Barcode

The barcode plugin generates linear barcode images with bwip-js and embeds them into the document as PNG content.

import {
  barcodePlugin,
  type BarcodeFormat,
  type BarcodeOptions,
} from 'docx-kit'

Install

Install the optional renderer alongside docx-kit:

pnpm add bwip-js

Options

interface BarcodeOptions {
  text: string
  alignment?: 'center' | 'left' | 'right'
  backgroundColor?: string
  barColor?: string
  barHeight?: number
  caption?: string
  format?: BarcodeFormat
  includeText?: boolean
  rotate?: 'I' | 'L' | 'N' | 'R'
  scale?: number
  textColor?: string
  width?: number
}

Common formats include code128, code39, code93, ean13, ean8, interleaved2of5, isbn, itf14, upca, and upce. The format type also accepts other encoder names supported by bwip-js.

Code 128

import { barcodePlugin, createDocx } from 'docx-kit/node'

const doc = createDocx()
  .use(barcodePlugin())
  .plugin('barcode', {
    text: 'DOCX-KIT-2026',
    caption: 'Inventory identifier',
    format: 'code128',
    width: 280,
  })

await doc.save('barcode.docx')

EAN-13

doc.plugin('barcode', {
  text: '5901234123457',
  format: 'ean13',
  barHeight: 16,
  includeText: true,
})

Colors and Rotation

doc.plugin('barcode', {
  text: 'DOCX-KIT-2026',
  backgroundColor: '#FEF3C7',
  barColor: '#1F2937',
  rotate: 'R',
  textColor: '#DC2626',
})

The plugin uses the Node.js PNG renderer when available and the browser canvas renderer in browser builds. The displayed height is calculated from the generated image so changing width preserves the barcode aspect ratio.

Style customization

Pass { styles } to the factory for instance defaults, and options.styles for invocation overrides. The package and docx-kit entry points export BarcodeConfig and BarcodeStyles. Priority: built-in/theme defaults → initialization styles → common node style → invocation part styles. Nested fields merge; arrays replace; undefined retains defaults; 0 and false apply. Units and theme tokens such as $colors.primary are supported.

Parts	Style type	Scope
caption	TextStyleRule	Run typography
captionParagraph, imageParagraph	ParagraphStyleRule	Background, borders, alignment, spacing and flow

These styles affect DOCX paragraphs and the caption; barcode pixels, dimensions and embedded text use the existing barcode options.

barcodePlugin({
  styles: { caption: { color: '#2563EB', fontSize: 14 } },
})

Use the same part names in options.styles for a single call. JSON DSL, AI tool schemas and MCP validation share these contracts; unknown parts and misplaced properties are rejected.