Command-line interface

Installing pyStrich exposes a pystrich console script with a subcommand per format and PNG / SVG / EPS / ASCII / terminal / DXF output.

Tip

To try the CLI without installing pyStrich into an environment, run it through pipx or uvx:

$ pipx run pystrich datamatrix --text "Rausschmeißer"
$ uvx pystrich datamatrix --text "Rausschmeißer"

$ pystrich qrcode --text "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper,_Missouri" -o jasper.svg
$ pystrich code128 --text "Dalton" -o dalton.png
$ pystrich ean13 --text "5050070007664" -o ean13.png
$ echo "DLB 573" | pystrich code39 -o code39.png
$ pystrich datamatrix --text "Rausschmeißer"   # terminal preview

The last example produces:

                      
  █ ▀ █▄█ █ █▄█ █▄▀▄  
  █▄   ████▀  ▀  ██▄  
  █▄██▀▄▄▀▄█▀  ▄█▀▀▄  
  █▀▄ ███▀ ▄█▄▀▀▄▄▀▄  
  ██ █▄▄▄██▄▄▀▄  ▀ ▄  
  ██ ▄█ ▀█▄▀▀▀ ▄█▄▀▄  
  █ ▀ █ ▄▀▀▀ ▀█ █▄█▄  
  █▀▄ █▀█▀ █ ▀▄▀▀█▄▄  
  █▄█▄█▄███▄██▄▄▄██▄  
                      

Reference

Generate 1D/2D barcodes (Code 39, Code 128, EAN-13, Interleaved 2 of 5, ITF-14, Data Matrix, QR Code, PDF417, Aztec Code). Pass input via --text or stdin.

pystrich [-h] [--version] FORMAT ...

pystrich options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --version - show program’s version number and exit

pystrich code39

Code 39 (1D)

pystrich code39 [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps}] [--dark-hex HEX]
                [--light-hex HEX] [--bar-width BAR_WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT] [--full-ascii]
                [--show-label | --no-show-label]

pystrich code39 options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --bar-width BAR_WIDTH - width of the narrowest bar (default: 3)

• --height HEIGHT - image height in pixels

• --full-ascii - enable full-ASCII Code 39 encoding

• --show-label, --no-show-label - render the human-readable label below the bars

pystrich code128

Code 128 (1D)

pystrich code128 [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps}] [--dark-hex HEX]
                 [--light-hex HEX] [--bar-width BAR_WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT]
                 [--show-label | --no-show-label]

pystrich code128 options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --bar-width BAR_WIDTH - width of the narrowest bar (default: 3)

• --height HEIGHT - image height in pixels

• --show-label, --no-show-label - render the human-readable label below the bars

pystrich ean13

EAN-13 (1D, 12 or 13 digits)

pystrich ean13 [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps}] [--dark-hex HEX]
               [--light-hex HEX] [--bar-width BAR_WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT]

pystrich ean13 options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - 12 or 13 digits (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --bar-width BAR_WIDTH - width of the narrowest bar (default: 3)

• --height HEIGHT - image height in pixels

pystrich itf

Interleaved 2 of 5 (1D, an even number of digits)

pystrich itf [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps}] [--dark-hex HEX]
             [--light-hex HEX] [--bar-width BAR_WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT]
             [--bearer-width BEARER_WIDTH]

pystrich itf options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - an even number of digits (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --bar-width BAR_WIDTH - width of the narrowest bar (default: 3)

• --height HEIGHT - image height in pixels

• --bearer-width BEARER_WIDTH - thickness of a bearer bar’s rules, in narrow-bar widths (default: none)

pystrich itf14

ITF-14 (1D, 13 or 14 digits, with bearer bar)

pystrich itf14 [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps}] [--dark-hex HEX]
               [--light-hex HEX] [--bar-width BAR_WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT]
               [--bearer-width BEARER_WIDTH]

pystrich itf14 options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - 13 or 14 digits (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --bar-width BAR_WIDTH - width of the narrowest bar (default: 3)

• --height HEIGHT - image height in pixels

• --bearer-width BEARER_WIDTH - thickness of the bearer bar’s rules, in narrow-bar widths (default: 4)

pystrich datamatrix

Data Matrix (2D)

pystrich datamatrix [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps,ascii,terminal,dxf}]
                    [--dark-hex HEX] [--light-hex HEX] [--cell-size CELL_SIZE]
                    [--inverse | --no-inverse]
                    [--mark-shape {square,circular,horizontal-runs}]
                    [--dxf-units {in,ft,mi,mm,cm,m,unspecified}] [--quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE]
                    [--encoding {auto,ascii,iso-8859-1,utf-8}] [--substitute-with-fnc1 CHAR]
                    [--symbol-shape {square,rectangular,auto}]

pystrich datamatrix options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --cell-size CELL_SIZE - side length of one module; must be a whole number for png/svg/eps (default: 5), decimals are supported for dxf (default: 1.0)

• --inverse, --no-inverse - invert (light cells filled instead of dark); applies to svg/eps/dxf

