How to make a QR code for a link, a note, or a Wi-Fi network

URL mode checks that you typed a web address. If you leave off the scheme, the page adds https, so example.com becomes a link a phone will open. It refuses other schemes, including ones that are not http or https, because a code that launches a script is not a feature this page should help you print. If you need the exact characters, including a scheme the checker rejects, or a string that is not a link at all, use Text mode. Text is encoded as you typed it. No https is added. A serial number, a room name, or a short instruction belongs there.

Wi-Fi mode does not ask you to remember the format. You type the network name, the password, and the security, and the page builds the string phones expect. It looks like WIFI:T:WPA;S:TheNetwork;P:the-password;H:false;; with the pieces in a fixed order. WPA/WPA2 is the right security for almost every router sold in the last decade. WEP is for old equipment that cannot do better. No password is an open network, and the password field is disabled so a leftover password is not encoded by accident. Hidden network marks the H field true. Most guest networks are not hidden. Leave it off unless the router really does not broadcast the name.

Characters that would break the Wi-Fi string are escaped for you. A password that contains a semicolon, a comma, a colon, a quote, or a backslash is stored with backslashes so the phone does not treat the semicolon as the end of the password. You type the password as you would type it on the laptop. You do not add the backslashes.

The sizes are 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 pixels on the PNG. 256 is enough for a screen preview. 512 is a sound default for a slide or a small printed card. 1024 and 2048 are for a poster or a sign that will be scanned from across a table. A code that is physically small, wrinkled, or printed on a glossy surface that glares will fail no matter the pixel count. Leave a quiet margin. The page already includes the quiet zone the spec wants. Do not crop it off in a layout program.

PNG is a picture of the square at the size you chose. It opens in browsers, slides, and chat apps. SVG is the same square as vectors. Use it when someone will place the code in a design file and scale it. Both downloads are created locally. The preview on the page is the same code. Scan the preview with your phone before you print fifty copies. A wrong URL is the common defect, and it is invisible if you only look at the square.

Error correction is level M. A modest smudge or a small logo covering the centre is often still readable. It is not an invitation to cover half the square with a photograph. If you add a logo later, keep it small and scan again. This page does not put a logo in the middle.

There is a cap at 500 characters. Denser codes exist and they fail in ordinary conditions: a phone in a dim hallway, a code on a lanyard, a print that is slightly soft. If the content is long, publish it on a page and encode the link. The code stays easy to scan, and you can change the page later without reprinting, as long as the link stays the same.

This is the point people skip. A QR code is an encoding, not encryption. A guest can scan the Wi-Fi card, and so can anyone who photographs the card. That is appropriate for a café network that exists to be joined. It is a bad place for the password of a network that also reaches your file server, and a bad place for a link that includes a private token, a password-reset URL, or a document that was shared with “anyone who has the link” if you did not mean anyone in the room. Use a guest network with its own password. Do not encode a password you use anywhere else.

Text mode will happily encode a sentence you would not want on a poster. Look at the “Encoded” line under the preview. That line is exactly what a scanner recovers. If you would not read it aloud in the room where the code will hang, do not print it.

Building the square does not upload the string. After the page has loaded, you can disconnect and still download the PNG or SVG. QuickConvert does not have a library of codes you made. The image file you then email or print is an ordinary file, and whoever receives the file can scan it. Analytics on the public site may record that you opened the tool. It does not receive the network name or the URL. That split is the same one described in the Privacy Policy and in privacy with online file tools.

The phone opens a search instead of the site.

The code was probably made in Text mode, or the URL was missing a dot and a real host. Use URL mode and scan again. The encoded line should start with https:// or http://.

The phone will not join the Wi-Fi.

Confirm WPA versus “no password”, confirm the network name character for character, including spaces, and confirm the phone is not already holding an old password for that name. Forget the network on the phone and scan again. A hidden network must be marked hidden or the phone may not offer to join.

Can I change the colours?

The page draws dark modules on white, which is the combination scanners are built for. A low-contrast colour pair looks like a design and fails as a code. Keep the download as it is if the scan matters.

Can I put two links in one code?

One string per code. Make two codes, or make one code that opens a page containing both links.

When the string is the one you meant, open QR Code, scan your own preview, and then download.