Code 93 (also called USS-93) is a slight variation of Code 39, designed to improve Code 39 to obtain denser code. Code 93 encdes 47 ASCII characters and is a continuous symbology. Code 93 can represent alpha-numeric data and is self-checking variable-length code.

Applications
Mainly used in manufacturing, military, and health applications.

Benefits
Code 93 being denser than Code 39, can be used on smaller products. In addition it has two check digits for error detection.

Limitations
Although Code 93 is considered more robust than Code 39, it is not as widely used as Code 39.

Technical Specifications
Code 93 is a continuous, variable-length symbology. It produces denser code. It also encodes 47 characters compared to Code 39's 43 characters. Each Code 93 character is 9 X-dimensions wide and contains three bars and three spaces. Code 93 begins and ends with a start/stop character.

Additional Information
In Code 39, four of the characters ($, %, /, and +) are used to optionally encode all 128 characters-but there is no way to know whether those characters are being used as shift characters in Full ASCII mode or whether they are being used to represent $, %, /, and +. In Code 93 this problem is solved by reserving these four special characters exclusively to "shift" into Full ASCII mode.

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