How to make a contact card QR code
- Open the contact generator. The button above opens the Contact tab ready to fill in.
- Add your name — first and last. This is the only field that is strictly required.
- Add one phone number and one email address. Resist adding every number you own; see the density section below for why this matters.
- Add your company and job title if the code is for work. These are short and cost very little space.
- Check the scan-health report, then download. If QRilo shows a warning about density, remove a field rather than shrinking the print size.
Why less data makes a better business card
This is the single most important thing to understand about contact codes, and it is where most people go wrong.
A QR code is a grid. The more content it carries, the larger that grid has to become, and the smaller each individual square gets at any given print size. A code holding just a name, one phone number and one email stays a compact pattern that a phone camera locks onto instantly, even printed at 2 cm. Add a second phone number, a street address, a job title, a note and a website, and the grid grows to roughly twice the side length. At the same physical size, every module is now half as wide — and on a cheap phone camera looking at a laminated card, that is the difference between a confident scan and a failure.
QRilo measures this live. The preview panel shows the symbol's version and the module count as you type, and the scan-health figure turns to Review when the pattern gets dense enough to deserve caution. Watch that number rather than adding fields on autopilot.
A good target for a business card is version 10 or below — up to 85×85 modules. Name, company, title, one phone, one email and one short website fits comfortably. Name, two phones, an email, a full postal address, a website and a note will not.
Business cards done properly
The classic mistake on a business card is printing the code smaller than 2 cm to make room for the logo. That gets the priority backwards. A code nobody can scan is decoration; a code that works is the reason the card gets kept.
- Print the code at 2 cm wide minimum, 2.5 cm if it carries more than a name and one number.
- Leave 4 modules of clear space around the code. QRilo builds this margin in, but a designer can easily crop it away — check the final artwork.
- Keep the code on a light background. If your card design is dark, give the code a white panel rather than inverting it.
- Use the SVG export and hand it to your printer. It is true vector art, so it stays perfectly sharp at any resolution their press uses — no soft edges, no interpolation.
- Test on two phones before ordering 5,000 cards. One iPhone, one Android, on the actual printed proof, in normal room light.
What a vCard code can and cannot hold
The vCard 3.0 format supports names, phone numbers of several types, email addresses, a website, a postal address, a company, a job title, a note and a photo. QRilo supports all of the text fields and deliberately omits the photo.
The reason is purely practical. A photograph has to be embedded as encoded image data, which is enormous compared to text. A card with a photo jumps to a very dense symbol that is genuinely hard to scan at business-card size, and the failure rate at print is high. A headshot printed directly on the card, next to a reliable text-only code, achieves the same thing with none of the risk.
Troubleshooting
The phone scans the code but nothing is saved
On some Android devices the built-in camera previews the contact but requires a tap on the preview banner to actually open the “add contact” screen. If a scanner app also fails, the code is probably printed too small for its density.
Some fields are missing after saving
Older address books ignore fields they do not recognise, and some carriers strip the note field. Keep the essentials — name, phone, email — in their standard fields and do not rely on the note surviving.
It worked on my phone but not my colleague's
Almost always print size or lighting. Scan the digital file on screen with their phone to confirm the code itself is readable, then increase the printed size.
Frequently asked
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. Scanning prompts the phone to add a new contact, which the user confirms. Both platforms have supported vCard codes for years.
Can I include a photo?
The format allows it, but a photo makes the code far denser and much harder to scan at card size, so QRilo leaves it out. Print the headshot on the card next to a reliable code instead.
Is my contact information uploaded anywhere?
No. Your details are encoded locally in your browser tab and never sent to a server. You can confirm this in your browser's network inspector while generating the code.
Can I update the details without reprinting?
No — static codes hold the data in the pattern itself, which is also why they can never expire or be switched off. Change your number and you reprint the card. That is the trade-off and, for a business card you control, it is the right side of it.
Advertising is on this website only — never in your contact code. Your details are encoded directly into the pattern, so when someone scans your business card their phone offers to save your contact: no advert, no tracker, no sponsored page in between. How that works, and how to verify it.