Guide · OtterQR

Make a QR code for a link

A poster, a business card, a menu, the back of a van. You need a square that sends a phone to your page, and you need it to still work next year.

Open OtterQR →

Make it

Open qr.ottercraft.dev. It starts on Link.
Type or paste your address. If you leave off the https:// it gets added for you, so ottercraft.dev is enough.
The code draws itself as you type. Press Download PNG, or pick SVG, JPG or WebP underneath.

Make it yours

The code works the moment it appears, so everything below is optional.

Shape. Six ways of drawing the squares, from plain to dots to a connected ribbon. All six scan.
Corners. The three big squares can be square, rounded, circular or leaf shaped. Round ones look good and are the riskiest part of a styled code, so there is a warning next to them and you should test one before printing a thousand.
Colour. One colour or a gradient, a background or no background at all, and a separate colour for the corners. Keep the code darker than whatever sits behind it.
A logo. Drop a picture in and it sits in the middle. See the logo guide.

Static codes, and why that matters

Your address is written into the pattern itself. Nothing on our side points at it, so there is nothing to expire, nothing to switch off, and no one counting your scans. It also means the destination is fixed: if the link changes, you make a new code.

Plenty of QR sites work the other way. They give you a code pointing at their own short domain, which then redirects to you. That is how a "dynamic" code gets its editable destination and its scan statistics, and it is also why those codes die when the free trial ends or the company does. If you are printing something you cannot reprint, a static code is the safer one.

How big to print it

The usual rule of thumb is that the code should be about a tenth of the distance it will be scanned from. A code read at arm's length can be two centimetres across. One on a wall people scan from three metres away wants to be nearer thirty. When in doubt, go bigger, and leave the empty margin around it alone.

Things worth knowing

Shorter addresses make simpler codes. A long tracking URL packs more data into the same square, which means smaller squares and a fussier scan.
Download the SVG if the code is going to a printer or a designer. It stays sharp at any size.
The whole thing runs in your browser. The address you type never reaches us, and after the first visit the page works offline.