Plain text QR — Delivery workflow

Worked example

Treat the code as a published message: name the file, keep the exact string, and print the same text in plain type beside the code.

Rename chatcument-qr.png, .svg or .webp to something that describes the message, for example room-12-info-qr-v1.png, and save the string in a text file alongside it. PNG suits cards and documents, SVG suits a print shop scaling it to a sign, and WebP is for web pages only. Because the code does not link anywhere, there is nothing to update online afterwards.

Picture a market stall that prints a gift tag reading "Handmade soap, made in small batches. Keep dry." in two languages. Make one code per language and label each with the language name, instead of cramming both into one dense pattern. Each shorter code uses a smaller grid and scans from farther away than a single combined one.

A common mistake is printing a text code with no readable fallback. Put the same text in normal type next to the code whenever it matters, so people without a scanner, or with a reader that garbles non-Latin letters, still get the message. Do not hide the only copy of important text in a QR.

Before sending files to a printer, send the PNG as a proof to a colleague who uses a different phone and ask them to read the decoded text back to you. Include the string file and the exported size, 720 px or larger, in the hand-off message so a corrected version can be made in minutes.

Short text, accents and line breaks

Decoded text content

Anything encoded in a text code is public to everyone who sees the print, so write it as a published sentence.