Anyone about to send a QR code to a printer
How big to print a QR code
A QR code that is too small, too low-contrast, or jammed against other artwork will not scan, and the person holding the phone will not try twice.
Three rules cover almost every print job. Leave a quiet zone of empty space around the square. Keep dark modules on a light background. Print at least 2 cm across for anything scanned at arm's length, and treat scan distance as about ten times the printed width.
- 1
Start from how far away people will stand
A reliable rule of thumb is that scan distance is about ten times the code's width. A poster scanned from a metre away needs a code around 10 cm wide. A window decal scanned from the pavement needs more. Work backwards from the real distance, not from how much space is left on the layout.
- 2
Do not go below 2 cm at close range
Business cards, menus, table tents, product labels and handouts are scanned from a phone's length away. Print those at least 2 × 2 cm (about 0.8 × 0.8 inches). Smaller than that and even a clean, high-contrast code starts to fail on older cameras and in poor light.
- 3
Leave a quiet zone around the square
The quiet zone is the empty margin on all four sides. It needs to be at least four modules wide — four times one of the small squares in the pattern. Cropping it off, butting type against the edge, or dropping the code onto a busy photograph is the most common reason a code that looked fine on screen fails in print.
- 4
Keep contrast high and the background quiet
Dark modules on a light, solid background scan best. Light-on-dark, low-contrast brand colours, and patterns behind the code all cost readability. If the design needs a dark field, put the code on its own light plate with the quiet zone inside that plate, then place the plate on the dark background.
- 5
Export SVG for print, or 1024px PNG if you need a raster
The free generator runs in your browser and downloads SVG, 1024px PNG or WebP, with no account and no watermark. SVG is the print file — it stays sharp at any size. Use PNG for slides, email and the web. A longer destination makes a denser static code; if the URL is long and the print is small, a short dynamic link keeps the pattern sparse.
- 6
Print one proof and scan it from the real distance
Test on the actual stock, at the actual size, in the light the code will live in, with more than one phone. A proof that scans on your desk can still fail on a laminated menu or a sunlit window. Fix size, contrast or the quiet zone before the run, not after.
What this will not do
- This is a sizing guide, not a calculator. The product does not measure your print run or pick a size for you.
- We do not control the printer, the stock or the laminate. A correct file can still fail if the press closes the quiet zone or drops the contrast.
- A static code that encodes a long URL is denser, and dense codes need more millimetres. Shorten the URL or use a dynamic short link if the print is small.
- City is captured in scan analytics on dynamic links. It is not used for routing, and it does not change how large the code should be.
Tools used in this guide
Questions
Other guides
- How to put a QR code on a menu you can update without reprintingOne code on the table tent that opens lunch at eleven and dinner at five, without a second print run.
- How to A/B test a printed QR campaign and measure real conversionsSplit traffic from a single print run between two destinations, and match the sale back to the scan that caused it.
- How to send iPhone and Android users to different app stores from one QR codeOne square on the poster that opens the right store for whoever scanned it, decided at the moment of the scan.
- How to get packaging ready for GS1 Sunrise 2027 with a Digital Link QR codeRegister a GTIN, point it at the destinations retailers and shoppers each need, and test it before artwork goes to print.
- What is a GS1 Digital Link? The web address inside the new product QR codesThe definitional companion to the packaging guide: what the standard actually is, how a scan resolves, and what a resolver does.
- How to password-protect, expire, or scan-limit a QR codeFor codes on things that stop being valid: a door ticket, a limited run, a document that should not outlive its meeting.
- How to choose between a static and a dynamic QR codeThe difference is not quality or scanning speed — it is whether the destination lives in the ink or behind it. That decides everything else.
- How to make a digital business card you can update after printingOne code on the card that opens your details as they are today, not as they were at the print shop.
- How to put a QR code on a yard sign that outlives the listingThe sign is the durable object, not the listing. Give each sign a code you repoint as properties come and go.
- How to run QR codes across an event — badges, booths and sessionsCodes for the whole run of an event: the save-the-date, the badge back, the booth banner, and the swap to recordings after everyone goes home.
- Leaving Bitly: what moves, and what stays deadThe destinations come with you. The printed bit.ly square does not. Import creates new addresses; it cannot take over the old ones.
- Running Bitly and reRoute together until the print run turns overKeep Bitly live until the print turns over. New rrte.link on the next run. Drain the codes people actually scan.