Photo QR Code
Put the picture inside the code: halftone shading blends a photo into the code's own cells, so the framed print shows your faces and still opens your link. The photo never leaves your browser, and the finished artwork is decoded back to your content before you can download it.
Keepsake print checklist
- Keep the white margin around the code — it is the quiet zone scanners need, not empty space to crop.
- Size for the moment: 2 × 2 cm of code is the floor for cards and tags; photo-woven codes reward 4 cm or more; distant reveals want one tenth of the scanning distance.
- Matte paper over gloss — glare is the most common keepsake scan failure.
- Scan a test print with a real phone before the moment that matters.
A worked example, rendered by the real engine
Generated at build time by the same halftone pipeline as the tool above — here blending a synthetic gradient instead of a photograph (your photos never touch our build servers either). It encodes:
https://example.com/us
Version 3 at 29×29 modules, error correction H, pure centers at 50% of each cell. Scan it from the screen.
What keeps a photo code scannable
- Authoritative centers. The middle 50% of every data cell is pure code color — measured as the floor; 40% fails. Scanners sample near centers, so the photo can own the rest.
- Three honest tones. The photo is quantized to dark, mid, and light at fixed luminance thresholds (85 and 175), so ring pixels can never masquerade as confident modules.
- Clean landmarks. Finder corners, alignment squares, timing tracks, and the quiet zone carry no photo at all — the scanner's map of the code stays pristine.
- Maximum error correction. Level H, always, and never a logo on top — the photo already spends the margin a logo would need.
Photo code FAQ
How can a photo and a QR code share the same image?
Each cell of the code is split into a small grid. The center half of every cell is rendered in the pure code color — that is what scanners actually sample — while the outer ring shows your photo, simplified to three tones. The eye assembles the rings into the picture; the scanner reads the centers.
Is my photo uploaded to your servers?
No. The photo is read directly by your browser, sampled on your device, blended into the artwork locally, and discarded when you close the page. It never crosses the network — this site has no photo storage at all.
What photos work best?
Simple subjects with clear light-and-dark structure: a face, a couple, a pet, a silhouette. Busy textures survive verification but read as noise at three tones. If verification fails on a photo, try cropping tighter on the subject.
Why does the code look denser than a plain one?
Photo blending spends error-correction margin, so the engine always encodes at level H (the maximum, ~30% recovery) and keeps the corner landmarks, timing tracks, and margins fully clean. That is also why no logo can be added on top of a photo code.
Should I trust it in print?
The on-page verification decodes the exact artwork you download. Print adds its own variables — size, paper, ink spread — so print a test and scan it with a real phone. Halftone codes reward being printed larger: 4 × 4 cm or more.
Prefer the photo beside the code instead of inside it? Use a framed code next to your print, or the proposal code for the question itself. Photo codes also make striking memorial pieces and pet keepsakes.