QR Code Generator

Generate a QR code for a link, a Wi-Fi network, a contact card, a phone number or a pre-filled SMS. Download it as a PNG, or as an SVG that stays sharp at any size — on a poster or a business card, the vector is what you want.

No tracking redirect is added. The code encodes exactly what you enter, so it keeps working whatever happens to this site.

How it works

A QR code is a grid of black and white modules that encodes bytes, plus a lot of machinery for reading it reliably off a crumpled receipt at an angle. The three large squares in the corners are position markers, which let a scanner find the code and work out its rotation. The scattered smaller squares are alignment patterns, correcting for the distortion of photographing a curved or tilted surface.

Error correction is the interesting part. The code carries Reed-Solomon redundancy at one of four levels — L, M, Q or H — recovering roughly 7%, 15%, 25% or 30% of the data respectively. A code can therefore be partly obscured, scratched or overprinted with a logo and still read correctly. The trade-off is density: higher correction means more modules for the same content, so a code that has to survive a kitchen wall wants H, while one on a clean screen is fine at L. M is the sensible default and is what you get here unless you change it.

Length drives everything. More content means a larger version, which means smaller modules at a fixed print size, which means a scanner needs to get closer. This is the real argument for short URLs in a QR code: a 30-character link produces a sparse, forgiving grid, while a 200-character one with tracking parameters produces a dense mesh that fails at arm's length. If your URL is long, shorten it before encoding rather than printing the code larger.

The white border matters more than people expect. The specification calls for a quiet zone of four modules on every side, and it is part of the code, not decoration — a scanner uses it to find the edges. Cropping it off, or placing the code on a busy background with no margin, is the most common reason a technically perfect code will not scan. It is included in the images below; do not trim it.

Two practical notes on colour and format. Contrast must be strong and the polarity conventional — dark modules on a light background. Inverted codes are read by some scanners and not others, and a mid-grey on white fails widely. And prefer the SVG for anything printed: a QR code is pure geometry, so a vector scales to a billboard without the module edges going soft, which is precisely what makes a scaled-up PNG unreliable.

Frequently asked questions