Peter,
All you need is a bar code font. These are available from a number of vendors. Here's one of them:
http://www.taltech.com/
HTH,
Chris
Using a barcode font will work ok if the barcode is only made up of the information in the field that would normally print (i.e. the characters.) Some barcode symbologies have extra characters leading and trailing the actual "characters". Also some symbologies have a check digit inserted to allow the entire field to be verified.
Having said all that, I still cannot come up with a better approach to use than a barcode font.