What Is A QR Code Generator: Everything You Need To Know

What Is A QR Code Generator: Everything You Need To Know

Don’t know what a QR code is or how companies use it? Don’t worry. In this comprehensive guide, we cover the basics of QR code technology. We update our page often, so don’t forget to bookmark us.

What Is A QR Code?

A Quick Response or Quick Response code is a popular type of two-dimensional barcode. Encrypts alphanumeric information. You can use a handheld scanner or even a QR code scanning app on your smartphone to decode it.

In fact, many smartphones such as iPhone, Xiaomi, Motorola, and Samsung already incorporate a QR code scanning feature into their camera app.

The Japanese company Denso Wave Corporation complied with Rapid Response codes in 1994. Its role was vehicle tracking and high-speed component scanning in the automotive industry.

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Use Of QR Codes

Quick Response codes have come a long way since 1994. In the age of smartphones, these square-shaped barcodes have found wide uses.

Some of them are inventory management, marketing and advertising, security, mobile payments, education and personal use.

Different industries are using it intensively. Statistics show that QR code scanning was massive all over the world in 2018. And it will continue to grow in 2019.

This implies that its use multiplies every day.

These 2D barcodes stores information such as web page URLs, text, and contact information.

To view this information, simply scan the code using an app on your smartphone. It’s even easier than clicking a photo.

QR codes are so easy to use that anyone can create them and use them to their advantage.

Nowadays, they are usually added to the:

• Business cards so people can save contact details.
• Prevent the spread of COVID-19 by improving contact tracing, PPE kits and vaccination
• Class material to engage and teach children
• Hire suitable HR candidates and even get a job for job seekers.
• Print ads for readers to visit the website, sign up for an event, etc.
• Live location sharing for various use cases
• Mobile payment applications to carry out transactions
• Product packaging to allow consumers to obtain detailed product information
• Improve business processes, such as sales and marketing
• Event or travel tickets to authorize and record entry
• Making industries like food and alcohol transparent to customers
• Wedding invitations to make things easier for guests
• Invitation cards to help guests get the location of the venue on your phone’s map app
• Share and market the stories in various ways
• Code a survey or feedback form.

The list does not end here. In fact, there are many very original and innovative use cases for QR codes.

Best Practices For Using QR Codes

If you use Google Adwords for search engine marketing, you must have an SEM expert. The expert’s job is to optimize the CTR to get the highest conversion.

Similarly, in offline-to-online marketing, in this case, with QR codes, it is necessary to follow best practices. Always make sure that the quick response code:

• Be accessible to your target audience
• can be scanned
• Have clear instructions telling users what to do or what to expect after scanning (for example, “Scan me to sign up”)
• It is  located in an area with a mobile phone network
• Lead to a mobile-optimized landing page
• Download in a high-resolution format like SVG or PDF for print media

Once you know the best practices for QR codes, you should also know how not to use them.

For example, avoid placing the QR code in a location without Wi-Fi or mobile internet access.

Or make sure it’s neither too small nor too large to negatively affect the scan.

Types Of QR Codes

Let’s say the content you want people to see is “destination data”. The destination data can be a web page, a word in Spanish, your phone number or even an image.

The classification of QR Codes depends on how this data is encoded. There are two categories of Quick Response Codes:

1. Static QR Code

In a static quick response code

• Destination data is encoded directly into the code, just as numeric data is encoded in a barcode.
• The more information that is encoded, the more “dense” the quick response code will be.
• The encoding is permanent, which means that the target data can never be edited
• Unable to track scanning activity

A static QR code can encrypt the following information in a structured format:

• URL
• Vcard (contact data)
• Text
• Wi-Fi network access details
• SMS preloaded
• Email address
• Phone number
• calendar event
• Bitcoin wallet address

2. Dynamic QR code

A dynamic QR code is a better way to encode URLs in a QR code. This gives it greater functionality and flexibility. In a Dynamic Quick Response code:

• Destination data can only be a URL
• The destination URL is not stored directly in the Quick Response Code. Instead, a short URL (usually provided by the QR code service) is encoded that redirects to the destination URL
• Editing of the encoded destination URL is possible at any time without the need to reprint the square barcode
• It is possible to track scanning activity and get an analysis
• You can ‘activate’ or ‘deactivate’ the code at any time

Note that this categorization is based on how the data is stored in a quick response code. Depending on the type of content, there can be many categories.

The number of categories of these 2D barcodes you can create depends on the QR code generator being used.

To decide what type of QR code you should create, think about what action you want your target audience to take. For example, you want

• visit a website
• See a text-based landing page
• listen to a sound
• Make a payment through Paypal
• watch a video
• Download a PDF
• follow you on social media

Generate a QR Code

Different generators offer different categories. For example, the Scanova QR code generator allows you to create more than 20 types of Quick Response codes.

Before launching into creating a QR code, you must be clear about two things:

• 1. What do you want your audience to do?
• 2. Which QR code generator best suits your needs.

A simple Google search on “QR code generator” will return many pages of results.

So how do you decide which service is the best for you? Do you compare them all one by one?

Don’t worry. We have compiled a detailed comparison table of the best QR code generators.

Once you decide which service you will use, there are three ways to generate QR codes:

1. One-on-one using an online QR Code Generator

There are many online QR code generators, that help you create a Quick Response code.

All you need to do is specify the destination data, select the QR code type (static or dynamic) and download the image.

You can even customize your quick response codes by adding your brand colour and logo.

It’s a fact that personalized Quick Response codes attract far more scans than standard black-and-white ones.

So, if your use case is promotional (such as marketing), and you want as many people as possible to scan your QR code, you should customize it.

2. Integrate the QR code API with the system itself

If you have a mobile application or an information system that needs to generate these 2D barcodes, then you need a QR code API.

It will integrate with your system and generate a Quick Response code when needed

3. Mass creation services

Some QR code service providers offer the option of bulk generation (or batch generation).

This is necessary in case you need (say) 10,000 Quick Response Codes each with a unique ID.

Just specify the data to be encoded in a spreadsheet, upload it to the batch generator, add a design to the QR codes (optional) and checkout.

Once the batch is ready, you can download it.