Contact vCard QR — Input checklist

Worked example

Enter only the contact fields you want any scanner to keep: one name, one phone in international form, one email, one organization, one website.

A contact QR hands a stranger your details with one scan, so the first job is deciding which details belong on it. Chatcument writes a vCard 3.0 record (BEGIN:VCARD, VERSION:3.0, then FN, TEL, EMAIL, ORG and URL lines, ending with END:VCARD) and needs at least a name or a phone number before it will export.

Imagine a freelance illustrator printing her cards. She puts her studio name in the name field, a work mobile number, a studio email, the organization and the portfolio URL, but leaves out her home address and personal number because the code will sit on a stall where anyone can scan it. Everything you enter can be read by whoever scans, so treat it as published.

Format each field for the field it fills. The phone number is checked and should use the international form, for example +82 2 1234 5678 or +34 91 123 45 67, so it dials from abroad. The email must look like an address, and the website must be a full URL starting with http:// or https://; the form shows an error and blocks export otherwise. The tool covers exactly five fields, so there is no place for a job title, a street address or a second number.

A typical mistake is typing two numbers or a note such as mobile / office into the single phone field. It fails validation or saves one garbled number. Enter one number, and if you need both, make a second code or choose the one people should call. Another is a name written Last, First: the comma is escaped correctly, but the contact will be stored with that odd name, so write it the way you want it displayed.

Before generating, read your entries aloud as the scanner will see them: name, one number, one email, one organization, one site. If any line surprises you, fix it now, because a printed contact code cannot be edited.

Chatcument; example contact fields

BEGIN:VCARD / VERSION:3.0 / END:VCARD

Only five fields are supported (name, phone, email, organization, website); share only what you want any scanner to keep.