Making QR Codes smaller

August 21, 2009 09:30 by Marc in Uncategorized

I have always been a HUGE fan of QR codes, and there is so much potential in them. I still think they will become part of our daily lives in the future as it allows us to display loads of information in a small image, using our cellphones to display the info.

I have just finished updating my South African iPhone apps page, and discovered a neat little trick when creating QR codes. Using the Kaywya QR Code Generator, I found is, that when the URL you are pointing to is quite long, the image size gets bigger. So for instance, I want to link back to the apps page, which is http://www.marcforrest.com/south-african-iphone-apps-directory/;

If I use the full URL in a QR Code image, it turns out to be quite a big image size wise (214 x 214)
qrcode

BUT, if I shorten the URL using Bit.ly, it makes the image size a whole lot smaller (135 x 135) , but with exactly the same info in it
qrcode

Use it don’t use it ;)

About the Author

Written by Marc

iPhone Guru//Gadget freak//Triple dad//Top KZN Blogger//TweetAddic//Macboy//Sports fundi//Beer drinker//A little bit of everything for everyone :)

8 Responses to Making QR Codes smaller

Johann August 23, 2009 at 17:19
If you’d like even shorter URLs, you can use services like is.gd or ow.ly. Oh and BTW I have an own QR Code Generator that I find is easy to use. I hope you like it.
QR Joe August 25, 2009 at 21:42
Marc – Based on your interest in QR Codes you will want to join the LinkedIn Group CodeZ QR’s One-to-one QR Communications. I too think QR is going to be part of our everyday lives soon and I think the world of 1to1 QR holds some of the greatest possibilities.
Mark Percival August 26, 2009 at 16:58
Actually you can make it even smaller if you use the upper case character trick.

However, Bit.ly is case sensitive, so you’ll need to use a custom name and use only uppercase characters. For example http://bit.ly/MFAPPS or when you encode it HTTP://BIT.LY/MFAPPS

I went ahead and created this for you and built the barcode using google charts – http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=150×150&cht=qr&chl=HTTP://BIT.LY/MFAPPS&choe=UTF-8

If you’ll notice, it’s a 21×21 matrix vs. your current 25×25, a roughly 30% savings.

The Kaywa generator seems to throw in extra error correction, which is probably unnecessary for your needs.

I wrote an article about this on my blog – http://squarepush.com/ps/2009/08/25/qr-code-size-and-uppercase-characters/
Marc August 26, 2009 at 22:21
Thanks for the comment Mark. very interesting indeed, I did not know that :) Found some good articles on your post which will make life a lot lot easier :)
Chris August 30, 2009 at 23:13
So how you these QR Codes help?
Is there an iPhone app that understands them?
Marc August 31, 2009 at 17:39
@chris yip download BeeTagg for the iPhone. works great reading QR Codes
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