# ZBar/ZBar

Clone of the mercurial repository http://zbar.hg.sourceforge.net:8000/hgroot/zbar/zbar

Repository: https://github.com/ZBar/ZBar
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zbar
Homepage: http://zbar.sourceforge.net/
Language: C
License: LGPL-2.1
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2024-03-18T01:09:42+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5093, "days_push": 899, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2544, forks 1060 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:00.211224+00:00)

## What it is
ZBar is an open-source C library and software suite for reading bar codes from video streams, image files, and raw intensity sensors. It supports symbologies like EAN/UPC, Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, and QR Code, with CLI tools, GUI widgets, and bindings for Python, Perl, and C++.

## Use cases
- decode qr codes from images
- scan barcodes from a webcam video stream
- read upc codes from product photos in a script
- embed barcode scanning in an embedded c application
- add a barcode scanning widget to a qt or gtk app
- batch decode barcodes from image files via command line

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight, fast C barcode decoder with a small memory footprint
- you want bindings for Python, Perl, or C++ or GUI widgets for Qt/GTK
- you target embedded or low-resource platforms without floating point requirements
- you need support for common 1D symbologies plus QR codes

## When to avoid
- you need modern actively developed features or new symbologies
- you want a pure high-level language solution without C dependencies
- you need robust scanning of damaged or low-quality images with modern ML-based decoders

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: image-processing, computer-vision, ocr, cli, gui
- domain: computer-vision, image-processing, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli, python, cpp, c
- tags: barcode-scanner, qr-code, ean, code128, video-scanning, embedded, language-bindings, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ZBar/ZBar (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.211224+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:25:03.958445+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ZBar/ZBar (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.211224+00:00, sha 2d1afc634138)
  - homepage: http://zbar.sourceforge.net/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:06:58.092678+00:00, sha 24079a01874b)
  - site_page: https://zbar.sourceforge.net/about.html (fetched 2026-08-29T10:06:58.101941+00:00, sha 747ce36bf537)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.