ZXing.Net.MAUI

The successor to ZXing.Net.Mobile: barcode scanning and generation for .NET MAUI applications

Barcode Scanning

Install ZXing.Net.MAUI

1. Install ZXing.Net.Maui.Controls NuGet package on your .NET MAUI application

2. Make sure to initialize the plugin first in your MauiProgram.cs, see below

   // Add the using to the top
   using ZXing.Net.Maui.Controls;
   
   // ... other code 
   
   public static MauiApp Create()
   {
   	var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
   
   	builder
   		.UseMauiApp<App>()
   		.UseBarcodeReader(); // Make sure to add this line
   
   	return builder.Build();
   }

Now we just need to add the right permissions to our app metadata. Find below how to do that for each platform.

Android

For Android go to your AndroidManifest.xml file (under the Platforms\Android folder) and add the following permissions inside of the manifest node:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

iOS

For iOS go to your info.plist file (under the Platforms\iOS folder) and add the following permissions inside of the dict node:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses barcode scanning to...</string>

Make sure that you enter a clear and valid reason for your app to access the camera. This description will be shown to the user.

Windows

Windows is not supported at this time for barcode scanning. You can however use the barcode generation. No extra permissions are required for that.

For more information on permissions, see the Microsoft Docs.

Using ZXing.Net.Maui

If you're using the controls from XAML, make sure to add the right XML namespace in the root of your file, e.g: xmlns:zxing="clr-namespace:ZXing.Net.Maui.Controls;assembly=ZXing.Net.MAUI.Controls"

<zxing:CameraBarcodeReaderView
  x:Name="cameraBarcodeReaderView"
  BarcodesDetected="BarcodesDetected" />

Configure Reader options

cameraBarcodeReaderView.Options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
  Formats = BarcodeFormats.OneDimensional,
  AutoRotate = true,
  Multiple = true
};

QR codes with international characters (e.g., £, €, ¥, or non-Latin scripts) are supported by default with UTF-8 encoding. You can override this if needed:

cameraBarcodeReaderView.Options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
  Formats = BarcodeFormats.TwoDimensional,
  CharacterSet = "ISO-8859-1"  // Override default UTF-8 if needed
};

Toggle Torch

cameraBarcodeReaderView.IsTorchOn = !cameraBarcodeReaderView.IsTorchOn;

Flip between Rear/Front cameras

cameraBarcodeReaderView.CameraLocation
  = cameraBarcodeReaderView.CameraLocation == CameraLocation.Rear ? CameraLocation.Front : CameraLocation.Rear;

Select a specific camera

// Get available cameras
var cameras = await cameraBarcodeReaderView.GetAvailableCameras();

// Select a specific camera by setting the SelectedCamera property
if (cameras.Count > 0)
{
  cameraBarcodeReaderView.SelectedCamera = cameras[0];
}

// Or loop through available cameras and select one by name
foreach (var camera in cameras)
{
  Console.WriteLine($"Camera: {camera.Name} ({camera.Location})");
  // Select the first rear camera found
  if (camera.Location == CameraLocation.Rear)
  {
    cameraBarcodeReaderView.SelectedCamera = camera;
    break;
  }
}

Handle detected barcode(s)

protected void BarcodesDetected(object sender, BarcodeDetectionEventArgs e)
{
  foreach (var barcode in e.Results)
    Console.WriteLine($"Barcodes: {barcode.Format} -> {barcode.Value}");
}

Barcode Generator View

<zxing:BarcodeGeneratorView
  HeightRequest="100"
  WidthRequest="100"
  ForegroundColor="DarkBlue"
  Value="https://dotnet.microsoft.com"
  Format="QrCode"
  Margin="3" />

Character Encoding

The BarcodeGeneratorView supports UTF-8 character encoding by default, which allows you to encode international characters including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and other non-ASCII characters. You can also specify a different character encoding if needed:

<zxing:BarcodeGeneratorView
  HeightRequest="100"
  WidthRequest="100"
  Value="测试中文 Test UTF-8"
  Format="QrCode"
  CharacterSet="UTF-8" />

The CharacterSet property defaults to "UTF-8" if not specified. Other common values include "ISO-8859-1", "Shift_JIS", etc., depending on your barcode format requirements.