Design a QR code for your business card
A business card has very little room, so the choices that matter are what the code holds and how big it can be. Get those right and the code saves your details in one scan.
vCard or website?
There are two good options, and they suit different people.
A vCard: your details, saved in one step
A vCard code contains your name, company, phone, email and website as text. Phone cameras recognise it and offer to add a new contact, with no internet connection needed. That's exactly what most people want from a business card.
The trade-off is density and permanence. Every field adds characters, and the details are fixed once printed. If you change jobs or numbers, you reprint, which you'd do with the card anyway.
A website link: short, and you can update it
A URL code pointing at a page you own, such as a profile page or yourdomain.com/sam, makes a much smaller, simpler code, and you can change the page whenever you like. The cost is one more step for the person scanning: the page has to load, and they have to find and tap "save contact". A good middle ground is a page with a prominent link to a .vcf file of your details, which most phones offer to add to contacts.
Avoid putting a third-party "digital business card" link on the card unless you're sure the account will outlive the print run.
How big the code needs to be
A US business card is 3.5 × 2 in (88.9 × 50.8 mm). The common ISO-style card used in much of Europe is 85 × 55 mm. With safe margins, a code of about 18 to 25 mm fits comfortably on one side. Whether that's big enough depends on how many modules the code has. Here's the sample contact from the photo above, encoded three ways at error correction level M:
| Content | Characters | Version | Min. width at 0.5 mm | Module at 20 mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vCard | 175 | 9 (53 × 53) | 31 mm | 0.33 mm |
| MeCard | 102 | 6 (41 × 41) | 25 mm | 0.41 mm |
| Website link | 23 | 2 (25 × 25) | 17 mm | 0.61 mm |
The full vCard needs around 30 mm to keep each module at 0.5 mm, which only fits on a side of its own. The website link is happy at 20 mm. Those widths include the four-module quiet zone. The print size guide explains the arithmetic.
MeCard: a denser contact format
MeCard is an older, more compact contact format. It packs the same name, phone, email and website into fewer characters, so the code drops a few versions. It has no field for a job title, and while current iPhone and Android cameras generally read it, support is less universal than vCard, so test on both. Choose MeCard in the contact form's format option.
Other ways to slim a vCard: leave out the postal address, use one phone number, and skip the note field.
Margins near the edge
Cards are cut from larger sheets, and the cut can drift by a millimetre or so. Printers ask for a safe area, usually about 3 mm (⅛ in) inside the trim, where nothing important goes. The code's quiet zone, four modules of plain background on every side, must also be inside that safe area. A code tucked into a corner with its margin running off the edge is a common reason card codes fail.
Rounded corners take more of the card's edge, so allow extra space if your printer rounds them.
Front or back?
- Back is the usual choice. You have room for a larger code, a short label such as "Save my contact", and plenty of quiet zone. The front stays clean for your name and brand.
- Front works when the code is the main thing you want people to do, for example on a card for a portfolio or a booking page. Keep it smaller and simpler there, and make sure your name still reads first.
Either way, give the code a few words of context. People scan more readily when they know what they'll get.
Print and finish
- Send your printer the SVG or vector PDF, not a small PNG.
- Print the code in a single solid ink, such as 100% black, rather than a four-color rich black, to keep module edges crisp.
- Keep foil, spot UV and heavy texture off the code; matte stock scans best. See the contrast guide.
- A small logo is fine if the error correction check passes, but on a dense vCard it pushes the code larger still.
- Order a proof and test it on an iPhone and an Android phone before the full run.