QR Code Generator

A URL code opens a page. A Wi-Fi code joins a network — the phone reads the network name, the security type and the password and connects without anyone reading the password aloud, which is what makes it the right code for a reception desk or a rental. A vCard holds a full contact record: name, organisation, phone, email and address, saved to the address book in one tap rather than typed.

The rest are shortcuts to an action: a phone number that dials, a WhatsApp code that opens a chat with your number already in it, an SMS with the message pre-written, an email with the subject and body filled in, a location that opens maps at a pin, and plain text for anything a scanner should simply display.

Choosing by what should happen after the scan, rather than by what you want to communicate, is the whole trick. "Here is our address" is a location code if you want directions and a vCard if you want it saved.

QR codes carry error correction, which is what lets a damaged or partly covered code still read. The highest level tolerates roughly a third of the code being obscured, and that is the budget a logo spends. Place one without raising the correction level and the code becomes unreliable at exactly the distance people actually scan from.

Contrast matters more than colour. Dark on light works; light on dark fails on many scanners; and a mid-tone pattern on a mid-tone background fails on all of them. Keep the quiet margin around the code — cropping to the edge of the pattern is the most common reason a printed code will not read.

More data means a denser code. A long URL, a full vCard or a long Wi-Fi password all add modules, and a dense code printed small is a code nobody can scan. Shorten the content before shrinking the picture.

Download PNG for screens, documents and anything going into a slide. Choose SVG for print: it is vector, so it stays sharp at any size, which matters on a poster, a vehicle or a sign.

As a rule of thumb, keep a printed code at least 2–3 cm across for a scan at arm’s length, and larger the further away the reader will stand. Test the actual printed piece with a real phone before ordering a thousand of them.

Codes are generated in your browser and nothing is uploaded or stored — which matters most for the two types that carry secrets: a Wi-Fi code contains the network password in plain text, and a vCard contains personal contact details. Anyone who can scan the code can read both, so treat a printed Wi-Fi code the way you would treat the password written on a card.