QR code guides
Straight answers about sizing, formats, scanning problems and safety — each with the generator built in.
Create a QR code as an SVG
SVG is a vector format: the code is stored as shapes, not pixels. It stays razor sharp at any size — from a 2 cm business card to a 2 m billboard — and it drops straight into Illustrator, Figma, Affinity and Inkscape. If a printer, sign-maker or designer is involved anywhere in your project, this is the file they will ask for.
Create a QR code as a PNG
PNG is the right choice for websites, slide decks, documents and social posts — anywhere the file stays digital or gets printed on an office printer. Unlike most generators, this one lets you pick the exact pixel size before downloading, up to 4096 px, so the file is sharp at whatever size you place it.
Create a print-ready PDF QR code
The PDF download places your code on an A4 page at a known physical size — 60 mm by default — so what comes out of the printer matches what you designed. It's the quickest way to get a code onto paper without opening any design software, and it's what most copy shops prefer to receive.
Add your logo to a QR code
A logo in the centre makes a code recognisably yours — but it works by covering up part of the pattern, and the code survives only because error correction can rebuild what's hidden. That's why this generator automatically raises the error correction level the moment you upload a logo, and why size discipline matters more here than anywhere else.
Make a coloured QR code
A QR code doesn't have to be black. Any colour works — including gradients — as long as one rule holds: the code must be clearly darker than its background. Scanners don't see colour, they see brightness, so every styling decision is really a contrast decision.
Make a QR code with a transparent background
True transparency means removing the background rectangle entirely, so the code sits directly on your artwork. The reliable way to get there: download the SVG and delete (or recolour) its background rectangle in any design tool. What matters then is what the code lands on — because scanners still need light behind the pattern.
Generate QR codes in bulk
One code at a time doesn't scale to a 40-table restaurant, a 500-item stockroom or a conference with 800 badges. The bulk tool turns a pasted list or CSV into a folder of individually named PNG or SVG files, generated entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Scan or decode a QR code
Sometimes you need to know what's inside a code before you open it — a screenshot someone sent you, a suspicious sticker on a parking meter, or a code you're testing before print. This scanner decodes codes from uploaded images or your camera, entirely on your device.
What size should a printed QR code be?
Code size is decided by one thing: how far away the phone will be. The working rule is code width ≥ scanning distance ÷ 10. Everything else — material, lighting, content density — just adds margin on top.
QR code error correction levels
Every QR code stores extra data so it can be read even when part of the pattern is damaged, dirty or covered. How much extra data is the error correction level: L recovers about 7% of the code, M 15%, Q 25% and H 30%. More correction means more modules, which means a denser pattern — that's the trade.
Static and dynamic QR codes compared
A static QR code stores the destination inside the pattern itself: free forever, no service in the middle, works offline — but the content is fixed at creation. A dynamic code stores a short redirect link owned by a provider, so the destination can be edited and scans can be tracked — usually for a monthly fee, and only for as long as you keep paying.
Do QR codes expire?
The pattern itself never expires — it's just encoded data, like text printed on paper. Codes 'stop working' for reasons around the pattern: the page it points to disappears, a link-shortener shuts down, or a paid 'dynamic QR' subscription ends. Understand which kind you have and you'll never be surprised.
How to scan a QR code on an iPhone
Every iPhone since iOS 11 (2017) reads QR codes with the standard Camera app — no extra app needed, and you should avoid the ad-stuffed 'QR scanner' apps on the App Store. Here's every way to do it, including scanning a code that's inside a photo on the phone itself.
How to scan a QR code on Android
Most Android phones from the last several years read QR codes straight from the camera app. Where the camera doesn't cooperate, Google Lens — already on your phone — does. You almost never need a dedicated scanner app, and the ad-heavy ones are best avoided.
Why your QR code isn't scanning
Nearly every failing code comes down to one of five things: it's too small for the distance, the contrast is too weak, the quiet zone has been cropped, the surface is glossy or distorted, or the content is so dense the modules are microscopic. Work through them in order — the fix is usually in the first two.
The quiet zone around a QR code
The quiet zone is the empty border around the pattern — and it's part of the code, not decoration. A scanner uses it to find where the code begins; crop it and many readers can't locate the code at all. The standard minimum is four modules wide on every side.
