QuickMergevCard QR Code Generator for Business Cards — Free and Permanent
Fill in your details and get a code that adds you to someone’s contacts in one scan. The contact data is inside the code itself, so it never expires and there is nothing to subscribe to.
vCard QR Code Generator
Part of the QR code generator — that page covers links, plain text and other types.
Optional, and the field most likely to push the code past a printable size. Leave it out if the code starts looking dense.
What the code contains, exactly:
What a vCard code contains
A vCard QR code holds a complete contact record, not a link to one. Decode it and you get text that starts BEGIN:VCARD and lists your name, organisation, title, numbers, email and website as labelled fields. Phones recognise the format and offer to save it directly.
That the data is in the code is the whole design, and it has two consequences. The good one: nothing can take it away. No server has to be up, no subscription has to be current, no redirect service has to still exist in five years. The card in someone's desk drawer works when they finally get round to scanning it.
The other one: the code is fixed. Change jobs or numbers and every printed card is out of date, exactly as a printed phone number always has been. There is no way to have both properties at once, whatever a dynamic-code vendor implies.
Static versus dynamic, honestly
Paid services sell "dynamic" vCard codes: the code points at their URL, their server serves your details, and you can edit those details later and see scan statistics. That is genuinely useful if your details change often or you want the analytics.
What is usually not spelled out is the dependency. The code on your card is a link to a company you now have to keep paying. If the subscription lapses, if they change their URL scheme, or if they go out of business, every card you have handed out becomes a dead link — and unlike a stale phone number, it fails in a way the recipient cannot work around by guessing. Cards printed in 2019 pointing at services that no longer exist are not a hypothetical.
A static code has a smaller failure mode: it keeps working and eventually contains an old number. For most people that is the better trade, and it is free. If you want the middle ground without a subscription, encode your website address instead of a full card and keep the contact details on a page you control.
Putting it on the card
- Size. 1.5cm to 2cm square. Below about 1.2cm you are relying on a good camera in good light; above 2.5cm the code starts to dominate a standard 85×55mm card.
- Quiet zone. Four modules of clear space on every side. On a small code that is around 2mm. This is the single most common print failure, because the code is usually the last thing positioned and gets pushed into a corner.
- Bleed and trim. Keep the code — and its quiet zone — at least 5mm inside the trim line. Printers cut with a tolerance of a millimetre or two, and a code clipped on one edge is unreadable, not merely untidy.
- Contrast. Black on white. Dark ink on a coloured stock is fine if the contrast is strong; a light code on a dark card is a gamble because reader support for inverted codes is inconsistent.
- Finish. Matte or uncoated. Spot gloss over a QR code looks good in a mockup and reflects a ceiling light straight into the camera in a meeting room.
- Keep it short. Every extra field adds modules and makes each one smaller at the same printed size. Name, title, company, one number, one email and a website scan reliably at 1.5cm. Add a full postal address and two more numbers and the same code may need 2.5cm to work.
Test on a real card, not on screen
Screens are backlit and perfectly flat, so a code that scans on a monitor tells you very little about one printed at 1.5cm on textured stock. Ask the printer for a proof, or print one at final size on the nearest paper you have, and scan it under normal office lighting with an ordinary phone — not the newest one in the office. Check the contact preview shows the fields you expected, with the name the right way round.
Next steps
- QR code generator — for a plain link, some text or a Wi-Fi network.
- QR code reader — decode the card you just made, and check the fields came out right.
- Resize image — set the exported code to exact pixel dimensions for your card layout.
Next steps
Related tools
- the full QR generator — for a plain link or Wi-Fi network.
- check the card scans correctly — decode it and confirm the fields came out right.
What to do with the result
- size the code for the card layout — exact pixel dimensions for print.
Browse all text and data tools, or see every QuickMerge tool.
Frequently asked questions
No. The contact details are inside the code itself rather than on a server, so there is nothing to renew and no service that can withdraw it. It works as long as the printed card survives.
A static code, like this one, contains your details directly — free, permanent, and fixed once printed. A dynamic code contains a link to a provider who serves your details, so you can edit them later and see scan statistics, but the code stops working if the subscription lapses or the provider disappears.
Between 1.5cm and 2cm square is reliable. Below about 1.2cm you depend on a good camera in good light. Keep a clear margin of about four modules — roughly 2mm at that size — and keep the whole thing at least 5mm inside the trim line so the printer’s cutting tolerance cannot clip it.
Too many fields. Every character adds modules, and at a fixed printed size more modules means each one is smaller and harder to read. A full postal address is usually the culprit. Drop the address, or a second phone number, and the code becomes noticeably coarser and easier to scan.
Yes. Both read vCard codes from the built-in camera and offer to save the contact. What differs slightly is how each one previews the fields before saving, and how it handles a name it cannot split into first and last.
No. The card is assembled and encoded by JavaScript in this browser tab. Nothing you type is sent anywhere — worth noting given that the form asks for your phone number and address.
Not on this page. A photo embedded in the vCard makes the payload far too large for a printable code, and a logo placed over the middle of a code eats into the error correction budget that print, handling and imperfect lighting need. If you want branding, put your logo next to the code rather than on it.