mchehab/zbar
ZBar is an open source software suite for reading bar codes from various sources, including webcams. This is the main repository for reporting issues and send PRs. There's a clone at at https://git.linuxtv.org/zbar.git/, and another one at https://gitlab.com/mchehab_kernel/zbar. observed · 2026-10-22
Health v2 · maintenance only
99/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 99
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-10-22. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 0
- age_days: 2996
- days_rel: 10
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 2
Adoption not part of the score
1385 stars · 243 forks observed · 2026-10-22
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
ZBar is an open-source C library and suite of tools for reading barcodes from video streams, image files, and sensors, supporting formats like EAN/UPC, Code 128, QR Code, and more. This fork by mchehab maintains the original project with updated V4L2 API support and provides bindings for C, C++, Python, and Perl plus Qt/GTK widgets.
Use cases
- decode barcodes from webcam video feed
- scan QR codes from image files
- integrate barcode reading into a C or Python application
- build a barcode scanner app with Qt or GTK widgets
- read UPC/EAN codes from product images
- decode Code 128 barcodes from a video device on Linux
When to choose
- you need a mature, lightweight native barcode decoding library in C/C++
- you're on Linux and need V4L2 webcam barcode scanning
- you want QR Code and common 1D barcode support with language bindings
- you need a CLI tool to decode barcodes from images or video devices
When to avoid
- you need modern Python 3-first bindings with active ecosystem (consider pyzbar wrappers or zxing-cpp)
- you need barcode generation, not just decoding
- you need support for newer symbologies like PDF417 or Aztec
- you want a pure high-level managed-language solution without native dependencies
Facets
library · maturity maintenance
computer-vision image-processing sdk cli computer-vision image-processing developer-tools cross-platform windows cross-platform cli barcode-scanner qr-code v4l2 c-library decoder linux macos
1 source
- readme: https://github.com/mchehab/zbar · fetched 2026-10-22 · 3a7034b3292d
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| mchehab/zbar | main | 99 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-10-19T08:05:51.212177+00:00 · Report a problem