Royal Mail 4-State Barcode API

Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code, commonly abbreviated RM4SCC, is the height-modulated barcode Royal Mail developed for automated mail sorting in the United Kingdom. Like the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode, it encodes data across four bar states, ascender, descender, tracker, and full bar, but its payload is built from the UK postcode and delivery point suffix rather than a numeric tracking code, letting sorting machines route mail directly by address.

Call the BarGen REST API with a UK postcode and delivery point suffix to generate an RM4SCC symbol, returned as SVG or PNG sized to Royal Mail's printing specification for envelopes and mailing labels.

Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code (RM4SCC) is a barcode used by Royal Mail, the UK postal service, for automated mail sorting. It encodes the postcode and Delivery Point Suffix (DPS) to route mail to the correct address.

The barcode uses four bar states similar to other postal codes: full bar, ascender, descender, and tracker. It can encode uppercase letters A-Z and digits 0-9, allowing the full UK postcode format plus delivery point information.

RM4SCC is designed for Cleanmail and Mailsort services, which offer discounts for pre-sorted mail. Mailers who print the barcode on their mail pieces receive reduced postage rates in exchange for reducing Royal Mail's sorting workload.

The barcode includes start and stop characters plus a check digit for error detection. When properly printed in the delivery address area, it enables automated sorting at high speeds, reducing manual handling and improving delivery times.