A machine readable code, a code encoding method and device and a code decoding method and device are provided. This machine readable code includes a data area made up of at least one data cell, in which different colors or shades are encoded and expressed depending on the content of the information, and a parity area made up of at least one parity cell, the parity area provided to determine whether colors or shades expressed in the data cells have been properly expressed depending on the content of the information. Since this code image includes a parity area for parity inspection, mal-recognition of colors due to differences between input devices such as cameras or between the environments such as light can be easily detected and corrected.