QR Codes On Every Surface
A QR code is not a graphic. It is an optical target, and the surface it lands on decides whether a camera can read it. Curved packaging, gloss lamination, thermal receipts, stretched fabric and rain-soaked vinyl each fail in their own specific way. These guides carry the size, material and placement rules for each one.
Choose your surface
Banners
The ten-to-one distance rule, the right height, and why matte vinyl outscans gloss.
Billboards
The dwell-time test that decides whether a large-format code is worth printing at all.
Books
Back cover, endpaper or chapter end, and why a book code has to stay editable for a decade.
Bottles and cans
The 30-degree curvature limit, seam placement, and scanning a cold can that is covered in condensation.
Brochures
A code per panel turns a folded leaflet into a report on which argument actually landed.
Clothing
Which fabrics hold a pattern, why stretch breaks it, and where a merch code should really point.
Displays
Eye-level placement, the aisle question worth answering, and per-store scan reporting.
Flyers
An offer worth keeping, and one code per corner so leafleting finally reports back.
Food packaging
Allergens, origin and recipes behind one square, on the hardest substrates in print.
Name badges
vCard or profile page, why badges need the code on both sides, and what not to encode.
Newspapers and magazines
Newsprint ink spread, per-title tracking, and keeping archived issues from going dead.
Posters
Sizing for the wall, surviving a wrinkled paste-up, and scanning after dark.
Product packaging
Manual, warranty, authenticity or reorder, and why the code inside the box is worth more.
Receipts
Thermal paper limits, why feedback beats reviews at the till, and per-branch reporting.
Stationery
Invoices that get paid by scan, letterheads that save a contact, measurable envelopes.
Stickers and labels
Matte over gloss, the right adhesive, and why die-cutting to the pattern edge kills a code.
Table tents
The lean angle that breaks scans, and three different offers across one meal.
Tickets
Unique single-use codes, offline scanning at the door, and why screenshots stop mattering.
Vehicles
Design for the parked van, avoid the ribs, and turn a curious neighbour into a quote.
Websites
The desktop-to-phone handoff, login and pairing, and when a code on a page is a bug.
Windows
Mirrored artwork, opaque vinyl, and turning a locked door into tomorrow's order.
Surfaces with a guide of their own
Looking at it by industry instead?
The surface guides above cover how to print a code. If you would rather start from what your business does, the industry guides cover which codes are worth having in the first place.
QR codes for every industryThe same question from the other direction: what codes are worth setting up in your sector, and what to put behind them.