smart-package-tracker

Generate package tracking IDs, render them as Code 128 barcodes in PNG and SVG, and read them back out of images.

use smart_package_tracker::{Barcode, RenderOptions, TrackingId};

let id = TrackingId::generate()?;        // PKG-9ED9285C
let barcode = Barcode::code128(&id)?;

let options = RenderOptions::default();  // 300 dpi, 13 mil, 25 mm tall
barcode.to_png_file("label.png", &options)?;
barcode.to_svg_file("label.svg", &options)?;

Design

TrackingId ──▶ Symbology::encode ──▶ Symbol ──▶ Renderer::render ──▶ bytes
               (Code 128 | QR)       (BitMatrix)  (Png | Svg)

Encoding and rendering are independent, joined by a dimension-agnostic bit grid. A linear barcode is a one-row BitMatrix; a matrix symbology such as QR is a square one. Renderers consume the grid, not the symbology, so adding a format means implementing Symbology and touching no rendering code — QR support was added without a single change to the PNG or SVG renderers.

Both renderers share a single Layout calculation, so PNG and SVG describe identical geometry at identical physical size — an SVG preview matches what the PNG prints.

Scanning is the same pipeline backwards, and meets it at the same bit grid:

image ──▶ GrayImage ──▶ binarize ──▶ BitMatrix ──▶ Decoder::decode ──▶ payload

What it does carefully

• Specification-conformant quiet zones. Code 128 requires 10 modules per side. Omitting them is the most common cause of barcodes that look fine and will not scan, so it is the default and must be opted out of.
• Whole-pixel modules. Module widths snap to integer pixels. A bar that straddles a pixel boundary renders as a grey edge and costs you the contrast a scanner depends on.
• Physical units. Lengths are millimetres, mils, or inches, converted against an explicit DPI. PNG output carries a pHYs chunk, so a 300 dpi label prints at 300 dpi.
• Set C compression. Digit runs encode two per symbol, which roughly halves the width of numeric carrier tracking numbers.
• Reproducible output. Identical inputs produce byte-identical files.
• No panics on bad input. Every fallible operation returns Result, and out-of-range accessors return empty rather than panicking.

QR codes

The same identifier, as a QR code:

use smart_package_tracker::symbology::{Ecc, Qr, QrVersion};
use smart_package_tracker::{Barcode, RenderOptions};

let barcode = Barcode::qr("PKG-9ED9285C")?;
barcode.to_png_file("qr.png", &RenderOptions::default())?;

// Or configure error correction and pin the symbol size, so every label
// comes out the same dimensions regardless of payload length.
let barcode = Barcode::qr_with(
    Qr::new().ecc(Ecc::Quartile).version(QrVersion::Fixed(6)),
    "PKG-9ED9285C",
)?;

Error correction defaults to Ecc::Medium (~15% damage tolerance). Ecc::Quartile or Ecc::High are worth the extra size for codes that will be scuffed, curved around a parcel, or partly obscured. QR carries arbitrary bytes, so unlike Code 128 it can encode payloads outside Latin-1.

Only full QR (versions 1–40) is supported. Micro QR is excluded: it holds very little data, reader support is patchy, and it uses a 2-module quiet zone rather than 4.

Rendered QR output is verified in the test suite by decoding it with rqrr, an independent decoder derived from the quirc C library, so a symbol that encodes correctly but renders with a missing quiet zone or a transposed grid fails the build. rqrr is a dev-dependency and is not in the published dependency graph.

Reading barcodes back

use smart_package_tracker::scan;

let found = scan::scan_png_file("label.png")?;
assert_eq!(found.payload(), "PKG-9ED9285C");

Any pixel buffer works, not just PNG — GrayImage::from_luma, from_rgb8 and from_rgba8 take one directly, so a frame from a camera crate or an image decoder needs no conversion beyond handing over its bytes.

What it handles. Any module width; extra margin or a crop flush to the bars; the symbol anywhere in a larger image; light-on-dark as well as dark-on-light; uneven lighting across the image; moderate speckle and blur; a label applied on its side, because columns are scanned as well as rows; and a printed width that drifts from nominal, because each character is measured against its own width rather than against one estimate for the whole symbol.

