[PLUG] Linux-friendly product bar code scanners

[Jason Barnett]

Software wise, check out Tellico (https://tellico-project.org/) it should
be in your distro's repository. You can scan the barcodes and it can
automatically grab all the details from Amazon's website. Once you have
everything entered, you can export in a number of formats, including HTML,
csv, etc.
It has templates included for books, music and videos.
My wife has over 1000 books, hundreds of CDs and DVDs that we own,
organized in this software. She is anything but tech-savy and yet she finds
it easy to use, so it will probably be a simple task for you to do what you
need.

Jason

On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 2:31 PM John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 11 Jun 2021 12:55:10 -0700
> Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> dijo:
>
> >I hope to purchase a handheld, USB-connected bar code
> >reader that works well with Ubuntu LTS on a laptop,
> >resulting in a list of bar codes in some appropriate
> >format (Openoffice spreadsheet?).
> >
> >Suggestions for device and open-source software?
> >I'll pay extra for ease of use and reduced hassle.
>
> This information is probably going the opposite direction than what you
> are looking for.
>
> As an erstwhile book publisher I have used Scribus to lay out book
> covers, which require a barcode with the EAN number underneath. You get
> the EAN number in the US from Bowker, for which they charge, and the
> publisher has to start by getting an account at Bowker. (In most
> countries you get the EAN number for free from a government agency.)
>
> Once I have a new book to the point where I needed to design the cover
> I contact Bowker to get the EAN number. Then I plug the EAN number into
> a Scribus widget that produces the barcode as an .svg file, which I
> then position on the cover - typically on the lower right corner of the
> back of the cover. Note that some genres also require a UPC barcode and
> number, which is typically placed on the inside of the front cover.
> Books that require the UPC code are the type commonly sold in
> supermarkets and other stores whose cash registers can't understand an
> EAN barcode.
>
> Note also that worldwide the EAN barcode was expanded from ten numbers
> to 13, about 15 years ago, as I recall. Many books floating around the
> world still have ten-digit barcodes, and they still work. But note also
> that each book and each variation of it (e.g., second edition,
> paperback issue, etc.) require a new, unique EAN code. When I use the
> barcode reader n my phone to scan an EAN barcode the phone pops up the
> information as text. I don't know if that can be saved to the phone -
> phones are not my strong suit.
>
> Scribus is scriptable, and there may exist a script to create a mail
> merge, although I have little ken of how it might work. Of course, to
> bring in data from a database one immediately thinks of LibreOffice,
> but I don't know if it can create a barcode. But having said that, if I
> need to create a document with a lot of graphics in it in LO, I'd sooner
> be strung up overnight by my thumbs. I'd much rather create the text in
> Writer, import it into Scribus, and then place the graphics. And some
> people here might suggest the TeX family, which may be even easier.
>