The technology of bar coding is based on the recognition of patterns of bars and spaces of defined dimensions. There are various methods of encoding information in bar code form, known as symbologies, and the rules defining the translation of characters into bars and space patterns and other essential features are known as the symbology specification.

ISO/IEC 15438:2006 specifies the requirements for the bar code symbology known as PDF417. It specifies PDF417 symbology characteristics, data character encodation, symbol formats, dimensions, error correction rules, reference decoding algorithm, and a number of application parameters.