Text QR code generator
A code that displays plain text when scanned. Useful for serial numbers, instructions and short notes.
- Free to use
- No account needed
- Tested before you download
- Ready to print
Step 1
What should this code do?
Shows text
Shown exactly as entered when scanned.
Step 2 · Make it yours (optional. A plain code works great.)
Colour
Every one of these is dark enough to survive print. Pick one, or set your own below.
#000000
#ffffff
Codes with a label are scanned noticeably more often than bare ones.
A logo covers modules. We raise error correction to compensate and then decode the finished code to confirm it still reads.
Higher settings keep the code readable even if it gets scuffed or partly covered, but pack the dots tighter. Standard is right for almost everyone.
Step 3
We’ll tell you exactly how big to print it so it scans easily from that distance.
Common questions
- What happens when someone scans a text code?
- The phone displays the exact text you entered: no link, no app, nothing to open. It is used for serial numbers, part identifiers, short instructions and notes on equipment, where the information itself is the point rather than sending the person somewhere.
- Is the text interpreted or changed in any way?
- No. A text code carries exactly the characters you type, with nothing added and no formatting applied. That is the difference between this and the web-address or email types, which turn what you enter into a link the phone acts on.
Before you print
Size is the most common failure, but it is not the only one.
- Test the actual print, not the screen
- Scan it from the physical proof, at the distance and in the lighting people will really use, with an older phone if you have one. A code that scans on a monitor can fail on paper.
- Keep the quiet zone empty
- The blank margin around the code is part of the code. Scanners use it to find the edges. Placing text or a border inside it is the most common design mistake.
- Avoid glossy lamination where you can
- Gloss reflects overhead light straight back into the camera and washes out the pattern. Matt finishes scan far more reliably indoors.
- Do not print on a curve if you can avoid it
- Bottles, cups and cylinders distort the pattern. If you must, keep the code small relative to the curve and use a higher error correction level.
- Tell people what they get
- A code with no label is scanned far less often than one that says what happens next. 'Scan to see the menu' outperforms a bare code consistently.