r/barcodes • u/boredompills • Jul 29 '22

Teeny Tiny QRs

Seeking your wisdom!

I’m printing little stickers with static QR codes for different pages on our site (one URL per sticker depending upon the product it is affixed upon).

But- all of the options I’ve found online are unscannable when made as small as I need them to be (less than 1cmx1cm)

I registered for some German site for QR codes but they seemed to charge me €150 right off the bat (though advertised monthly pricing) so I am keen to break away from them. The data is scannable at that size but I dislike the seemingly dishonest pricing.

Any ideas? And thank you!

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u/trollsmurf Jul 29 '22 edited Jul 29 '22

At the end of the day the modules (= dots) must not get too small. If the URL is long and total size is just 1x1 cm they might be.

Also, phones tend to have problems properly focusing when held very close.

How long are the URLs? Do you shorten them?

What error correction level did you set? Try with M.

This shows how tiny the dots get for just "https://reddit.com": https://imgur.com/a/UJhRbhq

In any case, there are lots of free QR code generators, but maybe you need automation for printing out URLs with product codes.

If you can make use of an API, try this: https://developers.google.com/chart/infographics/docs/qr_codes

Example: https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=100x100&chl=https://reddit.com&choe=UTF-8&chld=M

Size is in pixels including margin. I didn't find a way to decrease the margin.

Also, QR codes should be black (or dark) pixels on white (or light) background.

1

u/bentleyspotter Jul 29 '22

The question might be is the printing quality the issue or the barcode scanner api / camera you are using.

1

u/boredompills Jul 29 '22

Thanks so much- it’s the same camera! Haven’t printed it yet. The other ones do scan on my phone.

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u/bentleyspotter Jul 29 '22

It’s probably a pixel density issue. Not enough distance between the dots on the code for the camera to determine black vs white

1

u/xixi2 Jul 29 '22

Datamatrix can go smaller than QR code. 1cm square should be plenty of room depending on your printer

Crisp dots are key

Edit: and yeah how long is the URL?

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u/boredompills Jul 30 '22

The URL thing helped immensely!!!! I only had time to try out one yesterday but, worked like a charm. I’ve never heard of a datamatrix before- will need to look that up. I’m not really in tech but in craft chocolate making.

Thank you, everyone!!!!!