Code 49 was developed in 1987 by Intermec Technologies to fill a need to pack a lot of information into a very small symbol.
A bar code symbology that is multirow, fixed length, and continuous, variable symbology encoding the full ASCII 128 character set.
It is suitable for labeling small objects because it can encode more data in less area than other codes.
Its maximum density is 93.3 alphanumeric characters per inch or 154.3 numeric characters per inch.

Each row is composed of 18 bars and 17 spaces. There are between two and eight adjacent rows, each divided by a separator bar. Each row contains a row number, and the last row contains information indicating how many rows there are in the symbol.

Code 49 symbols can be read with modified moving-beam laser scanners or CCD scanners. Labels can be printed by standard printing technologies. A disadvantage with Code 49 is its structure that requires a large amount of memory for encoding and decoding tables and algorithms.