You’ve seen QR Codes already. These square-shaped barcodes are now being rampantly used for use cases such as payments, promotions, and inventory tracking.
And you’re probably thinking of using them in one of your campaigns too. But here’s the thing—you don’t want plain black-and-white QR Codes.
You rather want designed QR Codes that have colors and, if possible, a logo too. Well, you’d be glad to know that customized QR Codes do a lot more than just adding aesthetic value to your creatives.
They act as a point-of-engagement to grab the audience’s attention. And it is a fact that custom-designed QR Codes attract much more scans than black-and-white ones.
A professional QR Code generator is all that you need to create a colored QR Code. Keep reading to know more.
Learn all about how to design a QR Code
A. What elements can you customize with a colored QR Code generator?
A QR Code is made up of several elements. This includes eyes (inner and outer), data modules, quiet zone, background, etc.
Before we discuss how you can customize the QR Code, let’s exactly which of these elements can you design.
1. Eyes: You can change the color of both the inner and outer eyes of the QR Code. And whether you’d want them to be the same color or not is your choice. In fact, you can even customize the pattern of a QR Code’s eyes
2. Data Modules: These are tiny squares that store the data to make rows and columns of the QR Code. Just like eyes, you can also change the color and pattern of the data modules. In addition, you can even add the gradient to their color
3. Logo: You can even add a logo to the centre of the QR Code. It could either be an image (such as your brand logo) or text (such as ‘Scan Here’)
4. Background: You can customize the background of the QR Code by adding color to it. Note that if your QR Code is dark, the background should be light-colored and vice-versa. This is important to maintain the scannability of the QR Code
You can do all this for the custom-logo design option for the QR Codes. But there’s one more choice available—Custom Background design.
Custom Background design allows you to add an image as the QR Code’s background. Also, with this option, you can even change the pattern of both eyes and data modules. However, it doesn’t allow you to change their color to ensure good scannability.
Note that since Custom Background design helps you add an image as the background, you can’t add another image as a logo to it.
Learn all about making QR Codes in this ultimate guide.
B. How to create a colorful QR Code
If you head on to the search engine, you’ll find many professional best QR Code generator to choose from. And to make it easier for you, here’s a comparison chart of the top players online. You can go through it to make an informed choice.
Using Scanova for a demo, here’s how you can create a colored QR Code:
1. Go to our Scanova and click on Create QR Code
2. Decide on your QR Code category
To help you out here, here is the list of all relevant QR Code categories you can use.
3. Enter the content to be stored in the QR Code and Continue
4. On the page that loads, name the QR Code and click Create QR Code
5. Now, you’ll see the preview of the QR Code along with other details such as the name, type, and category. On the right, you’ll see the Edit Design button. Click on it
6. Here, you’ll see two design options—Custom Logo Design and Custom Background Design
a. For custom logo design
I. Click Choose Design Type below the appropriate design option. Here you can add a logo, colors, pattern, and background color to the QR Code
II. First, you’ll see the templates tab
III. Next, you can go to the Logo tab. You’ll see two logo options here—add an image as a logo or as text as a logo. Proceed with your preferred choice
IV. After adding the logo, you’ll see these design options:
Size: Here, you can increase or decrease the size of your logo within the QR Code
Remove Blocks Around Logo: If you turn it on, you can remove the data modules around your QR Code
V. Next, you can go to the Eyes tab. Here you can change the pattern and color of the eyes of the QR Code. It even allows you to change the color of both outer and inner eyes separately
VI. In the Data tab, you can edit the pattern and color of data modules. You can even choose gradient to be added to your data modules
VII. In the Background tab, you can change the background color.
Note: Make sure you keep enough contrast between the QR Code and its background as it affects the scannability.
Once you’ve finalized the QR Code design, click Done Editing
b. Custom background design
I. If you choose this option, you’ll see the design tool page with the Upload Image option
II. Click “Upload New Image” to add an image as the background
Note: The image can only be uploaded in PNG, JPEG, or JPG formats
III. Next, you can resize and position your QR Code on the image as you want
IV. Click Preview to see the design of your QR Code image. Once you’re done positioning, click on Next
V. You will get the option to edit the pattern of data modules and eyes
VI. Once your QR Code design is ready, click Done Editing
7. Next, click on Download. A window will open, prompting you to sign-up for a 14-day free trial
Note that no credit card details would be needed to sign-up.
8. Once you’ve signed up, proceed to download the QR Code. You’ll then have to add the size and format of the QR Code image to be downloaded. Once you specify these details, click on Export
That’s it. The colored QR Code will be downloaded and ready to deploy for use!
Always test scan the QR Code before adding it to your creatives. That’s all you need to know about colored QR Code generator. Ready to create your first customized QR Code? Get started now!