Manual

This app reads codes with the camera and draws them itself. Whatever you scan or make stays on this device: no account, no server, nothing that leaves.

The four cards on the home screen

Scan reads one code with the camera. Bulk scan runs through a series and counts along. Make draws a code itself, in twenty formats. The ticket vault keeps your tickets behind your fingerprint, so you have the right one ready at the gate.

Text too small or too large?

Three buttons at the top of the help screen in the app move it. Hold one down and the app says what it does.

The app reads codes and draws codes. That is all. A code appearing neatly on screen says nothing about what is in it.

What the app cannot see

A scanned QR can point to a fake payment page. An article number can belong to no product at all. A ticket can already be used, a receipt expired, an address someone else's than the name beside it promises. The app looks at none of that.

The Open button

It hands the address to your device, nothing more. Read the text above it before you tap, especially with a code that was hanging somewhere in public: a sticker over a real code is a known trick.

The camera is only there to read codes. The app takes no photos and keeps no images: the picture is looked at live and then forgotten.

Permission

The first time, Android asks whether the app may use the camera. Say no and the scan screen stays empty; making codes still works. Changed your mind later? Then you switch it on after all in Android's app settings.

Hold the code inside the white square. The app reads it as soon as it is sharply in view; you do not have to press anything.

Which codes the camera knows

The flat codes: QR, Data Matrix, Aztec and PDF417. And of the barcodes: EAN, UPC, Code 39, Code 93, Code 128 and Codabar.

Not working right away?

Make sure there is light and hold the phone still. Too dark? Tap the flashlight at the top: the light on the device comes on and stays on until you switch it off or leave this screen. A code that is too close will not come into focus. A step back helps more often than moving closer.

The camera stops and the format and the content appear at the bottom. The code is already in the history at that moment: you do not have to save anything.

The buttons below

Copy puts the text on the clipboard. Scan another turns the camera back on. If there is an address, phone number or e-mail address in it, Open appears as well; it hands that to your device.

If someone sends you a code as an image, share it from that app to Barcodehammer. The app finds the code itself and shows the content, just like after a scan, and puts it in the history.

No code in it?

Then the app says so, and offers the camera.

Sharing text instead of an image

Then the make screen opens with that text already filled in. You choose the format yourself.

Searching a PDF (Pro)

The app draws page after page and searches all of them. If there is more than one code in it, you get the whole list, with the page number beside it.

What you can do with that list

Save it as a text file, share it as text, or put it in the ticket vault in one go under a name you choose yourself. Every ticket from the same file then gets that label.

For a series of codes one after another. The camera does not stop at the first: every new code goes into the list, and scanning the same code again adds one. Bulk scanning is part of the Pro version.

The same code stays in view

Just after a count it is skipped for three seconds. Otherwise one box left lying in front of the camera counts itself up.

A count is wrong

One less takes one off. Or throw the whole row away.

Saving the list

Save as xlsx makes it a real Excel file, so a code like 007312 keeps its zeros. It holds the content, the format, the count, and the first and last moment.

And the history?

The list does not go there by itself; it belongs to this one round. If you do want it, Add to the history does that: one row per code, without the count, under a heading of its own, separate from what you scanned one by one.

The app shows what is in the code, and nothing more. Whether a web address is safe, or a receipt still valid, it cannot see: that stays your call.

On by default: the device vibrates briefly as soon as a code is in, so you do not have to look at the screen. You can switch it off in Settings.

Feel nothing?

Check in the Android settings whether vibration on touch is on. The app follows that setting of the device; if it is off there, this switch does not help.

Choose the format of the code at the top. They are in two groups: flat codes such as QR, and the ordinary barcodes. Tap a group open and choose; behind every format is an i that tells you what it is and where you come across it.

Not every format can be scanned back

For a few formats the app reports that you can make them, but not read them back with this app. That is down to what the camera recognises, not to the code itself.

Type what has to go in the code; the code draws itself along as you type.

What may go in, and how much

Behind the i beside the format are the requirements: which characters are allowed, and how long it has to be. If the format has a fixed length, the app counts along under the field: 9 of the 12 digits.

When the app says something

With a wrong character or an entry that is too long, a red message appears at once and nothing is drawn. If the entry is only still too short, the app stays quiet: that sorts itself out as you carry on typing.

The example

Tap it and the field fills with an entry that is certain to work.

