QR Code for Business Cards

What happens when someone scans your card

A business card is only useful if the details on it end up somewhere the other person will find them again. Most cards go into a pocket or a drawer, and whoever wants to keep the contact has to type it into their phone by hand, which takes time and invites typos. A contact QR code does that typing for them. They point the camera at the code, the phone recognizes a contact card and offers to save it, and the new entry appears with every field already filled in.

The details are stored in the pattern itself, so the code works without an internet connection, even in a trade fair hall with poor reception, and it keeps working for as long as the card exists. Nothing has to be installed on either phone. The Contact tab above writes the card in the format phones expect, including the details that break a code made by hand, such as a semicolon in a company name, which the format would otherwise read as the end of a field.

vCard, MECARD or a link to your own page

There are three ways to put your contact behind a QR code, and the choice is a trade-off between how much the code holds and how small it can be. The first is a vCard, the format phones and email programs already use to share a contact, written here in version 3.0 with every field from the form, so the saved contact can hold your job title, separate work and mobile numbers, a full address and a note. Every phone knows what to do with it, but a vCard names each field in words, and one with most fields filled in runs to a few hundred characters, which makes a dense code.

MECARD is a shorter format for the same purpose. It uses brief labels and leaves out a few things, including the job title, and it doesn't mark which of your numbers is the mobile, but in return it makes a noticeably smaller code from the same details. That helps when your design leaves only a corner of the card for the code. Because vCard is the format every phone is built around, scan a MECARD code with more than one phone before you print a whole batch.

The third option is a plain web link, made in the Website tab, to a page about you on your own website. A link makes the simplest code of all, and since you control the page, you can change your number or job title later without reprinting a single card. The trade-off is an extra step, since the person has to open the page and save your details from there, and the page has to stay online. The QR code generator page explains why printed codes can't change and how a page you control gets around that.

Choosing the details to include

Every field you fill in adds characters to the code, so it is worth asking what the other person will actually use. Name, company, job title, mobile number, email and website cover what most people look up later. A street address is only worth including if clients come to see you, since it adds a lot of text, and the note field is best left empty unless it says something the other fields can't, such as when you are easiest to reach.

Write phone numbers in international format, starting with a plus sign and the country code, because the saved contact may be dialed from abroad. The generator keeps the plus sign and the digits and drops spaces, dashes and brackets, so +1 (555) 010-0199 becomes a clean number in the contact. A website typed without https:// gets it added so the phone shows it as a link, and the form flags an email address that doesn't look right before it ends up on two hundred cards.

Put your first and last name in their own fields, so the phone sorts and displays the contact correctly. For a shop, a studio or a shared team address, you can leave both name fields empty and fill in only the company. The contact is then saved under the company name, which is what a customer will search for.

Size and placement on the card

A US business card measures 3½ by 2 inches and the cards on A4 sheets 85 by 54 mm, so the code competes for room with your name, title and logo. At the distance someone holds a card from, about 2 cm (0.8 in) is the smallest code that scans reliably, and that is enough for a MECARD or a short vCard with a name, one number and an email. A vCard with every field filled in, or any code with a logo in the middle, packs more squares into the same width and needs closer to 2.5 or 3 cm (1 to 1.2 in). Enter the print width next to the downloads and the scan check tells you whether that is too small.

Many people put the code on the back of the card with a short line such as "Scan to save my details", leaving the front for the name and logo. If it goes on the front, give the code one side and the text the other, and keep the light margin around the code free of text and lines, since the scanner needs that empty border to find the code. Keep it a few millimeters from the edge of the card as well, because home printers rarely place a page to the exact millimeter.

For the design, a dark brand color works well for the code as long as the card behind it stays light, and the corner color can pick up a second color from your logo. Think twice before putting a logo inside the code on something this small: it switches the code to the strongest error correction, which makes it denser, and your logo is usually printed on the card already. The frame option can add a short caption to the code itself, so you don't have to line up the text yourself.

Printing at home and testing the saved contact

On this page, Print on labels starts its list with business card sheets, 3½×2″ cards with 10 per US Letter sheet and 85×54 mm cards with 10 per A4 sheet, and the free label editor opens with your code already on the card you pick. Add your name, title and number as text, place your logo, and the editor fills the sheet with copies of your card; without an account, printing shows a short ad step first. Our page on business card labels covers the card sheets themselves, and if you order cards from a print shop instead, send them the SVG or PDF download, which keeps every square sharp.

Before you use card stock, print one sheet on plain paper and hold it against a card sheet in front of a window to see whether the layout lines up. Then scan the code on that test print with an iPhone and an Android phone, save the contact on both, and open the saved entries. Check that the first and last names are the right way round, that both numbers are there and dial, that the website opens, and that any accents in your name or street came through unchanged. Only then print the real sheets, since a wrong digit is easy to fix before the first cards are handed out and impossible after.