There are two main ways barcodes are used. They are either included in artwork
that is used to print thousands of items all with the same barcode on them, or
they are printed individually.
If you are printing one barcode thousands of times then a barcode program
is probably the best way to create the barcode.
With individual barcodes a barcode font is the best way to
produce them.
When creating artwork that needs a barcode a program like Quark® Xpress, or Adobe® In-Design® is normally used and the barcode placed in the artwork as an EPSF or TIFF file.
If large numbers of labels need to be produced a barcode font is usually the easiest way to produce the barcodes. Most database programs have label layouts defined within them. The barcode number that the human can read has to be converted into a set of characters that can be displayed as a barcode when the barcode font is used.