QR Code Generator: URLs, Wi-Fi, vCards, and Trackable Marketing Codes

TL;DR — Use the QR Code Generator for URLs, Wi-Fi, vCards, email, SMS, and UPI in seconds. Pair with the UTM Builder to make every scan trackable in Google Analytics, and the URL Encoder to clean up any URL with special characters before encoding.

QR codes are quietly the best offline-to-online bridge

Restaurant menus, conference badges, product packaging, payment kiosks, parking meters — QR is now a standard physical-world UI element. The scan-rate problem of the early 2010s (no native camera support) is gone: every iPhone and Android camera scans them by default.

The 6 QR code types worth knowing

Type	Format	Use case
URL	https://...	Menus, marketing, signage
Wi-Fi	WIFI:T:WPA;S:MyNet;P:pass;;	Guest network without sharing the password verbally
vCard	vCard 3.0 text block	Business cards, badges, email signatures
Email	mailto:hi@x.com?subject=...	Pre-filled support emails
SMS	SMSTO:+1...:text	Promo "text us to subscribe"
UPI / payment	upi://pay?pa=...	India payments, donations, tip jars

Make a trackable marketing QR code in 60 seconds

1. Open the UTM Builder. Fill in source (e.g. poster), medium (print), campaign (summer-launch). Copy the URL.
2. Open the QR Code Generator. Paste the URL.
3. Pick foreground/background color (keep contrast high — black on white scans fastest).
4. Set error-correction to High (H) if you’ll add a center logo — H lets you obscure ~30% of the code.
5. Download as PNG (for screens) or SVG (for print at any size).

Design rules that actually matter for scan rate

• Contrast. Dark code on light background. Inverted (light on dark) often fails to scan.
• Quiet zone. Leave at least 4 modules of empty space around the code. Crowded codes fail.
• Minimum size. ≥ 2 cm (0.8 in) for handheld scans; ≥ 10× the expected distance for posters (1 m away = 10 cm code).
• Error correction. Use Low/Medium for clean digital placement; High when adding a logo or printing on rough surfaces.
• Test on a real phone. Generate, print on actual paper, scan from 1 m. The number of "looks great in Figma, fails in the lobby" stories is endless.

Tracking what people actually do after they scan

The biggest mistake in offline marketing is printing a bare URL and never knowing if the poster worked. Always wrap with UTM parameters before generating the code:

https://yoursite.com/launch?utm_source=poster&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=summer-launch

In Google Analytics or Plausible, scans show up as a clean traffic source you can compare against your other campaigns. Use a different campaign value per physical location (lobby vs cafeteria vs window) to see which placement performs.

FAQ

Do QR codes expire?

A QR code is just an image — it can’t expire. What can expire is the URL it points to. For long-lived codes (printed packaging), point at a stable redirect you control so you can change the destination later.

How small can a QR code be?

Roughly 2 cm × 2 cm for short URLs at handheld distance. The longer the encoded data, the more modules, the bigger the minimum printable size.

Can I put a logo in the center?

Yes — use error-correction level H (30% recovery) and keep the logo under 25% of the code area. The generator has a logo upload field.

Are QR codes safe to scan?

The code is just text. Risk comes from where it points. Phishing attacks now use QR codes on fake parking notices and restaurant tents. Always preview the URL your phone shows before tapping.

Offline-to-online toolkit

• QR Code Generator — URL, Wi-Fi, vCard, UPI, with logo support.
• UTM Builder — make every scan trackable.
• URL Encoder — clean URLs with special characters first.