QR codes that never expire.

Why a static QR code beats a "dynamic" one — for most jobs

The QR you generate above is a static code. The URL you type in is literally what the black-and-white pattern encodes. When a phone camera decodes it, the URL comes out of the image itself — no server call, no redirect, no lookup. That's the whole reason it can't ever "expire": there is nothing to switch off. The image and the destination are the same object.

A dynamic QR code encodes a short URL that points to a tracking server (usually the QR provider's own domain, like qr.qrcodegenerator.com/abc). The server looks up your real destination and redirects the phone there. That extra hop is what "dynamic" providers sell — because they own the redirect, they can change where the QR sends people after you print it, count scans, or geo-target. It also means they can stop the redirect any time — if you don't pay the renewal, the QR stops working. Millions of printed materials have been quietly bricked this way.

For most real jobs — a business card, a menu, a WiFi sticker on the fridge, a link on a resume — you never needed the tracking layer, and the "expire on non-payment" behavior is a bug, not a feature. A static QR is the honest version of the same thing.

When you actually do want dynamic

Two cases where dynamic is genuinely worth the tradeoff:

• Marketing campaigns where you need per-source scan counts and can't add UTM parameters to the destination URL (rare — you almost always can).
• Printed material where the destination URL is not yet decided at print time and needs to be changed later. If you already know the URL, static wins.

Everything else — the WiFi password, the vCard, the menu PDF hosted on your own domain — is a static-QR job. Print it once, own it forever.

The trick behind "free" QR generators

The category is full of tools that call themselves free but ship a dynamic redirect through their own domain by default, then charge a monthly fee to keep it alive. If you didn't read the fine print, your "free" QR code has a subscription clock running on it. Here's what a few of the popular ones actually do:

The way to check any QR generator before you use it: look at the URL the code actually encodes. Open your phone camera, hover on the preview, and read the URL that pops up. If it's your URL, it's static. If it's the tool's own domain with a random slug, it's a dynamic redirect — and everything above applies.

Print size and error correction — the actual numbers

Two settings decide whether a QR actually scans in the wild: physical size relative to scan distance, and error correction level. Get either wrong and you get a code that photographs fine on your screen but fails on the printed card.

How big does the QR need to be?

The working rule for a modern phone camera in decent light is scan distance ≤ 10× the QR's width. A 1-inch code scans reliably from about 10 inches; a 12-inch code scans from about 10 feet. Below that ratio, misaligned pixels between the phone sensor and the printed modules start eating error-correction budget, and you get the "camera sees it but nothing happens" experience.

These are floors, not ceilings. Erring 15–25% larger costs you nothing and buys forgiveness for phones held at odd angles, glare, and old cameras.

Error correction: L, M, Q, H — and when each matters

QR codes carry redundant data so scanners can still read them when part of the image is damaged, obscured, or covered by a logo. Four levels exist:

• L (Low, 7% recovery) — smallest, densest pattern. Fine for on-screen use and clean small prints.
• M (Medium, 15% recovery) — the default here. Good balance for most print jobs.
• Q (Quartile, 25% recovery) — outdoor labels, stickers that might scuff, or the general "belt-and-braces" choice for print.
• H (High, 30% recovery) — the only level that safely tolerates a centered logo, colored overlay, or heavy weathering. Also the correct choice on shiny surfaces where glare can wipe out chunks of the image.

Higher error correction makes the QR denser (more, smaller modules) for the same content — which means it also needs to be printed bigger to stay scannable at the same distance. If you jump from M to H, add 15–20% to the minimum printed width to compensate.

Contrast, quiet zone, and colors that break scanning

The dark-on-light convention isn't decoration — it's what QR scanners are trained on. Reversing it (light modules on a dark background) fails on a significant fraction of budget cameras. Colored QRs work as long as the foreground is much darker than the background — think dark navy on cream, not sky blue on white. A rough rule: if you print the color pair in grayscale, the dark side should still look at least 60% darker than the light side.

The quiet zone — the blank margin around the code — is not optional whitespace. Scanners use it to lock onto the code's edges. Removing it or letting other content encroach kills scanning even when the code itself is perfect. Keep at least 4 modules of blank space on every side (the "Standard" option above). "Wide" is the right call on cluttered flyers.

