QR Barcodes ?????

[LaRue Medlin]

""Originally designed for industrial uses, QR codes have become common in consumer advertising. Typically, a smartphone is used as a QR-code scanner, displaying the code and converting it to some useful form (such as a standard URL for a website, thereby obviating the need for a user to type it manually into a web browser).""





So what do you think about the bar code. I went to a QR generator and made one for my website. What is your viewpoint about putting it on my cards? I know of a locksmith in NC that has it on his van and he says he does get hits from it.





[Broken External Image]:

 

[Bill V]

I'm a packaging engineer, and work a lot with various types of barcodes.



I think it is a good idea. However, that particular code as you have in the picture above, when reduced to a business card size, may be so dense that it is nearly unreadable.



A couple ideas to possibly improve things--



QR codes with longer contained text have more dots in them, and more dots in the same amount of space increases density. And when it comes to readability, density is bad. To reduce the number of dots, put less info in your code. You can shorten a link to a website using a link shortener like www.bit.ly . In fact, I just shortened the link to your website down to bit.ly/15bdYnv using that website--feel free to use that in your QR code if you like. (To see it in action, copy it into a browser.)



I know business card real estate can be at a premium--but increasing the size of a QR code reduces its density, making it easier to read.



I don't know what your business card material is--but if you want a QR code to be readable, go with a card that is low/no gloss.



And it looks like you're probably OK in this regard--but make sure you keep the white space around the code at least four times as wide as the smallest dot size. That border is called the quiet zone, and is critical to readability.

 

[Bill V]

A brief Youtube video discussing some of the same points I stated above...

 

[Andy Chase]

what about having the QR code larger on the back side of the business card? I've seen a few others with that done.

 

[Jacob Dryer]

If you want to know if your qr is driving any traffic to your site, have it link to a redirect page. Then you can monitor the traffic to that page instead of just homepage traffic and get some numbers over time to figure out if it's worth taking up the space on your card.