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Free Barcode Font - Barcode String Builder

I've produced a small Visual Studio 2005 assembly (dll) that will convert an input string into the appropriate string to be provided to produce a valid barcode.  This DLL is free of charge to use and re-distribute, and can be used with both the free Code 39  and Code 128  fonts.
Sample of the windows test program

Encode text string to barcode string here

Input value
Encode value
Notes
1) Code 39 does not contain lowercase characters
2) The encoded value for code 39 includes the checksum, this in not a requirement, refer to the barcode.chm manual for details
3) Only ASCII characters can be converted using code 128
Try this
Using code 128, try converting "A1234B567" and then converting "A12345678".
Both of these string have the same number of characters, but the second string when encoded is shorter.
Why: This is because code 128 can compress pairs of numbers, but switching character sets is only economical if the first or last 4 consecutive characters are numbers or there are more than 6 consecutive numbers to be encoded, clever isn't it!!.

Downloads

The following downloads are freely available and can be used for any purpose. Why are they free? well, barcoding has always been a hobby of mine and I can see no reason why anyone or any company should be charge for this information.
VS2005 assembly (DLL) only Click here for barcode assembly (dll)
Manual for assembly - barcode.chm Click here for barcode manual (chm)
Source code with a test harness program that also includes printing facilities. Click here for barcode source code package (zip)
Code 39 font (for font installation instructions click here) Click here for code 39 font
Code 128 font (for font installation instructions click here) Click here for code 128 font

Sample code

To use the assembly provided above, add a reference to the assembly within your Visual Studio 2005 project and then call the static methods as shown below:- 
//Define value to hold encoded string
string encodedText;
 
// Code 39 with Checksum
encodedText = BarCode.BarcodeConverter39.StringToBarcode("TEXTREQUIRED", true);

// Code 39 without Checksum
encodedText = BarCode.BarcodeConverter39.StringToBarcode("TEXTREQUIRED");
// or
encodedText = BarcodeConverter39.StringToBarcode("TEXTREQUIRED", false);

// Code 128 (The checksum is mandatory, and therefore always included)
encodedText = BarCode.BarcodeConverter128.StringToBarcode("TextRequired");
To use these barcodes within a textbox or other control, I would suggest a size of about 28pt, e.g. 
//Code 128
textBox1.Text = BarCode.BarcodeConverter128.StringToBarcode("TextRequired");
textBox1.Font = new Font("Code 128", 28);

//Code 39
label1.Text = BarCode.BarcodeConverter39.StringToBarcode( textBox1.Text.ToUpper(), true );
label1.Font = new Font("Code 3 de 9", 28);