QR code flyer examples
What does a QR code on a flyer actually look like?
A QR code on a flyer should be about a fifth of the width of the page, near the bottom, with a line of text beside it saying what it opens. Below is the same code on seven real layouts, drawn at true proportion. Three of them fail, and every one fails for the same reason: it was sized to fit the design rather than the distance.
Each drawing is to scale. The page is the page, the code is the code, and the figures underneath are computed from the printed width rather than estimated: a QR code reads from roughly ten times its own width, and there is a second floor below which the modules are finer than a printer can draw at all. Every code here is real and encodes this page.
- Page
- 148 x 210mm
- Code printed at
- 15mm
- Read from
- 30cm
- Scans from
- no distance at all
Fails. At 15mm each of its 49 modules is finer than a press can lay down, so it does not scan with the phone touching it. It needs 30mm.
- Page
- 148 x 210mm
- Code printed at
- 30mm
- Read from
- 30cm
- Scans from
- up to 30cm
Works. 30cm of reach against 30cm of need.
- Page
- 210 x 297mm
- Code printed at
- 25mm
- Read from
- 100cm
- Scans from
- up to 25cm
Fails. It reaches 25cm and people stand at 100cm. The code has to be 100mm wide.
- Page
- 210 x 297mm
- Code printed at
- 100mm
- Read from
- 100cm
- Scans from
- up to 100cm
Works. 100cm of reach against 100cm of need.
- Page
- 297 x 420mm
- Code printed at
- 60mm
- Read from
- 200cm
- Scans from
- up to 60cm
Fails. It reaches 60cm and people stand at 200cm. The code has to be 200mm wide.
- Page
- 297 x 420mm
- Code printed at
- 200mm
- Read from
- 200cm
- Scans from
- up to 200cm
Works. 200cm of reach against 200cm of need.
- Page
- 100 x 150mm
- Code printed at
- 40mm
- Read from
- 35cm
- Scans from
- up to 40cm
Works. 40cm of reach against 35cm of need.
The one mistake every failure here shares
Not one of the three failures above is a design problem. The layouts are fine, the contrast is fine, the quiet zone is intact. In every case somebody picked a size that suited the page and never asked what distance it had to survive, and the artboard gave no hint, because at 100% on a screen every code looks scannable.
The two corrected examples look, to a designer, like the code is too big. That reaction is the whole problem: a code sized correctly for a shop window is a third of the width of the poster, and it feels wrong until the first time somebody actually scans it from the pavement.
Working out the size for your own layout
The arithmetic is one division. Take the distance somebody will stand, divide by ten, and that is the minimum width of the printed code. Two metres is 200mm. One metre is 100mm. Thirty centimetres is 30mm. Then check it against the module floor, because a long URL needs more width than the distance alone suggests.
The size calculator does both halves and tells you which one is binding, and it reads from the same module as every figure on this page, so it cannot disagree with them. For where the code goes on the page, the line of text beside it, and the checks before it goes to print, see the posters and flyers guide, which is the how to this page's what it looks like.
A shorter link is the only way to cheat the arithmetic
Everything above treats the code as fixed and the size as the variable. There is one lever that moves the other way. A QR code grows with the length of what it carries, so a campaign URL with five tracking parameters bolted on needs a bigger printed square than a short link to the same destination, at the same scanning distance, on the same paper.
The examples here encode a short link for that reason. It is also the argument for a link you can re-point: the parameters live on our side, the printed code stays small, and the destination can change without a reprint. Dynamic versus static covers the trade properly.
Questions
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
What size should a QR code be on an A5 flyer?
About 30mm for a flyer somebody holds, which is roughly a fifth of the width of the page. The rule underneath it is that a code reads from about ten times its own width, so 30mm reaches 30cm, and 30cm is where a held page sits. The 15mm code that fits the corner so neatly reaches 15cm, which is closer than anybody holds anything.
Why does my flyer QR code not scan?
Usually because it was sized to fit the layout rather than the distance. Every example on this page that fails, fails for that one reason. The other common causes are a cropped quiet zone, too little contrast, and a code printed from a low-resolution image, and those have their own guides.
How big should a QR code be on an A3 poster?
It depends entirely on where the poster hangs. Read from two metres away, on a wall or in a window, it needs about 200mm, which is a third of the width of an A3 sheet and much larger than most people expect. Read from arm's length on a noticeboard it can be 60mm.
Can I just make the code smaller to fit the design?
You can, and it is the single most common way a print run becomes waste paper. Shrinking a code does not degrade it gently: below the point where the printer can resolve one module, it stops scanning at any distance at all, including with the phone touching it. The last two examples on this page are that case.
Does a shorter link let me print a smaller code?
Yes, and it is the one lever that changes the arithmetic rather than working around it. Fewer characters means fewer modules, and fewer modules means each one is larger at the same printed width. That is why the examples here encode a short link rather than a long campaign URL with tracking parameters bolted on.