EAN-13

EAN-13 (European Article Number, now technically just "International Article Number") is the global standard for product barcodes. It’s a 13-digit code where the first 2-3 digits indicate the country code (00-13 are the US/Canada UPC range, 49 is Japan, 690-695 are China, 50 is the UK, etc.), the next 4-5 digits identify the manufacturer, then 5 digits for the product, and a final check digit.

EAN-13 is what you’ll see on imported products in the US, and on virtually all products sold in Europe. UPC-A barcodes (the 12-digit US format) are a strict subset — prepend a "0" to a UPC-A and you have a valid EAN-13.

For receipt design purposes, EAN-13 visually looks similar to UPC-A but has 13 digits instead of 12. The barcode height is similar; the printed numbers below the bars are slightly more spread out.