Custom QR Code Generator

A QR code's minimum printed size comes from how many squares it contains, not from a single fixed number. Each square has to survive the printing process, so a code carrying a long web address needs to be physically bigger than one carrying a short link. PPI's QR code generator counts the squares in the code it just built and gives you the smallest width in inches and millimeters, for the decoration method you choose.

A QR code on a pen is usually the tightest fit in promotional products, because a barrel imprint is often about an inch wide and the blank border counts against it. Short links are what make a pen work: the fewer characters the code carries, the fewer squares it needs and the smaller it can print. Enter your link in the generator and it will tell you whether the code and its border fit the imprint width you enter.

A QR code grows for two reasons: more characters, and more error correction. Both add squares to the grid, and every square has a minimum width the printing process can hold, so the whole code has to get wider. A tracking-tagged web address can easily double the squares of the same page without them, which is why a short link is the single most effective way to shrink a code.

The quiet zone is the blank margin around a QR code, and the specification asks for four squares' worth on every side. It is not decoration: it is how a scanner finds where the code starts and stops. Artwork that crops the quiet zone, or drops a code straight onto a busy pattern, is the most common reason a printed code fails to read. PPI's generator includes the quiet zone in every download and in the size it quotes.

Error correction level is a trade between damage tolerance and size. Low recovers about 7% of a damaged code and keeps it small, Medium recovers about 15% and suits most printed items, Quartile recovers about 25% and suits anything curved or handled, and High recovers about 30% and is the largest. On drinkware, pens and keyrings, Quartile is usually the honest choice, because a code on a curve is partly out of focus on every scan.

A QR code can be printed in color as long as the code stays clearly darker than what it sits on. Scanners read light and dark, not hue, so a navy code on a cream product works and a mid-gray code on a light gray product does not. PPI's generator lets you set the code color, the background and the three corner markers separately, measures the contrast as you pick them, and warns you before the file goes anywhere near a press.

A Wi-Fi QR code carries the network name, the security type and the password in a format a phone camera recognises, so a guest joins by pointing at it instead of typing. In PPI's generator, pick Wi-Fi, enter the network name exactly as it is broadcast, choose WPA (or Open for a network with no password), and enter the password. Tick hidden if the network does not advertise itself. Print it on a table tent, a coaster or a window cling in the room the network covers.

A Wi-Fi QR code usually fails for one of four reasons, and three of them are invisible. The network name may have a trailing space, which is legal and silent. The password may contain a semicolon, colon, comma, quote or backslash, which have to be escaped or the credentials truncate at the first one — PPI's generator escapes them for you. The security type may be wrong; WPA covers WPA, WPA2 and WPA3, and a WEP network set to WPA will not join. And a network name made only of the letters A to F and digits, such as "Cafe" or "Face", has to be quoted or a reader takes it for hex bytes. The generator handles all four.

A contact-card QR code, sometimes called a vCard code, adds your name, company, job title, phone, email and website to a phone's address book in one scan. Choose Contact in PPI's generator and fill in what you want shared. It is the largest payload here, so it makes the biggest code: leave out fields nobody needs, because every extra character adds squares and pushes up the smallest size it can be printed. On a business card that matters — a full card with an address rarely fits beside your logo.

PPI's generator makes seven kinds: a website, plain text, an email with an optional subject and message, a phone number that offers to dial, a text message with the wording ready to send, a Wi-Fi network, and a contact card. Each one is encoded in the format phone cameras actually recognise, so the phone offers the right action rather than showing a string. All seven can be styled the same way, and all seven get the same minimum-print-size answer.

Making a custom QR code takes three choices: the colors, the module shape and the corner shape. In PPI's generator you set a code color, a background and an optional separate color for the three corner markers, or start from a ready-made colorway; you can fade the body between two colors; and you can switch the squares to rounded, dotted or diamond shapes and the corners to rounded, circular or leaf shapes. Every combination is checked for contrast as you build it, and the download carries the design exactly as you see it.

Styling a QR code does not stop it scanning as long as two things survive: the light-and-dark run through the middle of the three corner markers, which is how a camera finds the code, and enough ink in each square for the camera to sample its center. Every shape in PPI's generator keeps both. What styling costs is edge coverage, so a rounded or dotted code wants a little more width than the plain minimum, and a diamond code wants noticeably more. On a pen barrel, print plain squares.

Yes. PPI's generator has an "email this code to myself" option that sends you the code as a PNG you can see in the message, plus a print-ready SVG attached, along with the minimum print size and whether it fits the imprint area you entered. No account is needed and you are not added to any list. A logo you added is not included in the email, because your logo never leaves your browser — use the SVG download for that version.

A QR code can carry a gradient across its body, and PPI's generator fades between two colors you choose. The rule that decides whether it works is the weaker end: whichever of the two colors is lighter still has to be clearly darker than the background, everywhere the fade reaches it. The tool measures the weaker end for you rather than the average, because the average is not what fails.

A light code on a dark background is called an inverted code, and many phone cameras will not read one. If your product is dark, the reliable answer is a light panel or badge behind a dark code rather than reversing the code itself. The generator flags an inverted pair as soon as you choose it.

Download an SVG for anything being printed. SVG is vector, so the squares stay perfectly crisp whether the code prints at half an inch on a pen or a foot on a banner, and it is the file a decorator wants. Use the PNG for a screen, a slide or an email, where a fixed pixel size is fine.

A QR code made here never expires, because the web address is encoded directly into the pattern rather than pointing at a service that could shut down. What can stop working is the destination: if you retire the page the code points at, the code still scans and lands on a dead link. Point yours at a page you intend to keep, or at a short link you control.

A QR code scans on a curved surface when it is small enough relative to the curve that the whole code stays in focus at once. A code wrapped too far around a tumbler or a bottle presents part of itself at an angle and a camera loses the corner markers. Keep the code within the flattest part of the imprint area and raise the error correction level to Quartile or High.

A logo can sit in the middle of a QR code because error correction lets the scanner rebuild what the logo covers, but only within limits. Use the High level, keep the logo to a small share of the code area, and never let it touch the three corner squares. Send us the artwork and we will confirm the code still reads on your proof before anything is printed.

PPI's QR code generator is free, needs no account, and adds no tracking. The code is built in your browser and both downloads are produced there, so nothing you type reaches us unless you use the email option — that sends your address and what the code opens to our mail service, and nothing else. The code itself points straight at the address you entered with no redirect in the middle, which also means we cannot count scans for you. Add your own campaign tags to the link if you need that.