README.windows

ZBAR BAR CODE READER
====================

ZBar Bar Code Reader is an open source software suite for reading bar codes
from various sources, such as video streams, image files and raw intensity
sensors. It supports EAN-13/UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, Code 128, Code 39,
Interleaved 2 of 5 and QR Code.  Included with the library are basic
applications for decoding captured bar code images and using a video device
(eg, webcam) as a bar code scanner.  For application developers, language
bindings are included for C, C++, Python and Perl as well as GUI widgets for
Qt, GTK and PyGTK.

Check the ZBar home page for the latest release, mailing lists, etc.
    http://zbar.sourceforge.net/

License information can be found in 'COPYING'.

This Windows distribution also includes pre-compiled binaries of several
supporting libraries, for which the copyright, license and source code
locations are as follows:

  * The GNU libiconv character set conversion library
    Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    This distribution includes GNU libiconv version 1.13.1, licensed under
    the LGPL version 2.  The source code is available from
        http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv

  * The ImageMagick software imaging library
    Copyright 1999-2009 ImageMagick Studio LLC
    This distribution includes ImageMagick version 6.5.4-10, licensed under
    its own terms.  The source code is available from
        http://imagemagick.org

  * The libxml2 XML C parser and toolkit
    Copyright (C) 1998-2003 Daniel Veillard.
    This distribution includes libxml2 version 2.7.3, provided under the MIT
    license.  The source code is available from
        http://xmlsoft.org

  * IJG JPEG library
    Copyright (C) 1991-2009, Thomas G. Lane, Guido Vollbeding.
    This distribution includes jpeg version 7, licensed under its own
    terms.  The source code is available from
        http://www.ijg.org

  * libtiff, a library for reading and writing TIFF
    Copyright (c) 1988-1997 Sam Leffler
    Copyright (c) 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    This distribution includes libtiff version 3.9.1, which is provided
    "as-is".  The source code is available from
        http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff

  * libpng, the official PNG reference library
    Copyright (c) 1998-2009 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
    This distribution includes libpng version 1.2.40, licensed under its own
    terms.  The source code is available from
        http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

  * The zlib general purpose compression library
    Copyright (C) 1995-2005 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
    This distribution includes zlib version 1.2.3, licensed under its own
    terms.  The source code is available from
        http://zlib.net

  * The bzip2 compression library
    Copyright (C) 1996-2007 Julian Seward.
    This distribution includes bzip2 version 1.0.5, licensed under its own
    terms.  The source code is available from
        http://bzip.org


INSTALLING
==========

ZBar for Windows is distributed with an installer, simply run the installer
and follow the prompts to install the software.


RUNNING
=======

This version of the package includes *only command line programs*.
(The graphical interface is scheduled for a future release)

Invoke Start -> Programs -> ZBar Bar Code Reader -> Start ZBar Command Prompt
to open a shell that has the zbarimg and zbarcam commands available
(in the PATH).

To start the webcam reader using the default camera, type:
    zbarcam

To decode an image file, type eg:
    zbarimg -d examples\barcode.png

For basic command instructions, type:
    zbarimg --help
    zbarcam --help

Check the manual for more details.


REPORTING BUGS
==============

Bugs can be reported on the SourceForge project page
    http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/zbar/

Please include the ZBar version number and a detailed description of
the problem.  You'll probably have better luck if you're also familiar
with the concepts from:
    http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html