How To Make And Use a Free USPS IMB Barcode

In my last blog I discussed Intelligent Mail Barcodes. In this blog I’ll show you how to make on your own Intelligent Mail Barcode for free and apply it to a mailing label or envelope.

Business Customer Gateway Account

First you need a USPS Mailer ID.  This is really simple.  Just create an account on the Business Customer Gateway.  Once you have verified your account you’ll be assigned a 9 digit Mailer ID.  Having this ID is crucial to encoding your barcode.

Zip Code

Next you’ll need the 9 digit zip code for the address you want to ship to.  You can look that up here.

Encoder

Now you can go to the Decoder / Encoder page.  Make sure to click on the Encoder tab on the page.

Fill in the following:

• Select “9 Digit” if your Mailer ID is 9 digits
• Barcode ID can be 00 (number zeros)
• Special Services can be 310 if just regular First Class Mail
• Enter your 9 Digit Mailer ID
• Select a serial number – it can be anything but it needs to be 9 digits long (i.e 000000001)
• Add 9 digit zip code
• Click “Encode”

It will create a 65 character text file and offer an image file for download.

Putting It To Use

You can simply drag the PNG image file onto your label (if your label software supports it).

Size is critical and it should be 2 3/4″ to 3 1/4″ in length.

Also you can cut and paste your 65 characters

 FAAADDFFFATTAFAFTADDFFDDFDDFDAFTDFFATTDDAATATFDTDTFTTFTDFAFTTTAFD

Then download the non-AFP fonts from this USPS webpage and install the USPSIMBStandard Font.

After you have cut and pasted your characters, highlight them and select the USPSIMBStandard font and size it to 16 pt.  This will be the perfect and correct size.  The video below shows the process.  This can be done in any text editor or word processing program or label software.

That’s it.  You just made a USPS IMB bar code!  You da man!