How to print a QR code sign for your shop without a designer

You can have a QR code sign in your window today, printed on an ordinary printer, without opening a design tool. If your page is live, the sheet is already built for you and all you need to do is print it and cut it out.

Print the ready-made sheet

1. Open your dashboard and scroll to your QR code.
2. Choose Print a ready-made kit.
3. Check the page that opens. Your business name and your web address should both be on it.
4. Print it, or choose Save as PDF in the print dialog if you want to take it to a copy shop.
5. Cut along the dashed lines.

That is the whole job. One page gives you a sticker for your window, a card for your counter and eight small stickers for bags and boxes.

What is on the sheet, and why each piece is that size

The window sticker has the biggest code because it is read from the pavement, often by somebody passing after you have closed.

The counter card is smaller because it is read from an arm's length away, by a customer who is standing at the till waiting. That is the best spot in the shop and it is worth using.

The small stickers are sized right at the point where a code is still reliable. Going smaller is tempting and it is how codes quietly stop working, because the failure shows up on other people's phones and not yours.

Every piece carries your business name and a line saying what the code opens, because a code on its own gets ignored.

Paper, and whether to laminate

Ordinary paper is fine for the counter card and the small stickers. Both live indoors and both are easy to reprint.

The window sticker is the one worth spending on. It faces the weather and the sun. Sticker paper from a copy shop costs very little, and if your window gets direct sun, ask them to laminate it or expect to replace it every few months as the print fades.

If you are laminating, keep it matte. Gloss reflects whatever light is behind the person scanning and that alone can stop a phone reading it.

Print it in black and white

Print the codes in plain black on white unless you have a reason not to.

Black on white is what phone cameras read fastest, and it survives a cheap printer and a bad photocopy. Colour is worth it on the brand parts of the sheet, not on the code.

Check it before you stick it up

Scan every piece yourself before anything goes on a window.

Do it with the sheet taped where it will actually live, not held in your hand on a desk, and do it from where a customer would be standing. A code that works at arm's length on your desk can easily fail from the other side of the glass.

If you can, try it on a second phone too. Cameras vary more than you would expect.

Then leave it alone for a week

Scans from a printed code are counted separately from your other visits, so after a few days you can see whether anything is arriving, and from where.

That is the number to watch. If the window is getting scans and the counter is not, move the counter card somewhere better and check again.