How to encode UTF-8 text into QR Code barcodes using VB.NET or C#

Product Barcode Professional .NET Product Line Published 01/02/2018 Updated 01/02/2018

Overview

In this guide you will learn how to generate QR Code barcode images encoding UTF-8 strings like Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese alphabets by using Barcode Professional .NET Product Line

Requirements

  Neodynamic Barcode Professional SDK for .NET
  Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or greater
  Microsoft Visual Studio

The following sample code, we'll encode the string Hellow World in Arabic language which (based on Google Translate service :) it's reprenseted by this string: مرحبا بالعالم

To reproduce the sample app, please follow these steps:

NOTE
In this article Barcode Professional SDK for .NET package is being used by you can adapt it to any of our others Barcode Professional .NET Product Line for platforms like .NET CORE, Reporting Services (SSRS), WPF/Windows Forms & ASP.NET MVC/WebForms

Follow up these steps

  • Open Visual Studio and create a new Console app using your preferred .NET language VB or C#
  • In your project add a reference to Neodynamic.SDK.Barcode.dll
  • In the main method, copy and paste the following code

    VB

    
'The UTF-8 string to be encoded
Dim valueToEncode As String = "مرحبا بالعالم"

Using bc As new BarcodeProfessional()
    'QR Code settings 
    bc.Symbology = Symbology.QRCode
    bc.QRCodeEncoding = QRCodeEncoding.Byte
    bc.QRCodeByteEncodingName = "utf-8"
    bc.QRCodeProcessTilde = True
    'convert each char to hex representation for Tilde Processing
    'https://neodynamic.com/barcodes/QR-Code-Barcode.aspx#ProcessTilde
    Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder()
    'Start appending UTF-8 BOM
    sb.Append("~hEF~hBB~hBF")
    'Append rest of text encoded as UTF-8 bytes
    Dim buffer As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(valueToEncode)
    For i As Integer = 0 To buffer.Length -1
        sb.Append("~h")
        sb.Append(Convert.ToString(buffer(i), 16).PadLeft(2, "0"C))
    Next
    'Set value to encode 
    bc.Code = sb.ToString()
                
    bc.Save("c:\temp\QR.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png)
End Using

    C#

    
//The UTF-8 string to be encoded
string valueToEncode = "مرحبا بالعالم";

using (BarcodeProfessional bc = new BarcodeProfessional())
{
    //QR Code settings 
    bc.Symbology = Symbology.QRCode;
    bc.QRCodeEncoding = QRCodeEncoding.Byte;
    bc.QRCodeByteEncodingName = "utf-8";
    bc.QRCodeProcessTilde = true;
    //convert each char to hex representation for Tilde Processing
    //https://neodynamic.com/barcodes/QR-Code-Barcode.aspx#ProcessTilde
    System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
    //Start appending UTF-8 BOM
    sb.Append("~hEF~hBB~hBF");
    //Append rest of text encoded as UTF-8 bytes
    byte[] buffer = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(valueToEncode);
    for (int i = 0; i < buffer.Length; i++) {
        sb.Append("~h");
        sb.Append(Convert.ToString(buffer[i], 16).PadLeft(2, '0'));
    }
    //Set value to encode 
    bc.Code = sb.ToString();
                
    bc.Save(@"c:\temp\QR.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
}
  • That's it! Run the app, the QR Code barcode encoding the UTF-8 string should be generated. Try decoding it by using a barcode reader that supports UTF-8 strings. For an online decoder you could try ZXing


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