• --mark-shape MARK_SHAPE - how matched cells are drawn in vector output

• --dxf-units DXF_UNITS - DXF units (default: mm); 'unspecified' writes $INSUNITS=0

• --quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE - quiet-zone width in cells (default: 2)

• --encoding ENCODING - DataMatrix charset (default: auto picks the narrowest that fits)

• --substitute-with-fnc1 CHAR - replace each occurrence of CHAR in --text with an FNC1 codeword

• --symbol-shape SYMBOL_SHAPE - Data Matrix shape (default: square)

pystrich qrcode

QR Code (2D)

pystrich qrcode [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps,ascii,terminal,dxf}]
                [--dark-hex HEX] [--light-hex HEX] [--cell-size CELL_SIZE]
                [--inverse | --no-inverse] [--mark-shape {square,circular,horizontal-runs}]
                [--dxf-units {in,ft,mi,mm,cm,m,unspecified}] [--ecl {L,M,Q,H}]

pystrich qrcode options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --cell-size CELL_SIZE - side length of one module; must be a whole number for png/svg/eps (default: 5), decimals are supported for dxf (default: 1.0)

• --inverse, --no-inverse - invert (light cells filled instead of dark); applies to svg/eps/dxf

• --mark-shape MARK_SHAPE - how matched cells are drawn in vector output

• --dxf-units DXF_UNITS - DXF units (default: mm); 'unspecified' writes $INSUNITS=0

• --ecl ECL - error-correction level (default: M)

pystrich pdf417

PDF417 (stacked 2D)

pystrich pdf417 [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps,ascii,terminal,dxf}]
                [--dark-hex HEX] [--light-hex HEX] [--cell-size CELL_SIZE]
                [--inverse | --no-inverse] [--mark-shape {square,circular,horizontal-runs}]
                [--dxf-units {in,ft,mi,mm,cm,m,unspecified}] [--ecl {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}]
                [--columns N] [--row-height ROW_HEIGHT] [--quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE]

pystrich pdf417 options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --cell-size CELL_SIZE - side length of one module; must be a whole number for png/svg/eps (default: 5), decimals are supported for dxf (default: 1.0)

• --inverse, --no-inverse - invert (light cells filled instead of dark); applies to svg/eps/dxf

• --mark-shape MARK_SHAPE - how matched cells are drawn in vector output

• --dxf-units DXF_UNITS - DXF units (default: mm); 'unspecified' writes $INSUNITS=0

• --ecl ECL - error-correction level 0-8 (default: chosen from data length)

• --columns N - data columns 1-30 (default: minimal-area layout)

• --row-height ROW_HEIGHT - module-rows per codeword row (default: 3)

• --quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE - quiet-zone width in modules (default: 2)

pystrich aztec

Aztec Code (2D)

pystrich aztec [-h] [--text TEXT] [-o OUTPUT] [-t {auto,png,svg,eps,ascii,terminal,dxf}]
               [--dark-hex HEX] [--light-hex HEX] [--cell-size CELL_SIZE]
               [--inverse | --no-inverse] [--mark-shape {square,circular,horizontal-runs}]
               [--dxf-units {in,ft,mi,mm,cm,m,unspecified}] [--ecc PCT]
               [--symbol-kind {auto,compact,full}] [--layers LAYERS]
               [--quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE]

pystrich aztec options

• -h, --help - show this help message and exit

• --text TEXT - text to encode (default: read from stdin)

• -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT - output path; '-' or omitted writes to stdout

• -t OUTPUT_TYPE, --type OUTPUT_TYPE - output format; 'auto' resolves from -o filename or output context

• --dark-hex HEX - dark (foreground) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --light-hex HEX - light (background) colour as 3, 6 or 8 hex digits; png/svg/eps only

• --cell-size CELL_SIZE - side length of one module; must be a whole number for png/svg/eps (default: 5), decimals are supported for dxf (default: 1.0)

• --inverse, --no-inverse - invert (light cells filled instead of dark); applies to svg/eps/dxf

• --mark-shape MARK_SHAPE - how matched cells are drawn in vector output

• --dxf-units DXF_UNITS - DXF units (default: mm); 'unspecified' writes $INSUNITS=0

• --ecc PCT - error-correction percentage 5..95 (default: 23)

• --symbol-kind SYMBOL_KIND - symbol kind (default: auto picks the smallest that fits)

• --layers LAYERS - data layer count; requires --symbol-kind compact or full

• --quiet-zone QUIET_ZONE - quiet-zone width in modules (default: 2)

Format auto-detection

The output format is auto-detected from the -o filename (.png, .svg, .eps, .dxf); without -o it defaults to terminal for 2D formats when stdout is a TTY. Piped or redirected output without an explicit -t is rejected, to avoid dumping binary into the next tool by accident.

GS1 Data Matrix from the shell

GS1 Data Matrix uses ASCII with FNC1 markers separating application identifiers and their values. --substitute-with-fnc1 lets you build that input from a shell-friendly string:

$ pystrich datamatrix \
    --text "|0105050070007664" \
    --substitute-with-fnc1 "|" \
    -o gs1.png

See Data Matrix for the full encoding discussion.