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Type a link or any text, pick your colours and download a PNG or SVG. Made in your browser, free, and it never expires.
A web address, or any text. The preview updates as you type.
Error correction
Level M still reads with about 15% of the code damaged or covered. The usual choice for print: menus, cards, flyers and posters.
Contrast 18.7:1
25 × 25 modules (version 2), 19 bytes
PNG size, in pixels
SVG is a vector and stays sharp at any print size. The code includes its quiet zone, so do not crop it.
Type or paste a web address, or any text. The preview redraws as you type, so you see the code you will get.
Keep the code dark on a light background, choose how much damage it should survive, and a size for the PNG.
Save an SVG for print or a PNG for screens. Scan it with two or three phones before you print a batch.
How much of the code can be lost and still read.
Every QR code carries spare data, so a phone can still read it when part of the pattern is scratched, smudged or hidden. The error correction level sets how much spare data there is. More of it makes the code more forgiving, and also denser: more, smaller squares for the same link.
| Level | Still reads with | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| L (Low) | about 7% damaged | The smallest code. Fine on a screen or on clean, flat print. |
| M (Medium) | about 15% damaged | The usual choice for print: menus, cards, flyers and posters. |
| Q (Quartile) | about 25% damaged | For codes that get scuffed, creased or wet, like stickers and packaging. |
| H (High) | about 30% damaged | The most robust and the densest. Use it if a logo will cover the middle. |
M is a sensible default, and it is the level Bolt Claw uses for the QR code of every link-in-bio page. If a code looks crowded at the size you need, shorten the link before you lower the level.
How big to print it, and why the margin matters.
The quiet zone is the plain border around the code. The QR standard asks for 4 modules of it on every side, and phones use it to find where the code starts. This generator includes it in both downloads, so place the image as it is: do not crop the margin, and do not set the code against a busy photo or pattern.
For size, a common rule of thumb is that a code should be at least a tenth as wide as the distance it is scanned from: about 2 cm across for something held in the hand, 10 cm for a poster read from a metre away, and more for signs. A longer link makes a denser code, which needs more room still.
What makes a code scan first time.
What this generator makes, and what it does not do.
These are static codes: the link itself is the pattern. There is no short link or redirect in the middle, so a scan goes straight to your address, nothing expires, and nobody counts the scans. That also means a printed code always opens the same address.
To measure visits, tag the link with the UTM builder first and make the code from the tagged link. To be able to change where people end up, point the code at a page whose links you can edit.
What people ask before they use it, answered plainly.
Yes. There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how many codes you make. The code is drawn by your browser, so the link you type is not sent to Bolt Claw or anyone else.
No. The link is stored in the pattern itself, with no redirect service in between, so there is nothing that can be switched off. The other side of that: once a code is printed, it cannot be pointed somewhere else.
M suits most uses. Choose L for the smallest code on a screen, and Q or H for codes that will get scuffed, wet or partly covered. A higher level adds modules, so print it a little larger.
SVG for anything printed: it is a vector, so it stays sharp at any size. PNG for websites, slides and messages, at 1024 pixels or more if it might be enlarged.
Not from the code itself, because nothing sits between the scan and your link. Add UTM tags to the link before you make the code, and your analytics will show those visits under the campaign you named.
Usually one of four things: too little contrast between the two colours, a light code on a dark background, a margin that was cropped or crowded, or a code printed too small for the distance it is read from.
Every Bolt Claw link-in-bio page comes with its own QR code, drawn in your browser the same way, so one printed code can lead to a page whose links you change whenever you like.
Point your QR code at a free Bolt Claw page, then change what it links to without reprinting anything.