THE 2D BARCODE DEADLINE
The industry is moving the striped barcode to a 2D code that carries a web address — one that has to answer, correctly, for as long as that label exists. GS1's goal is every checkout lane reading it by the end of 2027. We get your whole catalogue ready in an afternoon, and then keep every printed code alive and compliant forever.
ONE CODE · MANY ANSWERS
Liveshown at 100%
dashed = quiet zone
https://id.riverbend.com
The same printed symbol can answer a shopper, a checkout lane and a regulator differently — and you change the answers after the label is printed.
01
WHAT CHANGES
A 2D code carries a GS1 Digital Link — a real web address with your GTIN in it, and optionally the batch. At the checkout it does everything the EAN-13 does; on a phone it does everything a URL can. Until 2D readers are near-universal, the standard's own path is both symbols on one label.
WHAT'S NEW FOR YOU
Printing a code means committing to answering it. For years. Through rebrands, reformulations, agency changes and the afternoon you find out a batch has to come off shelf.
WHAT IT'S WORTH
Ingredients, allergens, provenance, recycling, the story — none of it has to fit on the back of the jar any more. A code the size of a postage stamp is as much room as you want it to be.
NOW
In June 2024, twenty-two of the world's biggest retailers and brands — Carrefour, Lidl, Nestlé and P&G among them — signed up to the 2027 goal. Pilots are running in 48 countries. Dual-marking — both symbols on one label — is the standard's own transition path.
YOUR NEXT PRINT RUN
A code added to artwork you were revising anyway costs almost nothing extra in plates or labels. Added later, it is a reprint you didn't plan.
END OF 2027
The date the industry organised itself around: every retail point of sale able to read 2D. Not a switch-off — the striped code isn't retired until 2D readers are near-universal.
AFTER
GS1 mandates nothing; retailers and regulators do. EU wine e-labelling is already law, and supplier requirements tend to follow capability. Ready brands get asked fewer questions.
02
01
CSV or XLSX, up to 50,000 rows. We map your columns, catch the check-digit
typos, and tell you which GTIN Excel quietly turned into 8.71E+12.
02
Vector files with the quiet zone as real geometry, the X-dimension checked against point-of-sale minimums, and a placement sheet. Free at every tier, no watermark once your prefix is verified.
03
Edit a page, add a language, point a batch somewhere new — live in the resolver in about five seconds. The printed code never changes.
IMPORT · REVIEW · 50,000 ROWS
31,398 ready8.71E+12 — Excel turned this into scientific notation Error You can close this tab — validation continues and resumes where it left off.
SCREENSHOT · IMPORT REVIEW · replace with a real capture at 2×
03 · THE PROMISE
Not when your card expires. Not when you cancel. Not during an outage — and not when you leave us for a competitor, either. If you stop paying us, your branding pauses and your codes keep resolving to correct information on a page we host, because the alternative is a shopper holding a jar and getting a 404.
That is the difference between this and a QR code made in a browser tab, and it is why we sell a service instead of a download.
What a resolver has to do to keep answering → CONFORMANCE, DATED
On 12 August 2026 we ran GS1's public resolver conformance test
suite — https://ref.gs1.org/test-suites/resolver/ — against
https://pkgedge.com/01/09520123456788: 30 pass,
1 warn, 0 fail. Both addresses
are public, so you can run it yourself. GS1 does not endorse, certify or
operate this service.
Every printed code still resolving, your product information still correct, your branding paused. Nothing is deleted and nothing is broken — one payment restores it, in about five seconds, on the same printed codes.
WHAT KEEPS WORKING, WHATEVER HAPPENS
04 · THE BAD AFTERNOON
You know the lot code and nothing else. In packagepage you publish a recall notice against that lot, and every scan of every label carrying it — and only those labels — starts showing the notice instead of the product page. Other lots are untouched.
It is never gated, at any tier, including the free one. A notice reaches people who scan the code; it does not notify regulators, retailers or distributors, and the product says so plainly, because getting that wrong is how a brand ends up in court.
How a recall notice propagates →RECALL — DO NOT DRINK
This lot is affected by a voluntary recall issued 28 July 2026.
Stop using this product. Riverbend Cellars will refund it in full — you do not need a receipt.
LOT42 · Best before 2029-06-01
Only this lot is affected.
Product information provided by Riverbend Cellars LLC · Last updated 28 July 2026 · GTIN 09520123456788 · Lot LOT42
Powered by packagepage
05 · FOR PACKAGING AGENCIES
Every label you redraw between now and 2027 is a conversation about 2D codes. Bring us in as the part you don't have to become an expert in: we hand you preflighted vector files and a placement sheet, and your client keeps the account.
X-dimension, quiet zone and error correction stated in millimetres, in a file your printer's prepress team will recognise.
Their catalogue, their domain, their tokens. You work in it; they own it.
Select 200 SKUs, get 200 preflighted files and a manifest. No naming archaeology.
GTINs pooled across client workspaces rather than a subscription per brand.
06
$0
10 GTINs. Print-ready files. Recall notices. Not a trial.
$49/mo
100 GTINs, your own domain, spreadsheet import.
$199/mo
1,000 GTINs, batch-level links, API, multi-language pages.
Scale at $599, and pooled Enterprise plans from $1,500 for agencies and groups.
Full comparison →Two things money can't buy here. A watermark-free preview before your company prefix is verified — that's a trust check, not a paywall, and no plan lifts it. And a barcode that passes preflight better than the free one, because there is only one preflight.
07
DOCS · 4 MIN
A dated run of GS1's public resolver conformance test suite against a live packagepage resolver — the result, the raw output, the one warning it returned, and the thing the suite does not test.
NOTES · 3 MIN
Consumer product pages are themed with typed tokens rather than a stylesheet. The reason is the allergen block, and it is the one product decision we are not willing to negotiate.
DOCS · 3 MIN
What happens when you publish a recall notice, exactly who it reaches, why it writes two links to every affected grain rather than one, and why it is free and ungated on every plan.
504 DAYS TO SUNRISE
Launch is free forever, needs no card, and gives you the same preflight, the same print files and the same recall notices as every paid plan.