Dithered QR Codes

The basics

This is the image that will be dithered into the QR code

This is the text (usually a URL) that people will see when they scan the QR code

Image settings

No pixel will be allowed to be darker than this colour (before diffusion). This is useful if your image has large areas of black or white, to avoid too much error being built up.

No pixel will be allowed to be brighter than this colour (before diffusion). This is useful if your image has large areas of black or white, to avoid too much error being built up.

QR code settings

QR codes come in 40 sizes. Smaller ones can't contain as much text, but you can use a large one to store less text if you need more space for your picture. Size 6 is the largest one that doesn't add any alignment pattern blocks in the middle of the image.

QR code tweaks

Makes a QR code designed for a black background.

Rotates the QR code before adding the image, which can help move the required patterns to less obtrusive places.

There are eight different XOR masks that can be applied to QR codes. The choice is fairly arbitrary but picking the right one might happen to give you a nicer pattern of data pixels to work with.

Diffusion settings

Uses error diffusion when adding the data squares — this makes the image worse and the only reason to turn this off is for demo purposes.

Use error diffusion to dither the image rather than simply thresholding it.

If disabled, just generate a regular QR code with no image in it.

How many times to subdivide each pixel of the QR code. Eg, if this is 3 then each block of the QR code will be replaced by 9 (3²) pixels, the middle one of which contains the data. If it's an even number then the middle 4 pixels will contain the data.

If you have enough error correction in the image, you may be able to change a few data pixels without breaking the QR code. If this is set to 0.01 then we will change the worst 1% of data pixels. This can easily render the code unscannable but might help in some cases.

Download QR code

Remember to keep the margin around the QR code for it to scan. Be careful using these QR codes — they work by putting an image into the redundant parts of the QR code, but those redundant parts are there to make the code easier to scan in less than perfect conditions. Read the information page for more.