CEN/TS 14826:2022

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2022
Nadomešča:
SIST-TS CEN/TS 14826:2005
Poštne storitve - Avtomatska identifikacija pošiljk - Specifikacija kakovosti tiska
dvodimenzionalnega simbola črtne kode za strojno branje digitalne poštne
označbe
Postal services - Automatic identification of items - Two dimensional bar code symbol
print quality specification for machine readable Digital Postage Marks
Postalische Dienstleistungen - Automatische Identifizierung von Sendungen -
Druckqualität von zwei-dimensionalen Strichcodes für Digitale Freimachungsvermerke
Services postaux - Identification automatique des envois postaux - Mesure de la qualité
d'impression des Marques d'Affranchissement Digitales sous la forme de symboles de
codes à barres bidimensionnels lisibles par une machine
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TS 14826:2022
ICS:
03.240 Poštne storitve Postal services
35.040.50 Tehnike za samodejno Automatic identification and
razpoznavanje in zajem data capture techniques
podatkov
35.240.69 Uporabniške rešitve IT pri IT applications in postal
poštnih storitvah services
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

CEN/TS 14826
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE
July 2022
TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
ICS 03.240; 35.040.50; 35.240.69 Supersedes CEN/TS 14826:2004
English Version
Postal services - Automatic identification of items - Two
dimensional bar code symbol print quality specification
for machine readable Digital Postage Marks
Services postaux - Identification automatique des Postalische Dienstleistungen - Automatische
envois postaux - Mesure de la qualité d'impression des Identifizierung von Sendungen - Druckqualität von
Marques d'Affranchissement Digitales sous la forme de zwei-dimensionalen Strichcodes für Digitale
symboles de codes à barres bidimensionnels lisibles Freimachungsvermerke
par une machine
This Technical Specification (CEN/TS) was approved by CEN on 6 June 2022 for provisional application.

The period of validity of this CEN/TS is limited initially to three years. After two years the members of CEN will be requested to
submit their comments, particularly on the question whether the CEN/TS can be converted into a European Standard.

CEN members are required to announce the existence of this CEN/TS in the same way as for an EN and to make the CEN/TS
available promptly at national level in an appropriate form. It is permissible to keep conflicting national standards in force (in
parallel to the CEN/TS) until the final decision about the possible conversion of the CEN/TS into an EN is reached.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2022 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TS 14826:2022 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Symbols and abbreviations . 8
5 Requirements . 8
6 Basic measurement methodology . 10
7 Verification requirements for Digital Postage Marks. 10
8 Grading implications for individual symbol attributes . 13
9 Additional grading parameters - Quiet zone . 15
10 Qualification of printing systems for Digital Postage Marks . 15
Annex A (normative) Test procedure for printing systems for Digital Postage Marks . 16
Annex B (informative) Light sources and spectral response characteristics for verification of
Digital Postage Marks . 18
Annex C (informative) Symbol parameters measured in accordance with ISO/IEC 15415 . 21
Annex D (informative) Characteristics of Digital Postage Mark printing and reading
environments that affect print quality . 23
Annex E (informative) Possible causes of low parameter grades in the Digital Postage Mark
environment . 26
Bibliography . 30

