QR codes are kind of ubiquitous now, but they all sort of look the same. For the most part, you can expect a QR code to be black and squarish, boring and samey. If you want something that looks really special, you’re on your own.
Until now. iQR Codes helps you create interesting and attractive QR codes that you can stick just about anywhere. That’s not all, though; iQR Codes will help you make lots of different kinds of codes. From contact cards to URLs to maps and more, iQR Codes has you covered.
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The Limitless Possibilities of QR Codes
The app opens up to the business card type of QR card first. You can either create a meCard or a vCard, and it’s really up to you which you prefer. As you enter your information, you can see your QR code become more complex. It’s up to you how much information you enter, and nothing is really required.
Creating a contact card, you can include or exclude whatever info you choose.
If you don’t need to share all of you personal info, just a URL, you can create a QR code for a website in the WWW tab. Enter your URL in the field, and choose a shortening service, if you’d like. You can also batch process up to three URLs at a time at no additional cost. If you need to create more URL QR codes at once, you’ll have to unlock batch processing through an in-app purchase.
Batch processing allows you to create three URL QR codes at once.
You can share calendar events via QR codes, too. It’s easy enough to set the event name and date, and even to add some additional info. However, you have to set the start time using an analog clock. Which made no sense to me! I couldn’t get the minute hand to a solid hour at one point, and all of my events started at 5:59 or 6:01. Fortunately, it’s much easier to set an end time, and you can even specify a time zone.
iQR Codes has a mapping feature, integrated with Google. Search for your address in the Location tab or even just a town or city, and Google will retrieve the coordinates inside iQR Codes. When I scanned the resulting QR code with a my iPhone’s code reader, it brought up a map of the area.
Location QR codes are really easy to create, even with hearts.
There’s really a lot of different QR codes you can make. You can create a QR code to dial a phone number or send an SMS. You can share your private Wi-Fi network’s credentials with a QR code or just share a message in plain text.
Giving Your Codes Some Color
Once you’ve created your code, click on the Customize tab. You can adjust the code’s resolution and reliability level; the default is set pretty low, so you can bump that up as necessary. iQR Codes lets you adjust how square your corners are and choose from a few different pixel styles.
Customizing a very pink QR code using gradients.
The pixel and background colors are where iQR gets fun. You can pretty much choose whatever colors you’d like for either and create gradients for both. Just be sure the foreground and background have enough contrast that your QR code can be read. There are some shadow/glow options that can help to make your code stand out or make it more difficult to read, so use these with care.
iQR Codes even lets you stick a logo under your QR code. Again, you want to make sure it’s not something that’s going to prevent the code from being read properly, but this is pretty cool. I don’t have a logo per se, so I stuck my Twitter avatar underneath the QR code. That really didn’t look good at all, but I’m sure if I’d used an actual logo instead of a picture of me at a concert two years ago, it would have been great.
Using Your QR Code
You can save your QR code in several different formats, and even choose a transparent background in the Save window. You can also change the resolution and dpi at the last minute, too.
If you aren’t ready to save your code but want to get a good look at it, you can print it out directly from the app. It’s pretty basic stuff, not many options in the print dialog, but it’s nice to have the ability right there in the app.
It’s simple to create a URL QR code.
Useful and not entirely expected is the Copy functionality. Click the Copy button, and the current QR code will be copied to the clipboard. You can then paste it wherever you’d like, whether it’s in an email or an image editor.
Conclusion
To be honest, I’m generally not a huge fan of QR codes. I’m of the opinion that a lot of the time people are using them because of the novelty factor and not because they’re actually useful. However, when QR codes are useful, they don’t usually look very good. If you can get a QR code that looks good and serves a real purpose, though, then you’ve really got something.
iQR Codes has that first part covered. They’re helping you make really good looking QR codes. You’re really only limited by your own creativity, as the color combinations and pixel designs are endless. iQR codes has made it super easy to create well-designed codes. What you do with them is up to you.