A business card that types itself

The most honest use of a QR code is the one where nothing has to be retyped. A vCard code on a business card, conference badge or email-signature image lets the other phone save your full contact block — name, title, company, number, email, site — in two taps, with no app to install and no service in the middle.

What the generator writes

It produces a vCard 3.0 document (RFC 2426): N holds the family/given split, FN the display name, and ORG, TITLE, TEL;TYPE=CELL, EMAIL and URL fill in the rest — exactly the fields a phone’s “Add contact” sheet shows. Values are escaped per the spec, so a surname like O'Neil, Jr. or a company named A;B Partners comes out intact on the other end.

Keep the payload lean

vCards are the fattest payloads this generator makes — a full card runs a few hundred bytes, and every byte adds modules to the symbol. Denser codes need to print bigger to stay scannable. Two habits help: fill only the fields people will use (an empty field costs nothing; a stale one confuses), and let the generator pick the version rather than second-guessing module counts — the meta line under the preview reports both.

Scan before you print a hundred

Press Test scan to decode the code on screen — it shows the literal vCard text, so you can proof-read field order and punctuation before committing it to paper. For distance and minimum print size on cardstock, the print-size guide has the math. And because the vCard lives inside the pattern, the code keeps working as long as the paper survives — why static codes never expire.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly goes inside the code?

A vCard 3.0 document — the same address-book exchange format email apps have used since 1998 (RFC 2426). The generator fills N (structured name), FN (display name), ORG, TITLE, TEL;TYPE=CELL, EMAIL and URL from the fields you see, and escapes commas, semicolons and backslashes so they survive the trip.

vCard or a link to a contact page — which is better?

vCard for people, link for everything else. A vCard code makes the phone offer 'Add to Contacts' with all fields populated — ideal on business cards and email signatures where the recipient wants you saved. If you would rather send people to a portfolio or booking page, encode that URL instead; it is also the safer choice when your details change often, since a printed vCard freezes today's values.

Why is only one phone/email in the code?

vCard supports many, but a QR code's ~3 KB ceiling punishes repetition and most paper use-cases need just the one line people should call. Encode the number you actually answer.

The scan shows raw text instead of a contact card — why?

The code is fine; the scanner chose not to parse it. Apple's Camera app and most Android scanners detect vCards, but some minimal QR apps show the raw payload instead. Try the system camera before assuming the code is broken — the built-in test scan shows the exact vCard text inside.

Does it work if my name has non-ASCII characters?

Yes — the payload is UTF-8 encoded, so accents and non-Latin scripts carry through. Some very old scanners mis-decode UTF-8 vCards; test with the phones your audience actually carries.