How this tool works
The content is encoded into a QR symbol at medium error correction, which means roughly fifteen percent of the code can be damaged, obscured or printed badly and it will still scan. The symbol size is chosen automatically from how much you enter — more content needs a denser grid — and the code is drawn at a whole number of pixels per module so the squares stay crisp instead of being blurred by resampling.
A white margin is included around the symbol. That quiet zone is part of the specification rather than decoration: without it, scanners cannot find where the code begins, and a QR code cropped tight to its edges is the commonest reason one refuses to scan. The background is opaque white for the same reason — a transparent PNG becomes unreadable the moment it lands on a dark surface.
Making a code that scans
- Shorter content makes a better code: a long URL produces a dense symbol that needs a bigger print and a steadier hand. A short link scans from further away and at worse angles.
- Never crop the white margin: it is what tells the scanner where the code is. Designers remove it constantly and it is the single most common cause of a code that will not read.
- Print larger than feels necessary: a rough guide is a tenth of the scanning distance — a code read from two metres wants to be about twenty centimetres across.
- Dark on light, never reversed: scanners expect dark modules on a light ground. An inverted code fails on many readers even though it looks perfectly correct.