What is an imprint? (and what is a DOI and a barcode?)

Quick answer. An imprint is the publisher name printed on the book — the label a title is published under. A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent link for a piece of digital content; a printed book does not need one. A barcode is the black-and-white scannable symbol made from your ISBN that the shop's till reads; it carries no new number of its own. Three different things that get mixed up constantly: one is a name, one is a link, one is a picture of a number you already own.

The one-line separation: imprint = what you publish as; DOI = a permanent web link for digital work; barcode = the scannable form of the ISBN you already registered.

Key takeaways

• An imprint is a publishing brand, not a legal entity or a separate ISBN prefix by itself. You can set one up and publish under it; the book still carries the ISBN you registered under that imprint name.
• A DOI is for digital, citable content — journal articles, datasets, reports. A trade paperback or novel does not need a DOI; a standalone novel does not have one.
• A barcode is not a number. It is the ISBN rendered as the EAN-13 symbol a scanner reads. You do not buy "a barcode number" separately.
• The ISBN is the number; the barcode is how it is read. One ISBN = one barcode for that format.
• None of the three changes who holds the copyright.
• An imprint is optional; the ISBN is not. A book with no imprint name on it is still published correctly; a book with no ISBN cannot be ordered by a bookshop.

The three at a glance

The row that matters is the last one: none of these is re-issued for a straightforward reprint of the same edition.

What an imprint is, exactly

Look at the spine of two books from the same company and you will often see two different names. Those names are imprints: one publisher, several brands, each aimed at a different shelf or audience.

An imprint is the publishing name a title comes out under. It sits on the title page, the spine and the copyright page. It is how a reader, a shop and a catalogue refer to "who published this".

What an imprint is not:

• Not a separate company. One business can hold several imprints; the imprint is a label, not a second legal entity.
• Not an ISBN prefix of its own. ISBNs are registered to the publisher/imprint details you supply to your national agency. The imprint name is part of the book's bibliographic record (the metadata that feeds bookshops and libraries), not a number block you buy separately.
• Not mandatory. A self-publishing author can publish under their own name as the imprint. If you want a brand that looks and reads like a small press — a name that says "this is a considered press, not a one-off upload" — an imprint is exactly the tool for that.

Why an author would want one: an imprint gives a shelf of titles a shared identity, makes a series look deliberate, and keeps your personal name separate from your publishing name if you prefer. It costs nothing to choose and nothing to change — but once a title is listed in catalogues under an imprint, keep it stable so shops and libraries can find it.

What a DOI is — and who actually needs one

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent link to a piece of digital content. It looks like 10.1234/abcd5678 and resolves to the item forever, even if the hosting site moves. Publishers of academic journals, research reports and datasets issue them so that citations never rot.

For a book:

• A trade novel, memoir or self-help title does not need a DOI. Bookshops and readers find a book by its ISBN, not a DOI.
• A DOI is not an ISBN and does not replace one. They solve different problems: the ISBN identifies the edition; the DOI keeps a digital reference alive.
• Academic and reference publishers may issue a DOI per chapter or per paper. That is an academic-publishing convention, not a book-retail requirement.

If your work is a standard book for general readers, the honest answer is: you will never need a DOI for it. If you are publishing a formal research output, the DOI belongs to whoever hosts it (a journal or repository), and it is issued there — not bought separately.

What a barcode is (and how it relates to your ISBN)

The barcode on the back of a book is the ISBN converted into an EAN-13 symbol — the same 13 stripes-and-spaces pattern used on every product in a supermarket. A scanner at the till reads the symbol, gets the ISBN, and the shop's system knows exactly which book and format it is.

The thing to get straight:

• The ISBN is the number. The barcode is that number drawn as a symbol. You do not register "a barcode"; you register the ISBN, and the barcode is produced from it.
• One ISBN, one barcode. Paperback, hardcover and eBook each have their own ISBN, so each print format has its own barcode. The eBook has no barcode at all — there is nothing to scan.
• The barcode must match the ISBN exactly. If they disagree, the shop's system will not find the right book.
• A barcode is not a QR code. QR codes can carry a link; an EAN-13 barcode carries the item number only. Some books now add a QR code alongside the barcode for marketing; that is optional and separate.

Where each one lives on the book

Common confusions, cleared up

• "Do I need to buy a barcode?" No. You register an ISBN and produce the barcode from it — printing or supplying it is part of getting the book retail-ready.
• "Is my imprint the same as my publisher?" Your imprint is the publisher name as it appears to the public. You can be both the business and the imprint name, or use a distinct imprint brand.
• "Does an eBook have an imprint and a barcode?" It has an imprint (the name on the store listing) and an ISBN (if you give it one), but no barcode — there is nothing physical to scan.
• "Can I change my imprint later?" Yes, but do it before the title is widely listed; after that, stability matters more than the perfect name.

A short checklist before you publish

1. Choose your imprint name — your own name is a valid choice; a distinct brand is a valid choice. Decide once and keep it.
2. Register the ISBNs you need — one per format — with your national agency (Bowker in the US, and the equivalent agency in other countries).
3. Produce the barcode from each print ISBN — and check the number it encodes matches the ISBN exactly.
4. Skip the DOI unless your work is a formal research output hosted by a journal or repository that issues one.
5. Record all three against the edition in your own register, so reprints and new formats stay consistent.

If you would rather not handle imprint setup, ISBN registration and barcode and metadata checks yourself, our self-publishing packages cover ISBN assignment, barcodes, print and eBook setup and distribution. For more on the number itself, see our guide to the ISBN barcode sticker and the difference between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13.

Related guides

Keep going: how to write a book, the types of book editing, book editing services and proofreading services. For a dictionary definition, see imprint (Cambridge Dictionary).

Disclosure: Harmony Publishing is a self-publishing company and links to its own services where they match a step.