Aztec Code

Aztec Code is a type of 2D barcodes. It was initially published as US Patent 5591956 and is also covered in ISO/IEC 24778:2008 .

Generation

Aztec Codes can easily be generated from python by using the treepoem library as shown below.

import treepoem
import sys

if len(sys.argv) == 3:

  print "Generating Aztec code"
  print "Data: " + sys.argv[2]
  print "Filename: " + sys.argv[1]
  aztec = treepoem.generate_barcode(barcode_type='azteccode',data=sys.argv[2],o$
  aztec.save(sys.argv[1])

else:
  print "Parameter Error!"
  print "gen_aztec.py \"filename\" \"data\""

Decoding

The best solution for decoding Aztec Codes from python I was able to find is a ZXing wrapper called python-zxing .

from zxing import *
import sys

zx = BarCodeReader("/opt/tools/zxing/")

if len(sys.argv) == 2:

  print "Opening file " + sys.argv[1] + "\n\n"

  barcode = zx.decode(sys.argv[1],True)

  if barcode != None:

    print "Printing raw\n"
    print barcode.raw
    print "\n\nPrinting data\n"
    print barcode.data

    data = open(sys.argv[1]+".raw.txt",'w')
    data.write(barcode.raw)
    data.close()

    data = open(sys.argv[1]+".data.txt",'w')
    data.write(barcode.data)
    data.close()

  else:
    print "No code found"

else:
  print "Argument error!"
  print "python dec_aztec.py \"imagename\""

Examples

Small Code

Code containing the text Aztec Test

Large Code

Code containing the begining of H.P Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Insmouth