QR Code Generator

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that stores text. Anything you can type can go inside it — a web address, a phone number, a Wi-Fi password, a whole contact card — and any modern phone camera reads it without an app.

This generator makes static codes. That means the data lives in the pattern itself rather than on someone's server, so the code keeps working forever, with no account, no scan limits and no tracking of the people who scan it.

Every kind of QR code you can make here

Wi-Fi QR codes

A Wi-Fi QR code encodes the network name, the security type and the password in a single string. Scanning it offers to join the network, so a guest never has to read a long password off a card and type it in.

Choose WPA for almost any modern network — that setting covers WPA, WPA2 and WPA3. Pick Open if the network has no password at all, and tick the hidden option only if the network does not broadcast its name.

One thing worth knowing before you print it: the password is stored in the code as readable text. Anyone who scans it, or who photographs it and decodes it later, has your Wi-Fi password. That is fine for a guest network and a bad idea for the one your work laptop is on.

Contact card and vCard QR codes

The contact option produces a vCard, the standard format phones use for address book entries. Fill in the name, company, job title, phone, email, website and address, and a scan offers to save the whole thing as a new contact.

It is the most useful QR code to put on a business card, because it removes the retyping step that stops most cards ever reaching a phone. Keep it to the fields you actually need — every extra line makes the pattern denser and slightly harder to scan at a distance.

Email, SMS and WhatsApp codes

An email QR code opens a blank message addressed to you, and can fill in the subject and body as well — handy when you want enquiries to arrive with a reference already in the subject line.

SMS codes work the same way, opening the messaging app with the number and a draft message ready to send. WhatsApp codes use a wa.me link, so they need the number in full international form, digits only, with no plus sign or spaces.

Designing a code that still scans

The Design tab changes how the code looks without changing what it says. You can switch the modules from squares to dots, rounded bars, diamonds or crosses, style the three corner eyes separately from the body, and fill everything with a solid colour or a gradient.

Two rules keep a styled code readable. Keep strong contrast between the pattern and the background — dark on light, and never the other way round for the darker colour. And leave the quiet zone alone: that blank margin is how a scanner finds where the code begins, and four modules is the standard minimum.

• Dark pattern on a light background. Inverted codes fail on many scanners.
• A contrast ratio of at least 3:1 between the two colours, and more if the code will be printed small.
• No busy photograph directly behind the code.
• Test with more than one phone before committing anything to print.

Adding your logo

A QR code carries error correction, which means part of the pattern can be missing or damaged and the code still reads. That is what makes a logo in the middle possible — it covers modules that the scanner can reconstruct.

When you add a logo the generator switches to error correction level H, the highest, which can recover about 30% of the data. Keep the logo under roughly a quarter of the width even so. Past that you are removing more than the redundancy can rebuild, and codes start failing on older phones first.

Error correction levels

PNG, SVG or JPG?

Download SVG for anything that will be printed. It is vector, so it stays perfectly sharp whether it ends up on a business card or the side of a van, and the file is usually smaller than a PNG.

PNG suits screens, slides and social posts, and supports a transparent background. JPG is the weakest choice for a QR code — the compression softens the edges of the modules, which is exactly the detail a scanner is looking for. Use it only when something refuses to accept anything else.

How big should a printed QR code be?

The working rule is that the code should be at least a tenth of the distance it will be scanned from. A code read at arm's length, about 30 cm, needs to be around 3 cm across. A poster read from three metres needs 30 cm.

Shorter data also helps, because it produces fewer modules and therefore larger ones at the same physical size. If a code has to be small, use a short link rather than a long one full of tracking parameters.