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What Is a QR Code? How to Scan and How to Make Your Own

milaeryomina

Everywhere you go, you see square, black-and-white matrix barcodes printed on building entrances, printed materials, and product packaging. You even see them in commercials, TV shows, and on some notable occasions lighting up the sky in a spectacular drone show.

You may know that scanning a QR code with your mobile device takes you to a website, file, or menu. But what are QR codes really? How do they work? How are they made? How does your device recognize them?

Let's break this down for you.

What is a QR code?
The "QR" in the QR code stands for "Quick Response". It’s a two-dimensional matrix barcode that can be read and scanned with compatible devices such as a smartphone camera or an app.

With an online QR code generator, you can create QR codes readable in both vertical and horizontal dimensions. QR codes can store various data and information, including a link to an online store, an influencer's social media sites, and files such as photos, videos, music, official documents, and more.

QR codes hold more data than a barcode. A barcode consists of a series of characters, numbers, and symbols, while a QR code can store up to 406 bytes of information. QR codes are a practical and highly efficient tool, bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds. 

How do QR codes work?
Each black and white square in a QR code represents “one bit,” encoding different characters into the text. QR codes use three big squares for alignment so you can scan them in any direction. The other little squares help a QR code scanner read the code.

QR codes have a major advantage over regular barcodes as they’re two-dimensional and only require a QR code scanner (most of which are free) that people can install on their smartphones.

A barcode contains machine-readable information, is one-dimensional, and contains information horizontally. On the other hand, QR codes can be decoded in different directions, which means they can encode over a hundred times more data.

Why were QR codes created?
A Denso Wave engineer named Masahiro Hara invented QR codes in 1994. Because every car component has a unique size, function, and fit, Masahiro created QR codes to eliminate a mechanic's manual labor and prevent errors. 

Hara and his team were tasked with creating a QR code that people could use to track a car and its parts during production. They didn't expect people to use QR codes outside the automotive business when they designed it.

“At the time, I felt that I had developed something great and predicted that it would be widely used in the industry in the future. But it was widely used by general users, which I did not expect. It was used as a payment method. It was completely unexpected.“

Furthermore, QR codes were meant to replace the UPC barcodes. QR codes replaced UPC barcodes as they’re much better to use. A QR code can display the data even when scanned in different dimensions. It also stores more information than UPC barcodes.

What are the different types of QR codes?
There are two types of QR codes: static and dynamic. Let's look at each type.

Static QR code
Generating a static QR code is free, and the number of scans provided is unlimited. However, static QR codes are only suitable for one-time use as the user cannot edit the embedded data.

After generating the static QR code, users cannot change the information contained within the code. They can’t also track the number of scans and the scanner's device and location.

Dynamic QR code
A dynamic QR code allows users to track, edit, and update embedded data. This saves a lot of time, effort, and money. 

With a dynamic QR, users can change the data or information on it even if the code has already been posted. You can also track QR performance. Dynamic QRs give you access to real-time scan monitoring to track data such as the number of scans, scan locations, scan times, and devices used.

A dynamic QR can be password protected, scan notifications via email, and integrate with analytics tools and other software.