Print your QR code, or put it on a screen

A QR code fails for boring reasons: too small, too low-contrast, printed on something shiny, or shown on a screen from across a hall. All of them are easy to avoid.

Printing the code

1. 01

   Download the SVG

   From the share dialog, SVG (best for print). It scales without blur, so one file covers a place card and a banner.

2. 02

   Size it for the distance

   A rule of thumb: the code should be about a tenth as wide as the distance people will scan it from. A table card scanned from a foot away can be a couple of inches; a sign read from across a room wants to be the size of a dinner plate. Bigger is never a problem.

3. 03

   Keep the margin and the contrast

   Leave the white border that comes with the file. Print dark on white or cream; don't invert it, tint it, or put it over a photo. Matte paper beats gloss under party lighting.

4. 04

   Test-scan a proof

   Print one, hold it where it'll live, scan it with your phone camera, and open the link in a private browser window so you see the guest side. Then print the rest.

There are no card or poster templates in Partyreel; the SVG drops into any design tool, a word processor, or your invitation printer's upload form.

On a screen

Use PNG (best for screens) for a thumbnail-sized code, and the SVG for anything larger: the PNG is about 200 pixels across and goes soft when a slide blows it up. A few things that matter more than they seem:

• Plain background, big code. A slide with the code filling a third of the screen and nothing busy behind it. Avoid animations that move the code.
• Write the link too. Some people would rather type than scan. Put the event link in text under the code; a custom link is much friendlier here. See set a custom event link.
• Leave it up. A code that flashes past in a slideshow loop gets missed. Give it its own slide that stays, or a corner of the screen throughout.
• Check the distance. From the back of a room, a phone camera needs a code the size of a laptop screen. Table cards cover the people the screen can't reach.

Something to say next to it

A short line does the explaining: "Scan to add your photos to our album. No app, no account." Guests who scan land on a welcome screen that says the same, so you don't need instructions beyond that.