Code 93 was introduced in 1982. It was specifically designed to provide a more compact version of Code 39 due to its high-density complement. Code 93 is a variable length, continuous symbology employing four element widths. Each Code 93 character has nine modules that may be either black or white. Each character contains three bars and three spaces. Each character begins with a bar and ends with a space. This is a (9,3) code hence the name.

Code 93 has 47 characters in its character set. The start/stop code is represented by the symbol ?, and the four unique circle codes, ($), (%), (/), and (+), are used as precedence characters to unambiguously represent all 128 ASCII characters in a similar fashion to Code 39's Full ASCII feature. Because the special "circle codes" are used for the Full ASCII feature, the ambiguity problem present with Code 39 is eliminated.

CODE 93 is a variable length symbology that can encode the complete 128 ASCII character set. Code 93 was developed as an enhancement to the CODE 39 symbology by providing a slightly higher character density than CODE 39. CODE 93 also incorporates two check digits as an added measure of security. Although CODE 93 is considered more robust than CODE 39, it has never achieved the same popularity as Code 39. CODE 93 bar codes are framed by a special start/stop character. B-Coder will automatically add the start and stop characters as well as the check digits to each Code 93 bar code therefore you should not attempt to include them as part of your bar code message.