Bulk Aztec Code generator

Aztec is generated in runs when tickets are issued: rail and air boarding passes, event admissions, transit passes. Each symbol carries a payload unique to one passenger or seat, which makes a batch a printing operation over records that already exist — and makes duplication the failure that matters, not encoding.

One value per line. A single line of comma- or semicolon-separated values works too. A header row (like “Value”) counts as a value and will be rejected — leave it out.

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Enter a value — the code appears here.

Specification

Character set
any data
Length
from 1 to 3067 characters
Check digit
not used by this symbology

Need the specification and use cases first? What is Aztec Code?

Where this code earns its place in a batch

  • Ticket runs printed on crowded stock: Aztec needs no quiet zone around the symbol, so it fits a boarding pass where a QR of the same capacity would not.
  • Anything scanned off a phone screen at a gate — the bullseye finder reads reliably at an angle and through glare, which is the normal condition at a turnstile.
  • Issued documents rather than generated ones: each symbol corresponds to a booking that already exists, which is why the run is a printing job and not a numbering one.

Preparing the list

  • Generate from the issued record identifiers rather than a counter: an Aztec ticket is only as valid as the booking behind it, and a sequence invents bookings.
  • Keep payloads to the identifier and let the system behind the barrier hold the rest: a long payload grows the matrix, and boarding passes are printed on narrow stock.
  • Verify the longest record in the batch at the printed size before running the whole tray of tickets.

What goes wrong in a batch

  • Printing the same payload twice in one run: two tickets that scan as one booking is a gate problem discovered by the second passenger.
  • Filling the payload with human-readable passenger details. Aztec has no quiet zone requirement to speak of, which tempts designers to shrink it — and a long payload at a small size is exactly what fails.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Aztec suit a ticket run better than QR?
It needs no quiet zone around the symbol, so it fits a crowded boarding pass, and its bullseye finder reads reliably off a phone screen at an angle. Both matter more at a gate than the raw capacity difference.
Can a batch reuse one payload across several tickets?
It can be printed, but it should not be. The barcode is the identifier the gate trusts, and duplicating it means the second scan of the same value is either refused or admits the wrong person.