How to make a QR code
- Choose what the code should hold: a link, Wi-Fi details, text, an email, a phone number, an SMS, a contact card or a location.
- Fill in the fields. The code appears as you type and is checked by a decoder straight away.
- Open Look and size if you want different colours, a bigger PNG or a logo in the middle.
- Download it as PNG for screens or SVG for print.
Static codes: the reason yours will still work next year
There are two kinds of QR code, and the difference decides whether your printed code keeps working.
| Static (what this tool makes) | Dynamic | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the destination lives | Inside the pattern itself | On the provider's server, behind a short link |
| Can it expire? | No — there is nothing to switch off | Yes, when the trial or subscription ends |
| Can you edit the destination later? | No, you make a new code | Yes |
| Scan statistics | None — nobody is counting | Yes, that is what you are paying for |
| Cost | Free, forever | Usually a monthly subscription |
Many sites advertised as free generators create dynamic codes by default. The code works during the trial, you print your menus or flyers, and when the trial ends the redirect is switched off and every printed code leads to a dead page. If you do not need to edit the link or count scans — and most people don't — a static code avoids the whole problem. That is all this tool makes.
The scan check
A QR code can look perfect and still fail to scan: a logo covering too much of the pattern, a pale colour on a pale background, or a code shrunk too far. You find out after printing, which is the expensive moment to find out.
So every code here is read back. The picture that appears on screen is passed to a QR decoder, and what comes out is compared, character for character, with what you typed. If it matches you see Scan check passed; if it doesn't, you get told what to change before you download anything. It is the same thing a phone camera does, run on your own device.
Logos, colours and what still scans
- Logo. Adding one switches the code to the highest error correction level, which can survive roughly 30% of the pattern being obscured. Keep it under about a quarter of the width and leave the white box around it.
- Colours. Dark pattern on a light background, with a clear difference between the two. Inverted codes (light on dark) work on some scanners and not others, so the check will tell you.
- The three corner squares. Scanners find the code by those, so never cover or restyle them.
- The quiet zone. The empty margin around the code is part of the code. Four modules is the standard, and cropping it tight is a common reason codes fail.
How big to print it
A rule of thumb used in print is that the code should be about one tenth of the distance it will be scanned from: roughly 2–3 cm on a business card or a menu, around 10 cm on a poster people read from a metre away, and much larger for a shop window or a vehicle. Under the preview you can see how wide your PNG prints at 300 DPI, and for anything printed the SVG is the safer download — it is made of shapes, so it stays sharp at any size.
What each type of code does
| Type | What happens when it is scanned |
|---|---|
| Link | Opens the address in the phone's browser |
| Wi-Fi | Offers to join the network — no typing the password |
| Text | Shows the text; good for serial numbers, notes and codes |
| Opens a new email, with the subject and message already filled in | |
| Phone / SMS | Starts a call, or a text message with your wording ready |
| Contact card | Offers to save the contact (vCard), with phone, email and address |
| Location | Opens the map at those coordinates |
The Wi-Fi code contains the password as plain text inside the pattern — anyone who scans it joins the network, which is the point for a guest network and a bad idea for your private one. Since everything here happens in your browser, that password is never sent anywhere while you make the code.
Nothing leaves your device
The code is generated and checked in your browser tab. Your link, your Wi-Fi password and your contact details are not uploaded, and there is no account, no watermark and no limit on how many codes you make. To put the finished code into a document, use JPG to PDF; to make the PNG smaller for an email or a website, use Compress Image to a Target Size; and to drop it on an invoice next to your bank details, the Invoice Generator takes a logo image.