QR code for poster and flyer printing, sized for the distance

How to make a QR code for a poster

1. Copy the address the poster should open: the event page, ticket shop, sign-up form or menu. Keep it short; a shorter link gives fewer, larger modules.
2. Paste it into Link for the poster and click Test link.
3. Divide the viewing distance by ten to get the code's width: 3 cm for a flyer, 20 cm for a poster read from 2 m, 50 cm for a banner.
4. Keep dark modules on a light background if you style it; the badge tells you if a colour or a logo has gone too far.
5. Wait for the badge to read Verified, then choose Download PDF, set the physical width from step 3, and place the PDF in the artwork without scaling it.

QR code for poster details

A poster code is a link code seen from further away than any other print: a flyer at 30 cm, a noticeboard at a metre, a shop wall poster from two or three metres, an event banner from five. Size it for the person who is furthest away and still interested.

Poster QR code size by distance

Divide the scanning distance by ten and make the code at least that wide, quiet zone excluded: 3 cm for a flyer, 10 cm for a noticeboard, 20–30 cm for a wall poster, 50 cm for a banner. Above 33 × 33 modules on the capacity line, add a quarter to the width or shorten the link. The size guide has the calculator.

Placement

Put the code between 1.2 and 1.6 m from the floor, where a phone is naturally held, and towards the middle or bottom third of the poster rather than the top corner. Add a short caption: ‘Scan for tickets’, ‘Scan to sign up’. A flyer QR code goes wherever the eye lands after the headline, usually bottom right.

Finish

Matte paper and matte lamination scan at any angle. Gloss laminate and glass frames reflect the ceiling lights back at the camera and can blank out part of the code; if gloss is unavoidable, hang the poster where lights are not opposite it.

Files

Download the PDF at the width you chose and place it in the poster artwork at 100 percent. It is vector, so a 50 cm code has clean edges. Once printed, scan it from the real distance before the run is approved.

Common mistakes

• A code sized for the flyer reused on the A1 poster.
• No caption, so nobody knows why they should scan.

This code never expires

The address is stored inside the code, so a poster left on a noticeboard for a year keeps opening the same page, provided the page is still there. This is a static QR code: the data is written into the pattern, so scanning it needs no server, no account and no subscription. There is nothing to renew and no redirect that can be switched off, which is why a code made here keeps working for as long as the printed copy exists. The trade-off is honest: a static code cannot be edited after printing and does not count scans. If you need either, encode a link to a page you control. Read how static and dynamic codes differ, and if a code you already have has stopped working, see why QR codes expire.

Styling, formats and print size

Every code can be styled in the Style panel: six dot shapes, corner shapes, solid or gradient colours, a transparent background, a quiet zone of 0–8 modules, and your own logo up to 30 percent of the width. A contrast checker warns below 3:1 and blocks downloads below 1.5:1, and after each change the preview is decoded again so the badge tells you whether the styled code still scans.

Print size: as a rule of thumb the code should be at least one tenth of the scanning distance wide, with the quiet zone included.

Poster QR code size follows the viewing distance divided by ten: 2–3 cm on a flyer, 10 cm at 1 m, 20 cm at 2 m, 50 cm at 5 m; print from the PDF at that physical width.

The QR code size guide has a calculator for module size, DPI and distance.

Frequently asked questions