ReadBarcodes(image, options);

    for (const auto& b : barcodes)
        std::cout << ZXing::ToString(b.format()) << ": " << b.text() << "\n";

    return 0;
}

To see the full capability of the API, have a look at ZXingReader.cpp.

1. Create a Barcode object with CreateBarcodeFrom...() from CreateBarcode.h.
2. The Barcode::symbol() can be used to get access to the bit matrix (1 module == 1 pixel, no quiet zone)
3. Alternatively the 3 WriteBarcodeTo...() functions from WriteBarcode.h can be used to create an Image, a SVG string or a UTF-8 string representation.

A very simple example looks like this:

#include "ZXing/ZXingCpp.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    auto barcode = ZXing::CreateBarcodeFromText("some text", ZXing::BarcodeFormat::QRCode);
    auto svg = ZXing::WriteBarcodeToSVG(barcode);

    // see also ZXing::WriteBarcodeToImage()

    std::cout << svg << "\n";

    return 0;
}

As an example for how to parameterize the process with CreatorOptions and WriterOptions, have a look at ZXingWriter.cpp.

The latest API documentation can be found here: https://zxing-cpp.github.io/zxing-cpp/docs/latest

• Read barcodes
• Write barcodes
• Read barcodes from camera

[Note: those live demos are not necessarily fully up-to-date at all times.]

These are the generic instructions to build the library on Windows/macOS/Linux. For details on how to build the individual wrappers, follow the links above.

1. Make sure CMake version 3.16 or newer is installed. The python module requires 3.18 or higher.
2. Make sure a sufficiently C++20 compliant compiler is installed (minimum VS 2019 16.10? / gcc 11 / clang 12?).
3. See the cmake ZXING_... options to enable the testing code, python wrapper, etc.

git clone https://github.com/zxing-cpp/zxing-cpp.git --recursive --depth 1
cmake -S zxing-cpp -B zxing-cpp/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build zxing-cpp/build --parallel --config Release

[Note: ready to use packages are available for/as vcpkg, conan, mingw, homebrew and a bunch of linux distributions.]