Editing Barcode reader (section)

== Resolution ==
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The scanner resolution is measured by the size of the dot of light emitted by the reader. If this dot of light is wider than any bar or space in the bar code, then it will overlap two elements (two spaces or two bars) and it may produce wrong output. On the other hand, if a too small dot of light is used, then it can misinterpret any spot on the bar code making the final output wrong.

The most commonly used dimension is 13&nbsp;[[Thousandth of an inch|mil]] (0.013&nbsp;[[inch|in]] or 0.33&nbsp;[[millimetre|mm]]), although some scanners can read codes with dimensions as small as 3&nbsp;mil (0.003&nbsp;[[inch|in]] or 0.075&nbsp;[[millimetre|mm]]). Smaller bar codes must be printed at high resolution to be read accurately.