On-brand codes
that still scan.
Match your exact brand color, embed your logo, and shape the eyes and pattern — with live scannability validation so you can never ship a dead code. Export high-res PNG, vector SVG, or print-ready PDF.
Color · custom hex
Eye style
Logo
CQC ✓ embedded · EC boosted
Scannable ✓ contrast OK
Every knob you'd expect.
Presets, PNG export and live validation are free. Custom hex, logo embed, the pattern editor and vector exports unlock with Pro.
Presets + custom hex
Start from a curated preset or dial in an exact brand hex. Contrast is validated as you go, so an on-brand color can't quietly kill the code.
Logo embed
Drop in a PNG or SVG logo. Error correction adapts automatically so the code still scans even with meaningful logo coverage in the center.
Eye-style + pattern editor
Round eyes, square eyes, dot patterns and custom module shapes — the QR equivalent of choosing a typeface for your brand.
Live scannability validation
Every design is checked in real time for contrast and quiet-zone integrity. You get a clear pass/fail before you ever hit export.
PNG, SVG & PDF export
High-res PNG for screens, vector SVG that prints crisp at any size, and print-ready PDF for a professional handoff.
12 use-case templates
Bar menu, wedding, golf tournament, lost-pet collar and more — pre-styled starting points you can recolor and make your own.
Pretty is easy. Pretty and scannable is the hard part.
Low contrast, an oversized logo, or a too-tight quiet zone can turn a beautiful code into a dead one. The Studio validates every change live and boosts error correction when your logo grows — so what you export always works.
What a QR code will and won't survive.
These are properties of the QR format itself, not of any one tool — they are true wherever you make the code. They are also what the Studio checks for you, and knowing them is the difference between designing a code and guessing at one.
Error correction
L / M / Q / HEvery QR code carries redundant data so it survives damage. The four levels recover roughly 7%, 15%, 25% and 30% of the code respectively. A centre logo works by deliberately destroying part of the code and letting error correction rebuild it — which is why the level has to rise as the logo grows, and why a logo pasted over a finished code in an image editor so often stops scanning.
Quiet zone
4 modulesThe specification requires a clear margin of four modules — four "pixels" of the code — on all four sides. It is not padding, it is how a scanner finds the code's edges. Cropping tight to the pattern, or letting a background graphic bleed into that margin, is one of the most common reasons a printed code fails while the on-screen version worked.
Contrast
Dark on lightScanners read the code by the difference between dark and light modules, so the foreground must be meaningfully darker than the background. Two brand colours of similar lightness can look striking and read as one flat block to a camera. Inverting to light-on-dark is not universally supported and should be tested rather than assumed.
Module shape
Finder patterns are structuralThe three large squares in the corners are the finder patterns — a scanner locates and orients the code from them before it reads anything. Rounding the data modules is comparatively safe; restyling the finder patterns aggressively is where decorative codes usually break, because the scanner never gets far enough to be forgiving.
Physical size
Distance ÷ 10A widely used rule of thumb for print: the code should be about one tenth of the scanning distance. A code read from two metres away wants roughly 20cm across. Denser payloads mean smaller modules at the same overall size, which is why shortening the destination URL does more for real-world scannability than any design choice.
Vector output
SVG or PDF for printA QR code is geometry, not a photograph. Exporting it as a raster PNG and scaling it up softens the module edges, and soft edges are exactly what a scanner struggles with. Anything going to print should leave as SVG or PDF so the modules stay hard-edged at any size.
The single biggest lever is not on this list: shorten what the code encodes. Fewer characters means fewer modules, larger modules at the same physical size, and a code that reads faster from further away — which is why a dynamic short link scans better than a long tracked URL even before you touch the design. There is a fuller walkthrough in QR code design that still scans, and the static-versus-dynamic trade-off is covered in static vs dynamic QR codes. It is also worth knowing what the phone on the other side is doing — how to scan a QR code covers the built-in camera, the setting that switches it off, and the reasons a code that reads on one phone fails on another.
A code that scans perfectly still gets ignored if nothing beside it gives a reason to point a phone at it. What to put next to a QR code covers the line that does the actual persuading, plus the two placement mistakes no wording can rescue.
And the code is only ever a container for the address inside it — where should a QR code point covers why a homepage wastes the scan, how URL length changes the square itself, and where a short link differs from a dynamic code. For the two hardest places to put one, see QR codes at events and trade shows and QR codes for donations.
Distance and compression are the two things a design has to survive on a screen rather than on paper — QR codes for social media covers why a heavily-styled code is the wrong choice on a stage backdrop or in a video, why a code inside a social post cannot be scanned at all, and how to choose between one handle and a page that lists all of them.
And the hardest surface a code ever has to survive is not paper or a screen but a machine — QR codes on equipment covers what abrasion, UV, solvents and a curved surface do to the contrast and the quiet zone, why the metal finishes that last longest are also the ones that throw glare into a camera, and why an asset tag is the one code that should carry no logo at all.
A consumer product label is the same fight in a smaller space and with no way back — QR codes on product labels covers the 2cm floor, why you buy room by shortening the URL instead of shrinking the code, what a gloss varnish and a shrink sleeve do to a scan, and why the static-or-dynamic choice has to be made before the artwork goes to press rather than after a pallet of jars has already shipped.
Straight answers.
What is a QR code design studio?
A QR design studio is an editor for the appearance of a QR code — its colours, the shape of its modules and finder patterns, and an embedded logo — as opposed to a plain generator that only produces a black-and-white code. The thing that separates a usable studio from a decorative one is whether it checks that what you designed still scans, because most of the interesting design moves reduce readability.
Can you put a logo in a QR code without breaking it?
Yes, within limits. A logo works by covering part of the code and relying on error correction to reconstruct the missing data, so the error-correction level has to be raised in step with how much you cover. The failure mode is pasting a logo onto an already-generated code in an image editor, which destroys data the code was not built to lose. Embedding the logo at generation time, so error correction can be set accordingly, is what makes it safe.
Can a QR code be any colour?
Almost — the constraint is contrast, not hue. The modules need to be clearly darker than the background, so any colour dark enough against a light background will generally work. Pale brand colours, low-contrast gradients and light-on-dark inversions are where codes stop reading, and none of those problems are visible to the eye at design time.
Why does my QR code work on screen but not in print?
Usually one of three things: the code was exported as a raster image and scaled up, so the module edges are soft; the quiet zone was cropped away or encroached on by a background; or the printed size is too small for the scanning distance and the payload. Exporting vector, keeping the four-module margin and shortening the destination URL address all three.
Should I use a static or a dynamic code for a design project?
If the code is going to print, a dynamic code is usually right, because the destination can be changed after the artwork has been produced — a static code encodes the URL permanently. The trade-off is that a dynamic code depends on the service that redirects it continuing to exist, which matters most when the code is printed on something with a long life.