Sunrise readiness is a property of your pack, not a feeling, which means it decomposes into five checks you can run this afternoon with a phone, a ruler and the free tooling. Here is the audit, in the order failures are usually found.
Check 1: is there a 2D code at all?
If the pack carries only the linear barcode, that is the gap: Sunrise 2027 is the industry moving to 2D at the till. Your stripes keep scanning; readiness is adding the QR on your normal reprint cycle, per the what-changes guide.
Check 2: does the code carry GS1 identity?
Scan it and read the URL. If it shows /01/ followed by your 14-digit GTIN, it is Digital Link syntax and a Sunrise-capable till can extract the identity. If it is a shortlink or campaign URL, it fails this check regardless of how good the landing page is, the distinction unpacked in the comparison.
Check 3: do the two symbols agree?
The GTIN inside the QR must equal the digits under the stripes. A disagreement, usually from label-variant copy-paste, is the expensive failure; Onpack's artwork verification compares them from the artwork file in one API call, and the artwork checklist covers the rest of the print risks.
Check 4: does the geometry survive retail optics?
Measure the printed QR: against the size rules, a typical Digital Link symbol needs 16 to 20 mm plus its quiet zone, and the two symbols should sit within 50 mm of each other per the dual marking guidance. The generator recomputes both for your exact label width.
Check 5: does the URL answer everyone?
Scan as a human and land somewhere useful. Then ask as a machine, a curl with an Accept header for JSON-LD, and expect structured data. If machines get a marketing page or an error, the code is half-ready: registration on a conformant resolver completes it, free.
Scoring yourself honestly
Five passes is ready. A miss on 1 or 2 is a reprint-cycle fix; on 3, stop the presses; on 4, a layout revision; on 5, ten minutes in a console. The full sequencing, SKU by SKU, is the checklist.
Common questions
My pack has only the linear barcode. Am I ready?
You are compatible with today's tills but not with the 2D expectation Sunrise 2027 sets. Your linear code keeps working; readiness means adding the 2D code on your cycle.
My pack has a marketing QR. Does that count?
Only if it encodes GS1 identity. A shortlink QR opens a page but gives the till nothing to price; a Digital Link QR does both.
What is the single fastest check?
Scan your QR and look at the URL: if it contains /01/ followed by your GTIN, it is Digital Link syntax. Then check that the same GTIN matches your linear code.
Who can certify my readiness formally?
Retail partners test in their own lanes, but you can verify everything they will: symbol size, dual placement, GTIN agreement and machine resolution, all with free tooling.