Find the minimum print size for your scan distance and content.
How far away the person scanning will stand at most.
Illustration only — the box shows relative, not exact, size.
The industry rule of thumb is ten to one: a QR code scans comfortably from a distance of about ten times its own width. A code 3 cm wide is happy at roughly 30 cm — arm’s length — while a poster read from 3 metres needs to be around 30 cm across. Start from the farthest distance anyone will actually scan from and work back to a width.
But the whole square is not what the camera resolves — the individual modules are. A code that carries a long URL packs in far more, smaller modules than a short link, and each module must still be big enough to see. That is why this calculator asks for your real content and error-correction level: it counts the actual modules and widens the answer when the code is dense.
These are planning numbers, not guarantees — glare, weak contrast, glossy stock, and older cameras all push the real minimum up. Treat the comfortable width as your target, then confirm it with a real print using the QR print test sheet.
Held about 25 cm from the eye, a small code works — as long as the link is short so the modules stay coarse.
Scanned across an aisle from about half a metre — 5 cm gives a reliable margin under store lighting.
Read from 3 metres or more, a code needs to be big — and a storefront or vehicle scanned from 10 m needs a full metre.
It is the print industry’s planning rule of thumb: the code should be at least one tenth as wide as the farthest scan distance. It assumes a low-density code, decent lighting, strong contrast, and a modern phone camera. Poor light, glare, glossy or curved surfaces, and dense codes all push the real minimum up — always test-scan a printed sample from the true distance.
Longer content packs more, smaller modules into the same square, and the module — not the whole square — is what the camera must resolve. This calculator encodes your actual payload, counts the real modules, and scales the 10:1 answer once the code is denser than the 25×25 baseline. A short link keeps the modules coarse and the print small.
Indirectly, yes. Level H stores roughly 30% recovery data versus 15% at level M, which often pushes the same content into a higher QR version with more modules — so it needs a slightly larger print. Pick H when a logo covers part of the code or damage is likely; M suits most clean prints.
No — the result is the dark code square itself. Add a clear, unprinted margin of at least four modules on every side (roughly 10–15% of the code width). A missing quiet zone is one of the most common reasons a large, well-printed code still fails to scan.
At close range, yes: the camera must fit the whole code plus its quiet zone in the frame, so an oversized code scanned from half a meter forces people to step back. Size for the farthest realistic scanner, then check that the nearest one can still frame the entire square.
No. The module count comes from a QR library running entirely in your browser, and the size math is simple arithmetic on your device. Nothing you type leaves the page, so you can size codes for internal or unreleased links with no confidentiality concern.
Dynamic QR codes let you change the destination anytime — no reprinting — and show you every scan: when, where, and on which device. Try the full QRA studio free for 14 days.