vCard QR code generator

How to make a contact QR code

1. Enter your first name. It's the only required field, so add the rest only if people need it.
2. Add a mobile number with the country code, like +1 555 123 4567, so it dials for anyone who saves it.
3. Fill in email, company, job title and website if they belong on the card. Add a street address only if people need to find you there.
4. Style it, download it and scan it with your own phone. Open the saved contact and check every field.

What happens when someone scans it

The code holds a vCard 3.0, the same format phones use when you share a contact by message or email. On an iPhone, the camera shows a banner to add the contact, and tapping it opens a filled-in contact card ready to save. Android phones do the same through the camera app or Google Lens. Nobody types a thing.

It works with no signal at all. The details live in the pattern itself, not on a server, so a code scanned in a basement conference hall saves just as well as one scanned at your desk. The flip side is that nothing changes after you print. New job or new number means a new code.

Keep it lean

Every field you add makes the pattern denser. A name, mobile and email leave plenty of room. Add two phone numbers, a long job title, a website and a full street address, and the squares shrink until a business-card-sized code starts failing in low light.

Ask what the person scanning really needs. For most people that's a name, one phone number, an email and a company. If you want to share more, put your website in the card and let the site carry the rest.

Adding a logo switches on the highest error correction, which also makes the pattern denser. On a full contact card, skip the logo or print the code larger.

Where contact codes work well

• The back of business cards, at least 2 cm (about 0.8 inch) wide, and larger for a full card
• Event badges at conferences and trade shows
• Email signatures, as a small image people can scan from a laptop screen
• Office door signs and reception desks
• Real estate yard signs and listing sheets, so buyers save the agent before they drive off

Mistakes that cost you the contact

• Leaving off the country code, so the number won't dial for anyone abroad.
• A typo in the email address. The code can't catch it, and you won't find out until replies never arrive.
• Two numbers with no labels. Use the Mobile and Work phone fields so the phone files each one correctly.
• Printing before testing. Save the contact on your own phone and read it the way a stranger would.

Start with your name, mobile and email above. Scan the result, and add more fields only while the code still looks open and easy to read.