How to make a QR code for a flyer

To put a working QR code on a flyer, make a dynamic code pointed at your link, write a line of text next to it that says what scanning does, size it for where the flyer will actually be read, leave a clear margin around it, and scan a printed proof with a real phone before you run the stack. Each of those steps has a specific number or rule behind it, and this guide gives them.

1. Make the code dynamic before anything else

A flyer outlives its first link. The event page moves, the ticket vendor changes, the sign-up form is replaced, the offer ends and a new one starts. A free static generator writes the URL into the pattern itself, so the moment any of that happens the whole stack is scrap. A dynamic code encodes a short redirect instead, and you change where the redirect goes whenever you need to. The printed flyer never changes.

The same trick gives you a second thing for free. If you are dropping flyers in three places, make three codes pointing at the same page. Each one counts its own scans, so a week later you know which stack was worth the walk. Every TangoQR code is dynamic on the free plan, so there is no reason to start with a static one.

2. Say what the scan does

Nobody scans a bare square on principle. Put a short line beside the code, verb first: "Scan for tickets," "Scan to RSVP," "Scan for the full menu." The code is the mechanism; the words are the reason. If the flyer has one job, the code and its caption should sit next to the one thing the reader is meant to do, not in a corner as an afterthought.

3. Size it for where the flyer ends up

The rule is 10:1. A code needs about one unit of width for every ten units of reading distance. A flyer in someone's hand is read from around 30 cm, so a 3 cm code is comfortable. The same flyer pinned to a noticeboard is read standing up, from about a metre, and needs a code closer to 10 cm. Taped in a shop window and read from the pavement, it needs 20 cm, which is most of an A5 sheet. Decide where the flyer will live before you decide how big the code is, and if it will live in more than one place, size for the farthest.

The first table below turns that into sizes for the common flyer formats. Round up, never down: a code that runs slightly large always scans, and one that runs slightly small sometimes does not. Our size calculator does the arithmetic for any distance.

4. Give it room

The QR specification, ISO/IEC 18004, reserves an empty border around every code called the quiet zone, four modules wide on each side. A module is one of the small squares in the pattern, so on a 3 cm code with 25 modules across, that margin is about 5 mm. It is not decoration. A scanner uses the quiet zone to find where the code begins, and artwork, a border, or a photo running up to the edge of the pattern is the most common reason a code that looked fine on screen fails on paper.

Two layout rules follow from that. Do not let a fold cross the code: on a tri-fold, keep it clear of the two creases, and on anything folded once, keep it on one panel. And do not tuck it into a corner where the trim might catch it. A commercial printer's trim tolerance is a couple of millimetres, which is your quiet zone gone.

5. Keep it dark on light

Phone cameras read a QR code by contrast. Dark modules on a light background is what every scanner is tuned for; an inverted code, light on dark, fails on many phones, and a code printed over a photo or a gradient fails on most. Brand colours are fine as long as the code colour is genuinely dark and the background genuinely light. If in doubt, black on white is never the wrong answer on a flyer.

6. Keep the link short so the code stays sparse

The longer the URL inside a code, the more modules it needs, and at a fixed printed size more modules means smaller modules, which means a harder scan. A short redirect link fits in a version 2 code, 25 modules across. A long page URL with tracking parameters can push into version 10, 57 modules across, and each module is then less than half the size at the same print width. The second table shows the jump. This is another reason to prefer a dynamic code: the code encodes a short redirect no matter how long the destination is, and you can put your tracking parameters on the destination instead.

7. Export for print, not for screen

Download the SVG if your designer or printer can take a vector file; it scales from a business card to a poster with no loss. If you need a PNG, export it at the final printed size at 300 DPI or higher, and place it at that size rather than scaling it up in the layout. Never screenshot a code off a screen: the resampling softens the module edges, and a soft edge is a misread waiting to happen. Blurry after printing is almost always a raster code that was scaled.

8. Add a logo only with headroom

A logo in the middle works because QR codes carry error correction: at the highest level, H, a code stays readable with up to 30 percent of it obscured. Use level H or Q if you are covering the centre, keep the logo well under a fifth of the code's area, and never let it touch the three large squares in the corners, which are the finder patterns the phone locks onto first.

9. Print one and scan it

Print a single flyer on the real stock, then scan it with more than one phone, from the distance people will actually hold it, under ordinary room light. Glossy stock throws glare, so tilt it. If any phone hesitates, fix it now. Our guide to codes that won't scan lists the usual culprits in the order to check them, and they are all cheaper to fix before the stack is printed.

10. Watch the scans, then repoint

Once the flyers are out, the code tells you whether they worked: total scans, the days and hours they arrived, and, with a code per location, which drop pulled. When the event passes, do not throw the leftover stack away. Repoint the code to the next event, the recap page, or a sign-up form for next time, and the same flyers keep working. The events guide goes deeper on running several codes across a campaign.