QR Code Business Card (two methods)

Simple Business Card QR-code with Contact Info

Advantages: A QR-code with contact info is very quick and easy to implement.  It doesn’t require an internet connection.  It will instantly transfer the QR-code contact data to a smartphone’s contact list.

Disadvantages: A vCard or meCard QR-code contains static information.  If you change your contact info you’ll need to generate a new and different QR-code.

1. Use any free QR-code generator.
2. Select either the meCard style the more popular vCard style (details).
3. Populate the contact fields in the form, then press the button to generate the QR-code image.
4. Right-click on the QR-code image and use the dialog that appears to save it to your computer’s hard drive.
5. Incorporate the QR-code in the artwork for your business card.
6. When a meCard or vCard QR-code is scanned by a smartphone, a dialog appears allowing the info to be quickly added to the phone’s contact list.

Business Card QR-codes with
Dynamic Contact Info, Maps, Mobile Web, and Video

Advantages: By changing web content, you can dynamically change what is displayed when a QR-code is scanned, even though the actual QR-code image never changes.

Disadvantages: A dynamic QR-code requires the scanning smart phone to have either a WiFi or cellular Internet connection.  A dynamic QR-code requires more technical skill to implement since it depends on serving web content to the smartphone via a URL encoded in the QR-code.

1. Create a mobile friendly website or choose some other web content such as a map or online video.
2. Use any free QR-code generator.
3. Select the “website” style.
4. In the form, type the target URL of the mobile friendly website you’ve created.
5. Right-click on the QR-code image and use the dialog that appears to save it to your computer’s hard drive.
6. Incorporate the QR-code in the artwork for your business card.
7. When a the QR-code is scanned by a smartphone, the mobile friendly website will be displayed on the smartphone.

The iPhone Safari vCard problem

The short solution is this:  as I write this in 2012, half the smartphones in use are iPhones, so this problem can’t be ignored.    If you have space on your business card, include two QR-codes.  One that contains static Contact information and a second QR-code that will display your mobile website.

All QR-code reader apps for all smartphones (including the iPhone) can successfully parse and save contact information when the contact information is encoded directly and completely within the QR-code. This is precisely the method described in the section “Simple Business Card QR-code with Contact Info.”  However, if the QR-code does not contain the actual contact info, but instead the QR-code uses a target URL from which contact information is downloaded, then Androids and Blackberry phones will correctly handle the downloaded contact info, but the iPhone absolutely fails,  displaying this message: “Safari cannot download this file.”   This is because when a QR-code directs an iPhone to download contact information, the iPhone’s Safari browser (alone) is incapable of understanding the downloaded .VCF contact file.

In spite of the iPhone’s massive Browser vCard fail, the iPhone can correctly handle vCard contact information when it received in an iPhone e-mail message or contained in the iPhone’s Map application.

iPhone eMail:  It’s possible to set up an e-mail auto-responder that will automatically email the vCard contact information to the iPhone or iPad. The device will then prompt the recipient to confirm adding the data to the contact list. The disadvantages to this method are that e-mails aren’t fast and reliable and a recipient may not want to provide an e-mail address to receive the contact information by return e-mail.

vCard Getter is an iPhone app that can download and automatically parse vCard data from a website (since Safari can not).  However, it is unrealistic to expect that the recipient of your business card will take the time to install this specialized app when it’s only function is to occasionally read vCard data captured from a website.

iPhone Maps & Google Places: Unfortunately, this method no longer works.  It was previously possible for an iPhone to automatically process contact information stored in an online Google Maps entry.   As of January 2012,  Google has been transitioning  Google Places, which displays map results in the Safari browser instead of the iPhone map application.  Presumably, Google is providing enhancements to the mapping experience such as reviews and photos that aren’t possible when the results are displayed in the iPhone map application.  Here’s how the iPhone Map App workaround formerly worked:

1. Save your contact information in an online Google Map account.
2. Create a QR-code with a link to your Google Map Account URL.
3. When the QR-code is scanned, the contact information appears on the device in the Apple Map application, not the Safari browser.
4. Tap the map marker that has the contact’s name in it, and when the contact info page appears, tap the “Add to contacts” button at the bottom of the screen.

Free QR-code Generator for Business Cards

General QR-code rules apply: The primary purpose of a QR-code is to easily and immediately transfer data contained in the QR-code image to a mobile device, such as a smart phone or tablet. The QR-code must be at least .75″ tall to be read by all smartphone cameras. The QR-code must have sufficient color contrast between the square pixels and the background. The clear border around the QR-code must be at least the width of 4 of the small pixels in the QR-code. The less data in the QR-code, the more readable it is.

 

Your QR code will be displayed above the form.
Right-click on your QRcode to save it to your computer
or use the form option to send the QRcode to your e-mail address.

QR CODE GENERATOR 1) Select a QR Code Style 2) Complete the form 3) click GENERATE button Use only the fields you need. Your QR code will be displayed above this form.
QR Code Style:	Contact Details (MECARD) Contact Details (TEXT) Email Address Telephone SMS Text Website Geo-Location (MAP)
Location:
Name:
Job Title:
Business Name:
Website:
Email:
Address:
Telephone:
Info:
Image Size:	1 - 30pixels x 30pixels 2 - 60pixels x 60pixels 3 - 90pixels x 90pixels 4 - 120pixels x 120pixels 5 - 150pixels x 150pixels 6 - 180pixels x 180pixels 7 - 210pixels x 210pixels 8 - 240pixels x 240pixels 9 - 270pixels x 270pixels 10 - 300pixels x 300pixels
Longitude:
Latitude:
Zoom:
Advanced Customization Options Choose Colors plus Text to display above and below the QR Code Image
Text Above Image:
Line1 Below Image:
Line2 Below Image:
Line3 Below Image:
QR Image Background Color:
QR Image Foreground Color:
Margin Area Background Color:
Margin Area Text Color:
Yes, please email me a copy of my QR Code
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Contact Email: