This is a mandated minimum amount of white space before the bar code begins. The PDF417 bar code (also called a symbol) consists of 3 to 90 rows, each of which is like a small linear bar code. It is the intent and understanding of ISO/IEC that the symbology presented in this International Standard is entirely in the public domain and free of all user restrictions, licences and fees. The introduction of the ISO/IEC document states: Manufacturers of bar code equipment and users of bar code technology require publicly available standard symbology specifications to which they can refer when developing equipment and application standards. Anyone can implement systems using this format without any license. The user can decide how wide the narrowest vertical bar (X dimension) is, and how tall the rows are (Y dimension). PDF417 symbols can link to other symbols which are scanned in sequence allowing even more data to be stored. In addition to features typical of two dimensional bar codes, PDF417's capabilities include: PDF417 barcodes are also included on visas and border crossing cards issued by the State of Israel ( example). PDF417 is the standard selected by the Department of Homeland Security as the machine readable zone technology for RealID compliant driver licenses and state issued identification cards. PDF417 is also used by the airline industry's Bar Coded Boarding Pass ( BCBP) standard as the 2D bar code symbolism for paper boarding passes.

PDF417 is one of the formats (along with Data Matrix) that can be used to print postage accepted by the United States Postal Service. PDF417 is used in many applications by both commercial and government organizations. The '417' signifies that each pattern in the code consists of 4 bars and spaces in a pattern that is 17 units (modules) long. PDF417 is a stacked linear barcode format used in a variety of applications such as transport, identification cards, and inventory management.

Driver license barcode format by state