barcode / QR code usage?

[Paul Gordon <paul_gordon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chaps, I have a potential need to be able to both generate custom
content into a machine readable (but not human readable) form, and to also
be able to scan & decode it, so pretty much I want to be able to
generate my own "barcodes" & read them back...

I want the reader to be an iPhone... - there are a plethora of barcode / QR
code reading apps available for this platform... - the majority do however
seem to be focussed on the price-comparison aspect, - i.e. scan a product
barcode in a shop, & it goes online to seek out the best price... - I'm
not interested in that, I just want to scan a code & have the data
presented as plain human readable text on the screen...

The other side of the equation is I want to be able to produce the codes
from (preferably) MS Word documents, ideally by typing a short block of
text as normal, and then just changing the font to convert it to a code
that can then be printed...

Oh, and because this is a project for a local voluntary organisation, it
all has to be free!...

Does anybody *already* do anything like this to save me ploughing through
lots of research to get to a workable solution?

I understand some of the main commercial barcodes only support a fixed,
(and small) number of characters in the code.. - i.e.. 8 or 13 characters
for EAN-8 or EAN-13 and so on... this probably wouldn't be enough for my
needs, I'd like to be able to use about 25 ish characters per code if
possible...

I don't especially care what *kind* of code it is... I'm happy to use any
barcode/QR code type system, just so long as I can produce them from MS
word, read them on an iPhone, and give them out to people who can't easily
decipher them...

I'd appreciate any suggestions/opinons on specific products...

TIA

Paul G.

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