How to create a QR code for a website

1. Copy the exact URL

Open the page and copy the address from the browser bar. Copy rather than retype: a QR code made from a mistyped URL scans perfectly and goes nowhere, and you will not notice until someone tells you.

Include https://. Most sites redirect from http:// but not all, and a redirect is an extra hop on a phone that may be on a weak signal.

2. Paste it into a generator

Paste the URL into the generator, or into whichever tool you prefer. Two things are worth checking about the tool itself: whether it produces a static or dynamic code, and whether it will still be there next year if the answer is dynamic.

3. Download the right file

• SVG for anything going to a printer. It is vector, so it stays sharp at any size.
• PNG for screens, slides, email signatures, and office printing.

4. Test before you commit

Scan the finished code with a phone that has never opened the link, ideally on mobile data rather than your own Wi-Fi. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that catches almost every failure.

The URL decides both how well the code scans and how long it stays useful, so it deserves a moment’s thought.

• Shorter is better. Fewer characters means fewer modules, and a coarser code scans from further away on worse cameras.
• Stable is better. Encode a path you will not reorganise. /menu will outlive /2026/spring/food-and-drink/menu-v2.
• Specific is better. Send people to the page that answers the question the printed material raised, not to the homepage.
• Yours is better. A URL on your own domain can be redirected later. Someone else’s short link cannot.

If you need the ability to change the destination after printing, set up a redirect on your own domain and encode that. You get editability without depending on a QR service that could expire.

Testing on your own phone, at your desk, on your own Wi-Fi, while logged in to your own site, proves almost nothing. A real test looks like this.

1. Scan with a phone that has never visited the site — a colleague’s is ideal.
2. Use mobile data, not your office network, so you catch anything that only resolves internally.
3. Try both an iPhone and an Android device if you can. Their default cameras behave slightly differently.
4. Scan the final printed proof, at final size, on the final material — not the version on your screen.
5. Scan from the distance people will actually stand at, in the light they will actually have.
6. Check the page that loads is the right one, and that it works on a phone-sized screen.

Glossy laminate and spot-UV finishes reflect enough light to defeat a camera at some angles. If the print has a shiny finish, test under a bright overhead light, which is where it will fail if it is going to.

The caption point is worth dwelling on. A bare square on a poster asks people to gamble. “Scan for the menu” or “Scan to book” tells them what they are getting, and consistently gets scanned more.

Paste a link and download the code:Open the generator