QR Code Generator

Most free QR codes are a trap, and you don't find out until it's too late.

Here's the con. A lot of generators don't actually put your link in the code. They point it at their own server, which then forwards to your real link. That works fine at first, until one day they shut that server off or start charging, and every code you already printed, on every flyer, menu, sticker, and business card, quietly stops working. And you can't fix it, because it's already out in the world on paper.

This one skips the middleman. It bakes your actual content straight into the pattern, so there's nothing in between to break down. Print it once and it works for good, even if this whole site disappeared tomorrow. You turn a link, a wifi login, a contact card, or plain text into a code, download it as a PNG or a clean SVG, drop in a logo and your colors if you want, and it all happens in your browser with nothing uploaded.

1. Pick what it holds: Link, Text, Wi-Fi, Contact, Email, Phone, SMS, or Location. Each shows the right fields, so you don't have to format anything yourself.
2. Fill in the details. The code redraws as you type.
3. Set the size and error correction. Bigger scans from farther away. Higher error correction lets it still read when part of it is dirty, scratched, or under a logo.
4. Add a logo or colors if you're branding it, keeping strong contrast. The tool warns you if a color pair is too weak to scan.
5. Scan it with your own phone off the screen before you commit. It takes about ten seconds and catches almost everything.
6. Download the PNG for everyday use or the SVG for print, or copy the image to your clipboard.

The codes here are static, which means the data lives inside the squares themselves. That's the opposite of a "dynamic" code, which is really just a short link pointing at a server that can be edited later, or taken down later. Dynamic codes have their place if you genuinely need to change the destination after something's printed, but you're renting that code from whoever runs the redirect, and rented things get shut off. For a menu, a business card, a product label, or a flyer stapled to a pole, static is what you want, because it doesn't depend on anyone else's server staying online.

A code that looks fine on your screen can still fail out in the real world, and it's almost always one of a few things.

The biggest is contrast. Scanners expect dark squares on a light background, so you can brand it with color, but the moment the pattern and the background get too close in shade, phones start struggling with it. The tool flags a weak pair for exactly this reason, so it's worth heeding. Codes also want a bit of blank space around them, a margin, otherwise they get hard to read when they're crammed against other art and text.

If you're dropping a logo in the middle, turn the error correction up first. That setting builds in redundancy, so the code can lose a covered chunk and still rebuild itself from the rest, which is why a centered logo scans fine on a high setting and quietly breaks the code on a low one. Size matters the same practical way: a business card gets scanned from six inches so its code can be tiny, while a code on a poster people read from across the room has to be big, so lean bigger whenever you're unsure.

And whatever else you do, scan your own code off the screen before you print a thousand of them. It takes ten seconds and catches almost everything.

The wifi code is the one most people never think to make, and it might be the handiest. Pick Wi-Fi, enter your network name and password, and guests scan to join, with no reading a 20-character password off a sticky note. Tape it by the door, or print it on a card for an Airbnb. Just know the password is sitting inside the code, so keep this to a guest network, not your main one where a stranger could photograph it.