Question 1

How big does a QR code need to be to print in a book?

Accepted Answer

At least 2 cm wide. Below roughly that, a phone camera struggles to focus at all, whatever the code contains. For placement, a code is readable from about ten times its own width away — so a 3 cm code on a bookmark works at arm's length, and a poster read from three metres wants one around 30 cm.

Question 2

Can I use my own colours?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with one rule that matters more than taste: keep the dark colour on the modules and the light one behind them, and keep the contrast between them above 4.5 to 1. Pale ink on a tinted page is the most common way a code that looked fine on screen dies on paper. Inverted codes — light modules on a dark background — are legal but refused outright by many phone cameras. This tool scores the contrast as you change it.

Question 3

Will a logo in the middle break the code?

Accepted Answer

Not if it stays small. A QR code carries error correction, so part of it can be missing and still be read — but that budget is finite. Keep the logo under about a quarter of the surface, and let the strongest correction level be switched on for you, which happens automatically here. This tool also decodes the finished code back to prove the data survived.

Question 4

PNG or SVG?

Accepted Answer

SVG whenever your designer or your cover template accepts one. A vector is resolution-independent, so it cannot go soft at whatever size it lands on the page. A PNG works perfectly well too — it just has to be exported large enough to begin with, which is why 2048 px is offered here.

Question 5

What is the blank border around a QR code for?

Accepted Answer

It is part of the code, not decoration. That empty margin is how a scanner works out where the pattern ends. Four modules is the specified minimum, and pushing a code tight against a page edge, an image or a line of text is what removes it.

Question 6

Where should a QR code go in a book?

Accepted Answer

Wherever it removes typing. The last page, pointing at the review form, is the strongest: the moment a reader closes a book is the moment they are most inclined to say something about it. The front matter works for a bonus chapter or a newsletter. Bookmarks and signing-table signs work because a QR code is the only way a stranger takes your link home. One place to avoid: inside an ebook — nobody scans the screen they are reading on.

Question 7

Can I change where the code goes after it is printed?

Accepted Answer

Not with a plain QR code — it encodes the address itself, permanently. That is what smart links are for: the code encodes a short address you keep, so the destination can change afterwards, you see how many scans it gets, and each reader is sent to their own Amazon store rather than to one country's.

Question 8

Is this really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. No account, no watermark, and the codes never expire. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent to us or stored anywhere.

QR-Code-Generator

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