Make a QR code for a Google Form
A Google Form plus a QR code is the fastest feedback loop there is: scan, answer, done. The code simply encodes the form's share link — the craft is in getting that link right and making sure nobody hits a sign-in wall.
Make a Google review QR code
Google gives every business a short 'write a review' link, and encoding it in a QR code removes every excuse: scan, tap the stars, done. The difference between businesses with thirty reviews and businesses with three hundred is usually nothing more than making this easy at exactly the right moment.
Make a Spotify QR code
Spotify's own 'Spotify Codes' only scan inside the Spotify app — which means most people who point their camera at one get nothing. A standard QR code with the Spotify share link opens the track, album or playlist in any phone's browser or app, no special scanner required. For anything printed, this is the format that actually works.
Make a QR code for your website
The website QR code is the most common code of all — and the most commonly wasted. The two decisions that determine whether it works: point it at the specific page that matches wherever the code is printed, and make the address short enough that the pattern stays sparse.
Make a WhatsApp Business QR code
A WhatsApp QR code opens a chat with your number the moment it's scanned — no saving contacts, no typing. The professional touch is the pre-filled message: 'I'd like a quote for…' arrives with the customer's first tap, so you know which poster, product or location sent them.
Make a QR code for a PDF menu
The pattern: upload your menu PDF somewhere stable, encode that address in a QR code, print once. When the menu changes, replace the file at the same address — every printed code now serves the new menu. The code never changes; only what it points at does.
vCard or MeCard for contact QR codes
Both formats turn a scan into a saved contact. The difference is bulk: vCard carries more fields and is supported everywhere; MeCard is terser, so the same person produces a sparser pattern that scans faster and prints smaller. Choosing is a trade between richness and reliability.
QR code safety
A QR code is just a way of writing an address — it can't do anything by itself. The risk is always in where it leads and what you do there. The dominant real-world scam is 'quishing': a printed sticker with a malicious code pasted over the genuine one on parking meters, payment signs and menus.
Generate QR codes without signing up
Most 'free' QR generators are funnels: they ask for your email, quietly create dynamic codes routed through their servers, and disable them when the trial ends. This site works differently because the technology is different — every code is static and built inside your browser, so there's nothing to gate behind an account.
QR codes without a watermark
Nothing is stamped on your code: no branding in the corner, no logo in the middle unless you put one there, no 'created with' line in the metadata. The file you download contains exactly what you designed in the preview — suitable for client work, packaging and resale products without a licence conversation.
Styling QR code dots and corners
The grid of squares is a convention, not a requirement. Modules can be dots, rounded tiles or tapered 'classy' shapes, and the three corner markers can be squared, rounded or ringed — without changing what the code encodes. The constraint is scannability: style changes how the code feels, and must never change whether it reads.
Make a QR code for your email address
An email QR code opens the scanner's mail app with your address, subject and even the first lines already written. The pre-fill is the point: 'Requesting the autumn price list' arrives as the subject of every message, so replies sort themselves and senders don't face a blank compose box.
Make a QR code for your Wi-Fi password
A Wi-Fi QR code carries the network name, security type and password in a standard format both iPhone and Android understand natively. Scanning offers 'join network' with one tap — no spelling out a 20-character password across a café. Of all QR types, this is the one where privacy matters most, which is why it's generated entirely in your browser.
How QR codes actually work
A QR code is a grid of black and white squares — modules — that encodes text as binary. Three big corner squares tell the camera where the code is and which way up; smaller marker patterns calibrate the grid; the rest is your data interleaved with recovery information. Nothing about it requires a network, an account or a server — which is why static codes can be free forever.
QR codes in the classroom
A QR code in a classroom does one job: it gets a student from a piece of paper to a resource in two seconds instead of the five minutes lost to mistyped URLs. Everything below builds on that. None of it needs an app, an account or a budget — every phone and tablet camera made since 2017 reads codes natively, and the codes you make here never expire and never phone home, which matters when the people scanning are children.
Apple Pay QR codes
The short answer: you cannot make a personal Apple Pay QR code, because Apple Wallet does not have one. Apple Pay is built around tap-to-pay (NFC) and in-app or on-web checkout — there is no equivalent of a Venmo or PayPal.Me code that someone can scan to send you money. Any site offering an "Apple Pay QR code generator" is either producing a link to a checkout page or selling you something that does not exist. What follows is what works instead.