PrintingWorkshop
QR code not scanning
The six causes, ordered by how often each one turns out to be the real problem. Most are print problems rather than code problems.
Guides
Everything that decides whether a printed code works
Written from the failures, in the order they actually happen. Every code on this page is a real one, drawn to show the thing its guide is about.
What do these QR code guides cover?
These guides cover why a QR code fails to scan, how big to print one for the distance people stand, the difference between dynamic and static codes, what a scan can and cannot tell you, and how M-PESA scan-to-pay differs from a code that opens a page.
Start here
The rest
PrintingWorkshop
QR codes for posters and flyers
How big the code has to be for the distance people stand, where on the page it belongs, and the six things that turn a print run into waste paper.
PrintingWorkshop
QR codes on business cards
Whether it belongs there at all, the size that still scans at 1.5 cm, and why a vCard payload ages badly the day your number changes.
KenyaWorkshop
M-PESA QR codes
Where a Lipa na M-PESA scan-to-pay code comes from, why you cannot generate one yourself, and what belongs on the second code beside it.
MeasuringWorkshop
Can you track who scans a QR code?
No, and the tools implying otherwise are selling you something. What a scan really tells you, why a fifth of them are not people, and where the legal line sits.
ScanningWorkshop
QR code not working on your phone
The iPhone setting that ships off, what Samsung and Pixel do differently, and the one test that tells you whether to blame the phone or the code.
ChoosingRadar
Static codes are a liability, not a saving
The free code costs nothing until the page moves. Then it costs a reprint of everything already on the wall.
BasicsWorkshop
What is a QR code?
A grid that carries text, three squares that let a camera find it at any angle, and enough redundancy to survive being partly destroyed.
PrintWorkshop
QR codes on packaging
Print runs are long, artwork is frozen, and the pack outlives the campaign. What that changes about which code you put on it.
Use caseWorkshop
QR codes for events
Scanned once, at a door, in bad light, by somebody who is not the person who made it. A different design problem from a poster.
PrintWorkshop
Why your QR code prints blurry
The size calculator answers the maths. This answers the file: why a screenshot of a code fails and a vector never does.
WorkshopWorkshop
How to make a QR code for a PDF
A QR code cannot hold a PDF, only a link to one, which makes this a hosting question wearing a QR costume. That is where every version of it goes wrong.
AnalyticsWorkshop
Why you cannot track the QR code your design tool made
Canva and Adobe Express emit a static code: your address written into the pattern, with nothing in between to count. No setting fixes it afterwards.
WorkshopWorkshop
Is a QR code a barcode?
It is one, just not a linear one, and the distinction decides which scanner can read it. Also: the code on your boarding pass is not a QR code.
OperationsWorkshop
QR code asset tags that outlive the system that issued them
Tags stay on equipment for years, which is longer than most asset systems last. How to label so changing software does not mean relabelling everything.
PaymentsWorkshop
How to get a Lipa na M-PESA paybill or till number
Paybill or Buy Goods, which your business actually needs, what Safaricom asks for, and what to do with the number once it is issued.
PaymentsWorkshop
Safaricom QR codes and link QR codes are not the same thing
Scan to Pay hands the phone to M-PESA. A link QR opens a page. They look identical printed, fail differently, and most businesses need both.
OperationsWorkshop
QR codes for inventory and product tracking
Inventory codes fail on physical size long before they fail on data. The millimetre floors, and why the code should never encode the item.
GrowthWorkshop
QR codes for collecting business reviews
Where the ask goes, why the code has to be re-pointable, and the shortcut that gets a listing penalised rather than a review removed.
SecurityWorkshop
QR codes for verification, and what they cannot prove
Anyone holding one genuine item can reprint its code. What a verification code can honestly establish, and where the guarantee actually comes from.
SecurityWorkshop
Is a URL shortener safe?
A short link hides its destination by design. The four questions that separate a safe provider from a risky one, and how to check any of them, including us.
SecurityWorkshop
QR code phishing, and why it arrives by email
Quishing puts the link in a picture because a picture is the one thing a mail filter cannot read. What that changes about detecting it.
StandardsWorkshop
What is GS1 Digital Link?
One barcode the till reads as a product number and a phone opens as a web page. What Sunrise 2027 actually requires, and what it does not.
MoneyWorkshop
How much does a QR code cost?
The pattern is free forever and always will be. What costs money is somebody keeping the redirect answering for as long as the poster is on the wall.
BasicsWorkshop
What is a URL shortener?
What happens in the redirect, why a 301 quietly turns a dynamic code static, and the five questions worth asking a provider before you print anything.
PrintingWorkshop
QR code flyer examples
Seven layouts drawn to scale with the distance each one actually scans from. Four of them fail, and they all fail the same way: sized to fit the page instead of the reader.
PaymentsWorkshop
NQR: QR code payments in Nigeria
Your bank issues the code, not a generator, and the CBN framework says you may display only an approved one. What that leaves you free to print, and the ten minutes that decide static from dynamic.
PaymentsWorkshop
QR code payments in South Africa
Why the counter carries three scan-to-pay codes, what the Reserve Bank QR+ standard is meant to collapse them into, and why nobody can tell you the date.