A link or text into one QR. Add color and download cleanly as PNG or SVG.
Enter a URL or text to see your QR code
How to use it
- 1Type the URL or text you want as a QR code. The preview appears the moment you type.
- 2Pick a format: PNG (image) or SVG (vector).
- 3For PNG, set the size (256, 512, or 1024px), and change the code and background colors however you like.
- 4Happy with it? Hit Download PNG or Download SVG to save — that’s it!
Handy tips
- Printing big, like a poster or banner? Go with SVG. It’s vector, so it stays sharp no matter how large you scale it.
- For reliable scanning, keep the code color dark and the background light. The greater the contrast, the easier it reads.
- For a web screen or social post, PNG is simplest. Around 512px looks crisp in most places.
How a QR code gets read
Every black and white square in a QR code is a bit of information — a 0 or a 1. A camera first hunts for the three big square markers in the corners (the finder patterns, often called the "eyes") to lock onto the code's orientation and size, then reads the remaining dots along the grid to reconstruct the original content. That's why a QR still scans even when it's slightly skewed or shot at an angle.
QR codes carry a safety net called error correction. Even if part of the code is covered or smudged, the spare information baked in lets a scanner rebuild the original content. This tool applies a standard level of error correction to the plain square style and a higher level to the shaped styles. That fills in the recognition margin that shrinks as modules turn into dots, keeping the code easy to scan.
Color and style customization vs. scan performance
You can choose from four styles: square (the default), rounded, dots, and smooth. Rounding the corners or turning modules into circles looks more polished, but it makes recognition slightly harder for a camera. So the shaped styles bump up error correction to compensate, and even the dot style keeps the dots large enough to touch each other so scanning doesn't break.
When changing colors, the contrast between the code and background matters most. A dark code on a light background is the reliable standard; a light code on a dark background (inverted) may fail on some scanners. The margin around the code — the quiet zone — is also essential for a scanner to find the code's edges, so when you print or paste it, leave plenty of white space around the QR.
PNG vs. SVG — where each fits
PNG is a dot-based (pixel) image, so it drops straight into screens, social posts, and documents. This tool lets you choose 256, 512, or 1024px — but exporting small and blowing it up leaves stair-stepped blur, so export a bit larger than you need. For posting on the web or in a chat, 512px is plenty.
SVG is a vector, drawn as mathematical shapes rather than dots, so its edges stay razor-sharp no matter how far you scale it. For big prints like posters, banners, and signs, or when handing a business card off to a print shop, SVG is the safe pick. It has no fixed size and scales infinitely, which is why choosing SVG locks the size setting in this tool.
Frequently asked questions
No — QR generation runs entirely in your browser, and what you type is never sent to a server. Even turning a private link into a QR, there’s no risk of it leaking out.
PNG is handy for the web or social, and SVG is best when you need to scale it up for print. SVG is vector, so it stays sharp at any size — which is why it has no separate size setting like PNG does.
As long as there’s enough contrast between the code and background colors. Keep the code dark and the background light to be safe, and check the preview while you pick.
Yes — not just URLs, but text in any language works too. Just note that very long content makes the code denser and harder to scan, so keeping it short is best.
No. What you make here is a static QR, with your content baked right into the code, so it keeps scanning for years as long as the image itself survives. The one caveat: if the URL a QR points to goes away or changes address, it won't open — so keeping the link alive is really what stands in for an expiry date.
Go down the list: (1) enough contrast between code and background (dark code, light background), (2) white margin left around the QR, (3) the printed or displayed size isn't too small, (4) the content isn't overly long, and (5) the surface isn't glaring or creased. Switching the style back to the plain square gives the best recognition, so it's a good thing to try when scanning fails.