Digital coding of rubber articles

Described is in particular a method of generating a transfer pattern (110) defining a digital code pattern. According to the described method, a digital code pattern definition (104) defining a plurality of light and dark portions is received, wherein each of such portion has a size A. The transfer pattern (110) is generated by rasterizing the digital code pattern definition (104) with structure pixels, in particular by mapping the digital code pattern definition into an array of equally sized structure pixels, wherein the size A of the light and dark portions is an integer multiple of a size B of the structure pixels. The array of structure pixels comprises at least two different types of structure pixels. Each type of structure pixel defines a certain surface structure on the rubber article, the surface structure causing a certain optical reflectivity of the structure pixel. Further, at least two types of structure pixels have a different optical reflectivity.