What size should I print my QR code?

What is the minimum size for a QR code?

2 cm square is the practical floor for a code someone holds a phone up to, such as a business card, a label or a table tent. For anything further away, size the code to the distance it has to be read from and divide by ten.

Round up rather than down. The rule assumes a clean print, good contrast and a phone that is reasonably steady; real conditions are always worse than the test bench.

Leave a quiet zone around the code

Scanners find a QR code by its edges, so the pattern needs empty space around all four sides. The standard is a margin of four modules — four of the small squares that make up the pattern — which works out to roughly 10% of the code's width.

In the wizard this is the Margin slider under QR Design → QR Code Style, set in pixels from 0 to 50. If you set it to 0 because the design looked tighter, add the same space back in your layout instead.

What forces you to print bigger

Size is not only about distance. Four things make a code need more physical space:

• More data. Longer content means more dots in the same square, and smaller dots need more room on paper. Dynamic codes encode a short redirect link no matter how long the real destination is, so their pattern stays light.
• Pattern density. Under QR Design → Advanced, Pattern Density offers Auto, Dense (49×49) and Ultra (57×57). Dense and Ultra pack far more dots into the same square, so they need a bigger print than Auto.
• A logo. A logo covers dots, and error correction is locked to H while a logo is present to make up for it. That adds dots overall, which again wants more space.
• The surface. Curved bottles, fabric, corrugated card, glossy laminate and dark stock all lose you effective resolution. Print larger than the table suggests.

For the long-form version, including how module count and print resolution interact, see our QR code size guide.

Export at a size your printer can use

Physical size is decided at the printer; your job is to hand over a file that does not fall apart when it is scaled. Open the code, click Download and pick a format in the Save as... dialog:

1. SVG or PDF for anything printed. Both are vector, so the code is sharp at 2 cm and at 2 m. SVG ignores the file-size picker on purpose — it scales without a fixed resolution.
2. PNG or JPEG only when the printer insists on a raster file. Choose the largest File size offered, 4096 × 4096.
3. For PDF, set Page format to the sheet you want — A4, A3, A2, A1 or A0. The code is placed at 60% of the short edge of the page.

The Print item in a code's row menu opens your browser print dialog with the saved image. It is fine for a desk copy or a quick proof, not for a print run — send the downloaded SVG or PDF to a printer instead.

Full-page layouts, sticker sheets and poster templates are covered on our print a QR code page.

Common problems

The code scanned on screen but not on the printed piece

Screens are backlit and perfectly flat, so they flatter a code. Scan the physical proof, in the light the code will actually live in, before approving the run.

It scans at 2 cm on paper but not on the product

Curvature, gloss and dark or textured stock all cost you. Go up one step in size, keep the code off the curve where you can, and avoid a gloss varnish directly over the pattern.

The designer scaled the image down to fit

Scaling a raster export down thickens the joins between dots and can smear them together. Supply the SVG or PDF and let the layout tool scale the vector.

Frequently asked questions