Scantastic.

I'm just going to say it; today's plink is about barcodes. Yeah... barcodes. Don't leave though, I am going somewhere with this. Also, you know I'm good for it. I've turned something dull into an interesting post before. Remember the post about Forklift Truck Safety? Exactly.

Anyway, I wouldn't be the first to try and jazz up the humble barcode. Remember Barcode Battlers?

But I digress. So barcodes are everywhere, yes? And they're pretty dull, yes? Just a dull arrangement of vertical black bars, some wider than others. Totally tedious, but then they're only there to fulfill a function. Nothing we can do to make them more interesting, right?

Wrong! They could look like this:

MUCH better. This seems to be mainly a Japanese phenomenon, mostly the work of a company called D-Barcode. Hooray for them!

More info and plenty more examples HERE, check 'em out.