Bar code technology has been widely used with the development of computer application, which studies information identification by bar code and conversion from bar code information to computer language for automatic input, identification and statistics. This paper presents system design and realization of recognition system for one-dimensional bar code according with ISBN encoding rule. Encoding rule of common bar code is introduced at first. Bar code image is preprocessed by binaryzation, then the image noise caused by print quality and dirt is filtered by a mean value method. The actual width of bars and intervals are measured to identify contained digital information in one-dimensional bar code image. The result show that the method presented has good accuracy, quick speed and strong robustness for realtime application.