vCard QR code generator

vCard is the file format behind the .vcf attachments you get when someone shares a contact. It is plain text: one property per line, a property name, a colon and a value, wrapped in BEGIN:VCARD and END:VCARD. A vCard QR code is nothing more than that text encoded into a QR symbol, which is why it works offline and never expires.

Version 3.0 is what this generator writes. Version 4.0 exists and is technically better, but 3.0 is the version every phone, every mail client and every CRM imports without complaint — and on a printed card, compatibility beats elegance. A fully populated example looks like this (284 characters, lines separated by CRLF as the specification requires):

A URL is thirty characters. A full vCard is four hundred. That difference is not cosmetic: a QR code grows in discrete steps called versions, each adding four modules per side, and more modules in the same printed area means smaller modules. Smaller modules need a better camera, better light and a steadier hand.

The 284-character card above needs a symbol fine enough that it should be printed at least 3 cm across to stay comfortably readable at arm's length. The trimmed 170-character version drops to about 2.5 cm. That is the entire argument for leaving out the postal address on a business card: it is the single most expensive block of text in a typical vCard, it is rarely what someone scans a card to get, and removing it can be the difference between a code that fits neatly in a corner and one that dominates the layout.

A practical order for cutting, when the payload is too long: postal address first, then the job title, then the website if it is long, then any second phone number. Keep the name, the organisation, one number and one email. If a full card is genuinely required — for a conference badge, say, where there is room — print it larger rather than compressing it.

Download the SVG. On a dense pattern the difference between vector and a scaled-up PNG is visible to the scanner even when it is not visible to you: soft module edges eat into the tolerance the decoder needs, and a vCard code has less of that tolerance to spare than a short link does.

Keep error correction at M unless you are adding a logo. It is tempting to reach for level H on the grounds that more redundancy is safer, but H spends roughly a third of the symbol on recovery data, pushing an already long payload up several versions and making every module smaller at a fixed print size. On a long vCard, level H frequently makes the code harder to scan, not easier. If a logo is required, raise the level to H and then shorten the card until it fits — in that order.

Leave the four-module quiet zone clear, print dark on light, and avoid placing the code across a fold or a die-cut edge. Then scan the printed card with two different phones and actually open the contact that appears: the failure mode with vCards is rarely a code that will not scan, it is a code that scans perfectly and produces a contact with the name missing or the company truncated at a comma.