EAN, UPC, ISBN and ITF-14 end in a check digit. Leave it out and the app works it out and reports which digit was added.

Typing it yourself

That is allowed too. If the digit then does not match the rest, the code is not drawn.

The error correction decides how much damage or dirt the code may have and still be readable. Higher means a busier code.

A logo in the middle

You can put an image over the middle. The app then sets the error correction to Very high itself and says so, so the code stays readable.

Where the logo comes from

For free you pick an image from the gallery. With Pro you can also pick it from a file: a PNG, an SVG or a PDF. Of a PDF, the first page is used.

Sharp on paper: take an SVG

Only an SVG stays a drawing. If you save the code as SVG or as PDF, the vectors of the logo go along and it stays sharp at any size, on A4 as well. A PNG, a JPG and a PDF as logo are an image and stay one, in all three file types.

Why the slider sometimes stops early

An image is never drawn larger than it is; blown up it only turns fuzzy. That is why the Size slider stops at what the chosen file can handle, with the reason below it.

How far that is depends on how wide you save: 512 pixels for free, 2048 with Pro. So the same logo can go further in the free version than with Pro. A logo of 1024 pixels or more reaches the full 30% everywhere.

If an image is too small for even the smallest setting, the app does not accept it and the message says how many pixels are needed. With an SVG this does not come up: it is not stretched but drawn anew.

The code appears on a white background, with the content below it. Hold the screen up to a scanner, or make a file of it.

Keeping the code

Save as file puts it on your device as PNG, SVG or PDF. Add to history keeps it in the app, so you can find it again. Without that tap, nothing goes into the history.

Every code you scan or make is added here by itself, with the format, the date and the time. The list is stored encrypted on this device.

The buttons at the top right

The magnifying glass searches the content, the format, the description and the tags; cards without a hit drop out. The double arrow closes everything in one go. The rest sits in the three-dot menu: Group chooses what the cards stand for, namely scanned singly, bulk scanned and made, code format, date, or tag. Sort sets the order within a card, in both directions. Both open a sheet from the bottom, with a check mark on the current choice.

What the app remembers

All choices are kept, and also which cards were open or closed. If you group by date, This week runs from Monday and not seven days back.

Deleting

The little bin deletes one row; through the menu you delete everything at once. With Delete history the key is replaced as well, so whatever is still on the memory can no longer be read.

Encrypted

The key sits in Android's secure storage, and nowhere else.

Free version

The free version keeps up to 25 scanned and up to 25 made codes, independently of each other. Once you hit that limit, the new code stays on screen but is not saved. Pro removes the limit.

Tap a row in the history; the code is drawn again, with the content below it. From there you can copy, share and make a file of it.

Description and tags

You fill in a description and tags of your own. If there is a description, it goes at the top of the row in the list and the content moves below it; so it does not disappear. You type tags yourself, and what you used before is listed underneath to tap. Searching and grouping both take them into account.

Sometimes redrawing does not work

The camera recognises formats the app cannot make itself. You then get a message and keep the content as text; a file cannot be made of it.

Your concert, train and plane tickets in one place, behind your fingerprint. No hunting through your mail at the gate: you open the vault and the ticket is there, even without a signal.

Why a separate vault

A ticket is a right of entry, and that should not just lie about in the open. The lock goes all the way to the key: without your fingerprint, face, PIN or pattern there is nothing to read, not even for someone who takes the file off the device. The vault closes again as soon as you leave the app or tap the padlock yourself.

Putting a ticket in

After a scan you put the code in the vault. With Aztec, PDF417 and long opaque QR codes the app suggests it itself, because that is usually what tickets are in, but you decide. A description and tags belong there just as much as in the history.

A PDF full of tickets in one go

If you share a PDF with several tickets in it, they go into the vault together. You type what the group is called; every ticket gets that name as a label and the page number in the description. That way they stay together and you can tell them apart at the door.

Searching does not ask for your fingerprint

The magnifying glass only appears once the vault is open. So searching never sets the lock going by itself.

Mind this: make backups

If a new fingerprint is added to the device, the key lapses and the vault is empty.

Not on every device

The vault needs Android 10 or newer. Only from that version on can Android hold a key that is released after a fingerprint, face or PIN and nothing else. On an older device the card on the home screen is greyed out, with the reason beside it; the rest of the app works there as usual.