European foreword
This document (CEN/TS 14826:2022) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 331 “Postal
Services”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This document supersedes CEN/TS 14826:2004.
Organisations contributing to the development of the document include:
— Universal Postal Union;
— ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 28 “Office equipment”;
— ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 “Automatic identification and data capture techniques”;
It is intended that this document is adopted by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 28, in the work programme of which the
project has been assigned project number ISO/IEC NP 18050.
For compatibility between CEN and UPU versions of this document, the term 'document' is used. In a CEN
context, this is interpreted as being equivalent to the deliverable mentioned on the title page of this
document. In a UPU context, this is interpreted as being equivalent to 'standard'.
In comparison with the previous edition, the following technical modifications have been made:
— EN 14615 has been added as a normative reference.
— Clauses 5, 7.4.2 and A.3 have been modified to take into account the latest edition of ISO/IEC 15415.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to announce this Technical Specification: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of
North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
Digital Postage Marks (or franking marks), sometimes abbreviated to DPM, are used to evidence the
payment of postage and/or other fees related to services requested by mailers. Digital Postage Marks are
represented by symbols imprinted on the envelope, the label or the insert. Digital Postage Marks
produced by different vendors’ systems are generated with a variety of symbols and graphical images.
The symbologies used for these images are primarily two-dimensional bar codes of both multi-row
(PDF417) and matrix types (e.g. Data Matrix), as specified in UPU standard S28. However, postal
operators can also use other symbologies, e.g. OCR or 4-state codes for these purposes. The two-
dimensional bar code symbologies offer advantages for the machine-readable representation of data
strings of the order of 80 or more bytes in length, due to their high information density characteristics.
Public postal operators and private carriers in Europe have a high interest in automatically reading and
validating these marks, preferably at high speed. It is essential that these symbols are read reliably by
postal processing equipment. The highest practicable read rate is desired by users of such equipment in
order to ensure efficient automation of this process, and any shortfall in the read rate can have as its
consequence a loss of revenue to the operator.
This document has been designed to customise the generic method of measuring the print quality of two-
dimensional bar code symbols to the needs of the postal application and to recommend appropriate print
quality levels that should contribute to the achievement of the read rates desired by the authorities
responsible for validation of the Digital Postage Marks and by postal operators; it is also intended to
provide guidelines for printing machine readable Digital Postage Marks on mail items. The Technical
Specification will provide mailers, postal operators and their suppliers with a practical, quantitative, and
objective way to measure and communicate to each other basic print quality parameters of machine-
readable Digital Postage Marks. Since all attributes do not contribute uniformly to the readability of a
Digital Postage Mark, the Technical Specification identifies five levels of criticality for an attribute (graded
0 to 4, in ascending order of quality), and a grading scheme that assesses the overall symbol quality based
on averaging the results of multiple scans.
The document can be used in the following ways:
— it allows an estimate to be made of the readability of a Digital Postage Mark without actually
submitting it to any postal validation and the qualification of said symbol as acceptable or not
acceptable for readability purposes;
— it allows an estimate to be made of the quality levels potentially achievable by a printing system with
particular substrates;
— it provides a tool for process control in the operation of Digital Postage Mark printing systems.
The document applies the measurement methodology defined in ISO/IEC 15415 for print quality
attributes that tend to influence the readability of two-dimensional bar codes. This methodology is
derived from a view of the current state-of-the-art in two-dimensional bar code scanning technologies.
Yet, such a state-of-the-art is not a perfectly defined concept. First, it is likely to evolve with time towards
improved recognition capabilities. Second, an automatic identification and data capture system is always
the result of a compromise between recognition power and cost. This is why the Technical Specification
is expressed in the form of guidelines rather than prescriptions. However, it is not technically possible to
define guidelines concerning solely the printing of Digital Postage Marks without taking into account the
manufacturing of the mail item as a whole. The readability of the Digital Postage Mark is a function not
only of the inherent quality of printing, i.e. the interaction of the ink, substrate and printing mechanism
together with the effects of the shape of the mail-piece and its transport through the printing system on
the production of the mark, but also of the effects of environmental and handling factors in transit
between the production point and the point at which it is to be read. For example, the symbol contrast of
Digital Postage Marks is not only that provided by the printer/paper combination under defined
illumination conditions. It also results from a variety of other factors among which the covering of the
mail item or the material of the transparent window through which the Digital Postage Mark can be seen.
As a consequence, the guidelines described in this document apply to the Digital Postage Mark blocks of
fully assembled mail items. It is the responsibility of the users of the Technical Specification to achieve
compliance with the guidelines by controlling the effects of the physical elements resulting in the relevant
attributes.
The guidelines are primarily a tool for predicting the level of Digital Postage Mark readability with respect
to current scanning technologies, and compliance with them should result in a high level of Digital
Postage Mark readability. The guidelines are aimed at facilitating the relations between postal operators
and customers, vendors of mail generation and printing equipment and suppliers of mail reading and
sorting equipment. In particular, equipment vendors need firm and precise guidance in designing print
systems and formats for machine readability. Therefore, a quantitative specification of print quality is
critical to the development of products that meet the needs of mailers and postal operators.
1 Scope
This document:
— specifies a methodology for the measurement of defined print quality attributes of Digital Postage
Marks in the form of two-dimensional bar code symbols on mail-pieces;
— defines methods for grading the results of these m
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