How to Generate EAN-13 Barcodes as PNG Files in C# .NET Framework

Creating physical EAN-13 barcode tags out of barcode numbers requires an automated process. With a free API, we can incorporate such a process into our applications using minimal code.

Using the below ready-to-run C# .NET examples, we can easily take advantage of a free API to convert barcode number strings into PNG files. This can help streamline our retail operations; we can produce up to 800 barcode PNGs per month by authorizing our API calls with a free API key.

We can begin structuring our API call by installing the SDK. We can install with NuGet by running the following command in our Package Manager console:

Install-Package Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.Barcode -Version 3.0.2

Next, let’s call the function to convert our barcode number into a barcode PNG file:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.Barcode.Api;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.Barcode.Client;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.Barcode.Model;

namespace Example
{
    public class GenerateBarcodeEAN13Example
    {
        public void main()
        {
            // Configure API key authorization: Apikey
            Configuration.Default.AddApiKey("Apikey", "YOUR_API_KEY");

            var apiInstance = new GenerateBarcodeApi();
            var value = value_example;  // string | Barcode value to generate from

            try
            {
                // Generate a EAN-13 code barcode as PNG file
                byte[] result = apiInstance.GenerateBarcodeEAN13(value);
                Debug.WriteLine(result);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Debug.Print("Exception when calling GenerateBarcodeApi.GenerateBarcodeEAN13: " + e.Message );
            }
        }
    }
}

That’s all there is to it — no more code required! We’ll just need to write our output file encoding to a new PNG file, and we’re all set.