A backup file of the history and the ticket vault, protected with a password you choose yourself. You make it through the menu in the history.

Keep that password safe

Without the password the file can no longer be opened by anyone, not even by the app itself.

Restoring

Rows you already have are skipped, so you get nothing twice. What came out of the vault goes back into the vault, and does not end up out in the open in the history.

Sharing works from the make screen, after a scan, and from an opened row in the history. You choose between the image and the text; Android then points out the app it goes to.

What you send along

The image is a PNG, at the same size as when saving. Which of the two comes first depends on the screen you came from.

Choose the file type below the code and tap Save as file; then you point out yourself where the file goes.

Which type do you take?

PNG is an image, handy for sending or inserting somewhere. SVG and PDF are drawings that stay sharp at any size; you take those if the code has to be printed. A logo over a QR goes along in all three; only an SVG as logo stays a drawing in them, an image stays an image.

Where it works

On the make screen, and just as well in an opened code from the history or the vault. The last type chosen applies on both screens.

Here you choose the language, a light or dark theme, and whether the app uses the whole screen.

Language

Dutch, English, Spanish, or the device's own.

Full screen

With this on, Android's bars at the top and bottom disappear and the app uses the whole screen. Swipe from the edge to bring them back for a moment; after that they go away by themselves again.

Scanning

Two choices: open the camera straight away when the app starts, and vibrate on a recognised code.

Barcodehammer is one app without advertisements. Everything it is fundamentally about is in the free version. Pro is a one-off purchase of €4.95, not a subscription; Google Play shows the amount in your own currency.

What Pro adds

An unlimited history, instead of up to 25 scanned and up to 25 made codes. The ticket vault: your tickets behind your fingerprint, with a key of its own that is only released once you identify yourself. Bulk scanning: scanning on and counting, with the list as an xlsx file. Searching a shared PDF and pulling all the codes out of it in one list, and that list into the vault in one go. Saving and sharing at 2048 instead of 512 pixels. Picking a logo from a file: a PNG, an SVG or a PDF, where a vector logo stays vector in the SVG and PDF export. And saving as SVG and PDF: drawings that stay sharp at any size, on A4 as well.

What is in the free version

Scanning with the camera, making codes in all twenty formats, the encrypted history (up to 25 scanned and up to 25 made codes), a logo from the gallery in a QR code, sharing, saving as PNG and the backup with a password.

Where the line does not run

Never along the format of the code. Every code can be made, read and shared in both versions.

The app works entirely on this device. No account and no signing in: what you scan or make goes nowhere.

Why the app has internet permission

Not because Barcodehammer asks for it. Google's scanning library that recognises the codes puts that permission in its own part of the app file, and can send usage data about itself to Google with it. Barcodehammer sends nothing away with it, and there is no server where anything ends up.

What is stored encrypted on the device

The history (AES-256-GCM), with the key in Android's secure storage. The ticket vault has a key of its own that is only released after your fingerprint, face, PIN or pattern. The camera only reads codes and keeps no images.

What leaves the app leaves it because you point it out

Save as file, share, save a bulk list as xlsx or make a backup. That bulk list is an ordinary Excel file without a password: it then sits readable in the place you pointed out. The backup is protected with your own password (PBKDF2), and without that password nothing can be got out of it.

Buying Pro

That runs through the Play Store. Google handles the payment; the app is only told whether it was paid. No payment detail passes through the app.

Sending feedback

With the button at the top right you put a remark ready in your own mail program. Under your text come the version, what Android says about itself, the screen you came from, the language and whether Pro is on. Nothing else, and nothing from the history or the vault. The app does not send that mail itself: you do, and you see everything before you press.

The full policy

That is on the Privacy policy page.

The privacy policy, the frequently asked questions and the terms of use are on the internet as well, in Dutch, English and Spanish. Handy for reading something at leisure or for sending someone else there.

The link in the app

It opens your browser. The app itself makes no connection and does not ask for that permission either.

At the bottom of the home screen and at the bottom of this Help page is the line with the version number. Tapping it opens the About screen: the app's name and version, a QR code with the app's logo in the middle that points to Barcodehammer in the Play Store, a button to that same page with the address underneath in text, and who made the app.

The QR code

It sits on a white background, even in dark mode, because a scanner expects dark on light. The logo in the middle covers part of the code, so it is given a high level of error correction.