Eight ways to actually use this

1. Business card back

Encode a link to your LinkedIn, portfolio, or a landing page. Print at ~1 inch on the back so it's the whole reason someone flips the card. Use Medium error correction, black on white, standard quiet zone. Downloading the SVG lets your card printer scale it to any physical dimension without fuzziness — always send print vendors the SVG, not the PNG.

2. Restaurant menu / QR-first ordering

Encode a link to your menu page (hosted on your own domain, not a third-party menu SaaS whose subscription can lapse). Table tents work at 1.5 inches; wall posters at 4+ inches. High error correction (Q or H) if the tent will get sauce splashed on it. Test the printed piece under the actual restaurant lighting — warm downlights change contrast in ways daylight doesn't.

3. WiFi password sticker

Encode as text using the WiFi format: WIFI:S:YourSSID;T:WPA;P:YourPassword;;. Phones with the QR scanner in their camera app will join the network on tap. Print at 1–1.5 inches for a fridge or wall sticker, quiet zone standard, Medium error correction. Guests scan once instead of typing a 22-character password.

4. Event ticket or check-in code

Encode the ticket ID or a check-in URL. Even a Version 2 QR (25 modules) is enough for a UUID. Print at 0.75–1 inch on a ticket, higher error correction so a folded or handled ticket still scans. If the URL is short enough, Low or Medium error correction keeps the modules chunkier and more forgiving.

5. Resume — link to portfolio or long-form work

Recruiters skimming a resume PDF on a phone will not thumb across for a long URL. A ~0.7-inch QR in the header, pointing to your portfolio, gets scanned. Keep it monochrome — colored QRs on a resume read as gimmicky.

6. Product label — batch or SKU linking

Encode a link to the product page, care instructions, or a batch-traceability record. Product labels live in bright store lighting with lots of glare, so print at least 0.8 inches with High error correction and a wide quiet zone. If the label material is glossy, add extra size (glare eats scan reliability).

7. Real-estate sign / trade-show booth

The single case where you almost always want it big. Scan distance is 6–15 feet, so the code needs to be 7 inches minimum — usually more like 12–18 inches. This is where the SVG download matters: rasterizing a 300-pixel PNG to 18 inches produces a blurry, unscannable mess. The SVG scales cleanly.

8. Wedding invite / RSVP

Encode a link to the RSVP page, registry, or a video message. This is one of the few places where custom colors are appropriate — but keep the foreground genuinely dark (deep burgundy, navy, forest) and the background genuinely light. Print at 0.8–1.2 inches so guests can hold the card at reading distance and still scan.

How to test a QR before you print 500 of them

1. Scan the preview on your monitor with your phone. Sanity check: does the URL that pops up match what you typed?
2. Print one at actual size on the actual paper stock. The paper texture and ink absorption matter — glossy magazine stock scans differently from matte cardstock.
3. Scan under the lighting the final material will live in. Restaurant downlights, storefront sunlight, and event tent shade all wash out contrast in different ways.
4. Scan from the maximum expected distance. If you're printing a 4-inch code for a 4-foot menu-board scan, don't test it at 6 inches on your desk.
5. Try one budget Android phone and one older iPhone. New phones are forgiving. A code that only scans on flagships will fail with ~30% of your audience.

Common mistakes

• Made it too small. The single most common failure. When in doubt, make the QR 25% larger than you think.
• Reversed the colors. Light modules on a dark background trips a large chunk of cheap Android cameras.
• Placed a logo without raising error correction to H. Any center overlay eats real data — L or M can't survive it, H can.
• Cropped the quiet zone. "The margin looked wasteful" — and now scanners can't find the code's edges.
• Encoded a giant URL instead of a short one. The longer the encoded text, the denser the modules, the bigger the printed code needs to be. Shorten URLs before encoding if you can (with a redirect you own, on your own domain — not bit.ly, which can expire).
• Sent a PNG to the printer. Print vendors need vector for anything over about 2 inches. Download the SVG.
• Used a dynamic QR from a free-trial provider on printed material. The clock is ticking; when the trial ends, the print run is scrap.

Frequently asked questions