Free wedding QR code generator — and how to print it so it scans

By calm.wedding team · Published: 5 August 2026 · Updated: 12 September 2026 · about 7 min read

A QR code at a wedding has one job: to turn “sorry, where am I sitting?” into three seconds with a phone. Simple enough — except a code can fail to work for reasons nobody thinks about while designing an invitation: too small, on glossy paper, in a room lit by candles.

Below is a free generator: paste an address, download the code as vector and print it. Under it is everything worth knowing before the card goes to the printer.

Free, no sign-up

Wedding QR code generator

Paste the address of your wedding page, gallery or directions. The code is made in your browser — the address never reaches our server — and it never expires, because it points straight at that address with no redirect in between.

Address the code should openCaption above the addressPrint the address under the code (for phones that will not scan)

Your code will appear here

SVG is vector: it prints sharp at any size and opens in Canva, Word and layout software. The PNG is 2000 px wide, plenty for an A6 card. Scan the code with your own phone before printing.

What guests use it for

One code can carry everything guests ask about: the seat at the table, the running order, a site map with the car park and the hotel, the taxi number, the photo gallery. One code for everybody — the personalising happens after the guest picks their own name.

That matters for printing: you do not need a separate code per guest. Codes per person mean a hundred different files, a hundred chances to mix them up, and nothing in return.

Where to put it

On the table card — the most effective spot. The guest is already seated, has a phone in hand, and is wondering when dinner is. One card per table is enough; two are more convenient at large tables.
On the invitation — this works for everything happening before the wedding: travel, the hotel, the times. Remember that an invitation ends up in a drawer, so the code has to lead to a page that will still be alive on the day itself.
On a board by the door — instead of a printed seating chart. A large code and one sentence of explanation beside it.
On the menu or a napkin — charming, but treat it as an extra. Menus get taken home and napkins get used.

How to print it so a phone catches it

Vector, not JPG

This is the one genuinely technical point on the list. A code saved as a raster file (JPG, PNG) has a fixed number of pixels. Enlarged to the size of a card it prints at the resolution of thefile, not of the printer, so the edges of the squares go soft. A phone camera in poor light then cannot tell neighbouring modules apart, and the code “won't scan”.

A vector code (SVG, or a PDF containing vector) has no resolution — it prints as sharply as the printer can manage. If somebody sends you a code as a photograph, ask for the vector version.

Size

A practical rule: the side of the code is roughly one tenth of the distance it is scanned from. A table card lies 30 cm from the phone, so 3 cm is enough. A board by the door scanned from a metre and a half needs 15 cm. Never go below 2 cm.

Contrast, margin, paper

A dark code on a light background. The reverse — light on dark — can be unreadable for older cameras.
Leave a margin — empty space around the code about four modules wide. Without it a reader cannot find the code's boundary.
Do not place the code over a pattern or a photograph. Flowers underneath look lovely and ruin the read.
Matte paper. Gloss lamination and varnish bounce candlelight straight into the lens.
The room is dark in the evening. If you are torn between two sizes, print the larger.

What not to do

Link shorteners. Free shorteners can expire or start showing advertising. A code on paper stays with you until the end of the wedding, and so must the address behind it.

A code pointing at a PDF in cloud storage. It opens slowly, asks for a sign-in more often than you would expect, and cannot be corrected after the seating changes.

A code with no caption. A bare square says nothing. One sentence beside it — “Scan to find your seat” — raises the number of scans more than anything else on this page.

What if somebody cannot scan it

Always print the address in text under the code, for exampleannaandjan.calm.wedding. Anyone whose camera does not recognise codes will type the address instead. That one line rescues the situation where the technology fails precisely at grandmother.

And keep a plan B that needs no phone at all: place cards on the tables work exactly as they always have. The QR code is an extra for people who want to know more, not a condition of entry.

How to prepare the QR code for older guests

Say what the code does. “Open the camera, point it at the code and tap the address” is clearer than “Scan here”.
Print the address below it. If a phone does not recognise the square, a guest can type the short address into their browser.
Give one person the job of helping at the entrance. A witness or cousin can show the first step once; the large search box takes over from there.

Do not ask anyone to install a QR-reader app. A normal camera is enough on a current phone, and a guest without a smartphone can still use the place card and printed seating chart.

Rather not lay out the cards yourselves? In calm.wedding the QR code and the table cards are generated from your own wedding — four designs on ordinary A4, four cards to a sheet, a vector code, and the address printed in text underneath. See how it works.

Earlier: the wedding seating plan — how to seat your guests, step by step →