Transparent QR codes: PNG and SVG

Why transparent matters

A code exported on a white tile forces a white rectangle into your layout, which looks like a sticker on a photograph. With transparency you place the code itself and let your own background carry it, which is the difference between a designed sign and an assembled one.

It also lets you put the code on a photo — as long as the area behind it stays plain and pale.

1. Pick the colour first. Black for light backgrounds, white for dark. The accent colour is for designs where black looks pasted on.
2. Choose PNG or SVG. PNG for a quick drop into a document, SVG for print and for anything that scales.
3. Leave the margin. Keep a clear band around the code equal to about 4 of its own squares. This is where most designs go wrong.

PNG or SVG

PNG is a grid of pixels: 2048 of them along each edge, which stays sharp up to A4 and starts to soften beyond it. SVG stores the shapes instead, so it prints identically at 5 cm and at 5 metres. Every design tool and every print shop accepts both.

If someone else is doing the layout, send the SVG and let them scale it. If you are dropping it into a document yourself, the PNG is less fuss.

When in doubt, send both. They encode the same link and cost nothing to keep.

Choosing the colour

A camera reads contrast, not colour. Black on cream, white on charcoal and a deep accent on pale paper all work; a mid-tone accent on a mid-tone background does not, however good it looks on screen. If you are unsure, print it and look at it in the light the room will actually have.

Never invert the pattern by hand — a light code on a dark field only scans if it was exported that way.

The clear margin is part of the code

A code needs an empty band around it, roughly 4 of its own small squares wide. Without it a camera cannot find the edges, and the sign fails on exactly the phones you need it to work on. Our sign templates include this band; a design you build yourself has to leave room for it.

If a self-designed sign will not scan, check this before anything else.

What else breaks a placed code

Stretching it out of square, rounding its corners, putting a logo in the middle, or laying it over a busy photograph. All 4 look deliberate and all 4 cost you scans. The code is artwork with a job; treat the pattern itself as untouchable and style everything around it.

Scaling proportionally is always fine. Nothing else you do to the pattern is.

Check the placed version, not the file

Once the code sits in your design, export the whole sign and scan that. The file you downloaded was fine; the question is whether your layout kept it that way. Do this at the size you will print, not zoomed in on a screen.

A borrowed phone is the right test device, because it also proves the link goes where you think it does.