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PineQR

QR code for business card

A business card QR code contains your contact details as a vCard, the standard format that address books on phones understand. After a scan, the phone shows a preview of the contact and offers to save it. Nobody has to retype your mobile number from a small printed card.

Type of QR code

Contact card

Saves a contact as vCard.

With country code, for example +44 7700 900123.

Style

Modules
Corners
Colour
Contrast 19.5 : 1

Still scans with up to 15 % damaged · 4-module border

More settings

Estimated symbol contrast 100 % (grade A in ISO/IEC 15415)

Blank border in modules. The QR standard asks for 4.

Preview

Fill in the fields to see your QR code.

The code is checked after each change.

Download

File format

Raster image up to 4096 × 4096 px

Nothing you type leaves your browser

How to create it

  1. Fill in your name and, if the card is for work, your company and job title. Either a name or a company is required.

  2. Add your phone numbers with the country code, for example +44 or +49. Without it, the number may not dial correctly for someone abroad.

  3. Enter only the fields you actually want people to save. Every additional field makes the code denser and harder to read at small sizes.

  4. Scan the preview with your own phone, open the contact it offers and check every field before you send the file to the printer.

  • On a standard business card, keep the code at least 2 cm wide. If you include a full postal address, 2.5 cm or more is safer, because the vCard text gets longer.
  • Leave a clear white border around the code. Printers like to push design elements close to the edge, and the quiet zone is needed for scanning.
  • Order a single proof copy first and test it with an Android phone and an iPhone under normal room light before printing a full batch.

Common mistakes

  • Packing in too much

    Two addresses, three phone numbers and a long job title produce a code with many tiny modules. Card printers cannot always reproduce them sharply. Keep it to what people need to reach you.

  • Numbers without country code

    A local number such as 020 7946 0000 works only inside your own country. Written as +44 20 7946 0000, it works from anywhere.

  • Using a link instead of a vCard

    A code that points to a profile page needs the page to stay online and requires an extra tap to save the contact. A vCard code works without internet access at the moment of scanning.

What the vCard contains

The generator writes a vCard in version 3.0 as defined in RFC 2426. It starts with BEGIN:VCARD, lists fields such as N, FN, ORG, TEL and EMAIL, and ends with END:VCARD. Commas and semicolons in your entries are escaped so the address book reads them as text.

Since the details are stored in the code itself, a change of job or phone number means printing new cards with a new code. Nothing on our side needs to be updated or paid for.

Questions

This is a static QR code: the content sits in the code itself and works without our server.

Static and dynamic QR codes explained

Can I add a photo to the contact?

Not in this generator. A photo would have to be embedded as data and would make the code far too large to print on a card.

Do I need an app to scan a business card QR code?

No. The built-in camera on iPhones and on most Android phones recognises vCard codes and opens the contact preview directly.

Can I put my logo in the middle of the code?

Yes, under design you can add a logo. The generator then switches to the highest error correction level, which makes the code denser, so print it a little larger.

Is my contact data stored anywhere?

The code is generated in your browser. Your name and numbers are not sent to our server and do not end up in a database.