ISSN barcode (magazine barcode)
A barcode beginning 977 is a magazine’s or other serial’s: the next seven digits are its ISSN, and the small two-digit barcode beside it is the issue number.
Easily confused with
How to read it
An ISSN is the eight-digit number for a serial publication, written as two groups of four (ISSN 1234-5679); the last digit is a check digit, and can be X, the Royal Danish Library’s ISSN centre explains. In the barcode, GS1 and the UK’s Professional Publishers Association (PPA) describe the layout: 977, the first seven digits of the ISSN (its own check digit is dropped, as the EAN-13 has one), two variant digits, and the EAN-13 check digit. On UK magazines the variant starts at 00 and goes up by one each time the cover price changes; the PPA notes that actual prices aren’t in the barcode. The two-digit add-on changes with every issue.
Also searched as: 977 barcode, issn, issn barcode, magazine barcode, magazine issue number barcode, periodical barcode.
These pages say what each code and its parts mean under the standard that defines it. A barcode identifies an item; it doesn’t say where the item was made or whether it is genuine, and the label and the maker are the place to look for that.
What the two-digit add-on means
For a weekly it is the week number of the cover date, 01 to 53; for a monthly, the month, 01 to 12, in GS1’s and the PPA’s numbering. Other frequencies have their own rules in the PPA’s guide.
Magazines in the US
Not every magazine uses 977. The Library of Congress notes that general interest magazines in the US use a UPC, with a company prefix belonging to the publisher or distributor and, as the item reference, the magazine’s BIPAD title number, which predates the UPC. 977 is the UK’s structure, agreed by the international EAN and ISSN agencies.
Look-alikes
A book’s barcode begins 978 or 979 and its add-on, if any, has five digits (ISBN barcode (Bookland EAN)).
Read next
- Next in Barcodes and QR codesITF-14 (carton barcode)ITF-14 is the barcode printed on cardboard cartons and cases. Its 14 digits identify a box of a product, not a single item: the first digit says which packing level it is, and the rest is the item’s own product number with a new check digit.
- The same shape in Smoke and CO alarm soundsLow-frequency 520 Hz alarm (sleeping rooms)A fire alarm in a sleeping room that sounds a low buzz in place of a high-pitched beep. It is the three-beep fire alarm rhythm at 520 Hz, which NFPA 72 requires of alarms provided to wake people in sleeping areas.
More barcodes and QR codes
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or lines.
Sources
- PPA Best Practice for Bar Code Guidelines, Bar coding and issue numbering of magazines, Professional Publishers Association (UK), Introduction; Components of the barcode; Issue numbering
- GS1 General Specifications Standard, Release 26.0, ratified January 2026, GS1 AISBL, §2.1.3.5 Serial publications
- ISSN and Bar Codes, U.S. ISSN Center, Library of Congress, Serials
- Practical information on ISSN, barcodes and EAN, For publishers: ISSN, Royal Danish Library (Danish ISSN centre), Structure of ISSN
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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