QR Code Builder

A free QR code generator for codes that end up printed on something: a flyer, a menu, a sign across the room. Most generators hand you a square. This one also tells you, before you send it to the printer, whether it will scan: contrast, light-on-dark, the empty border, how dense the code is, and how big it needs to be for the distance people will scan it from. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.

QR Code Builder needs JavaScript. The code is drawn in your browser rather than on a server, which is also why a Wi-Fi password typed here never leaves the page. With scripting off, there is nothing to draw it.

The rest of Labs has tools that work without it.

Build the code

Pick what the code should do: open a link, join a Wi-Fi network, start an email, a call or a text. The preview redraws as you type. Download an SVG for print, since it stays sharp at any size, or a PNG for screens and documents.

Content

Link

Tip: a short link on your own domain prints smaller and can be re-pointed later without reprinting.

Error correction

Colors & border

Code

Background

Quiet zone

The empty border, in modules (the code's little squares). The spec asks for 4.

PNG size

Will it scan?

The usual reasons a printed code fails: too little contrast, colors inverted, no empty border, too much packed in, or printed too small for where people stand. Set the size you'll print and how far away people will be, and each check below says what to change. The contrast and size bands are rules of thumb from print practice, not a published standard; the 4-module border is from the QR spec.