OCR-B is a
monospace font developed in 1968 by
Adrian Frutiger for
Monotype by following the
European Computer Manufacturer's Association standard. Its function was to facilitate the
optical character recognition operations by specific electronic devices. It was accepted as the world standard in 1973. It follows the
ISO 1073/II-1976 (E) standard, refined in 1979 ("letterpress" design, size I). It has been created to get
financial features,
bank-oriented specifically. It includes all
ASCII symbols, and other symbols included for the bank environment. It is widely used for the human readable digits in
UPC /
EAN barcodes. It shares the target with
OCR-A, but it is easier for the
human eye and brain to read and it has a less technical look.