What it does not. Rotation by anything other than a quarter turn, perspective, and the curvature of a barcode wrapped around a parcel. Reading a label off a photograph and reading one out of a rendered file are different problems; this solves the second. If you are decoding camera frames, use a dedicated scanning engine.

Code 128 only. QR encodes here but does not scan — there is no QR decoder in the dependency graph, and adding one would put seven crates into it.

A miss and an unreadable barcode both report NoSymbolFound rather than a guess. Nothing is returned that has not passed the symbology's own check character, which is what keeps a smudge from becoming a plausible-looking tracking number routed to the wrong depot.

Tracking ID entropy

TrackingId::generate() defaults to 32 bits of randomness, which produces the familiar PKG-9ED9285C shape. Random IDs collide on the birthday bound:

Configure 64 bits for anything that will issue more than a few thousand IDs. Widening later is a data migration; choosing it now is one line:

use smart_package_tracker::{Checksum, IdGenerator};

let generator = IdGenerator::builder()
    .prefix("PKG")
    .entropy_bits(64)
    .checksum(Checksum::Iso7064Mod37_36)  // catches misreads and typos
    .build()?;

let id = generator.generate()?;
generator.validate(&id)?;

Randomness alone never guarantees uniqueness. Keep a unique constraint at the storage layer and retry on conflict.

When something goes wrong

Every fallible call returns Result<_, Error>. Error is #[non_exhaustive], so match with a _ arm. What each variant means in practice:

Two failure modes deserve naming because they produce a file that looks correct and does not scan:

• Quiet zones. QuietZone::None and small QuietZone::Modules(n) values are honoured exactly as asked. QuietZone::Standard is the only setting that guarantees conformance.
• Human-readable text. The embedded font covers 0-9, A-Z, space, and - . / * + $ % :. Anything else prints as a hollow box. Check with hri_supports(text) before it reaches a label, or disable HRI.

Feature flags

Dependencies

Scanning adds nothing to this list: it decodes with the Code 128 support already present, and its binariser and scan lines are plain arithmetic.

All are MIT OR Apache-2.0, as is every one of the 16 crates in the resolved transitive graph. There is no copyleft anywhere in it; cargo deny check in CI enforces that.

The crate builds as no_std + alloc. ID generation, Code 128 encoding and decoding, SVG rendering, and scanning a pixel buffer all work without std; cargo build --target thumbv7em-none-eabihf --no-default-features --features code128,svg,scan is verified in CI.

Human-readable text is drawn with an embedded 5x7 bitmap font rather than a font library, which keeps output identical between PNG and SVG and independent of what fonts a print server has installed. It covers 0-9, A-Z, space, and - . / * + $ % :; other characters draw as a hollow box.

Not implemented yet

Shipment events and carrier integrations. They belong in separate crates so that network I/O, async runtimes, and vendor licence terms stay out of this dependency graph.

Scanning covers linear symbologies on axis-aligned images; QR scanning and camera-grade decoding are not here. The Symbology, Decoder and Renderer traits are the extension points for new formats.

Licensing notes

This crate is MIT OR Apache-2.0.

• Code 128 is unencumbered — the symbology dates to 1981 and any patents have long expired. ISO/IEC 15417 itself is a paywalled document; this implementation cites it but reproduces none of its text.
• QR Code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated. Denso Wave has waived patent enforcement for ISO/IEC 18004-conformant use. The trademark is acknowledged in the docs and kept out of the crate name.
• Issuing GS1-conformant identifiers such as SSCCs requires a GS1 company prefix and membership. Carrier APIs require signed developer agreements. Both are reasons to keep carrier integrations in separate crates.

Minimum supported Rust version

1.85, set by getrandom 0.4 (edition 2024). The MSRV is tested in CI and treated as a breaking change.

If you need a lower floor, pinning getrandom = "0.3" brings it down to 1.73 (png then sets the floor). That means tracking a superseded major of the crate supplying the entropy for every tracking ID, which is why it is not the default.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

Development

cargo test --all-features
cargo clippy --all-features --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --all --check
cargo run --example label          # writes label*.png and label*.svg

AGENTS.md is the orientation guide for contributors and coding agents: the repo map, the invariants a change must not break, where to add a new symbology or renderer, and the release procedure. CLAUDE.md points at it.

License

Licensed under either of Apache License 2.0 or MIT license at your option.