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Plain QR Codes

Text QR code generator

Encode plain text rather than a link. Scanning shows the text itself — no internet connection, no website, nothing to load.

  • No account
  • No expiry
  • No watermark
  • Nothing uploaded

Step 1: Enter your content

Whatever you type shows up exactly as written. It works with no internet at all.

Step 2: Customize optional

Colors, shapes, logo and frame

1024 px is plenty for most printing. Changes the PNG and JPEG only — the SVG works at any size.

Advancedshapes, borders, frames and error correction

How much scuffing, smudging or fading the QR code can take and still work. Higher is tougher, but packs the dots in tighter.

4 squares wide

Phones need clear space around a QR code to spot it. Four is the safe minimum — printers sometimes call this the quiet zone.

Logo
Or pick a ready-made one
Symbols
Brands

Your image is processed on this device and never uploaded. Adding a logo also turns error correction up to maximum, so the QR code can survive having its middle covered.

Step 3: Your QR code

Your QR code appears here as you type.
More formats

SVG stays sharp at any size — use it for anything printed.

Why use a text QR code?

A text QR code stores the text directly in the QR pattern, so it can be read without an internet connection or a working website.

Common uses include:

  • Asset and equipment tags. Serial number, model, install date and service interval, readable by anyone with a phone and no access to your inventory system.
  • Operating instructions. A short procedure on the machine it applies to — a reset sequence, a shutdown order, the correct settings.
  • Emergency and safety details. Valve locations, an isolation procedure, who to call. Precisely the situations where assuming a working data connection is a bad plan.
  • Shipping and inventory references. Batch QR codes, bin locations, lot numbers.

How much text fits

The limit depends on the error correction level, because the spare capacity and the room for your text come out of the same place. These are the ceilings, in bytes:

Error correctionRoughly recoverableMaximum bytes
L — Low7%2,953
M — Medium (default)15%2,331
Q — High25%1,663
H — Highest30%1,273

Note that those are bytes, not characters. Plain English is one byte per character, but an accented letter costs two and an emoji usually costs four — so “2,331 characters” is optimistic for anything but ASCII. The counter above warns you as you approach the limit.

The technical maximum is much higher than the practical limit for small printed QR codes. Longer text creates a denser pattern, so keep printed codes concise and use the size guide when space is limited.

Line breaks and formatting

Line breaks are preserved, so short labeled lines remain readable after scanning:

Pump 4 — Serial A-4471
Installed 2024-03
Service every 6 months

There is no formatting beyond that: no bold, no links, no styling. A QR code carries characters, and the scanning app decides how to display them. Some scanning apps automatically make URLs or phone numbers tappable even though the QR code itself contains only plain text.

Privacy

Text is encoded locally in your browser and is not sent to Plain QR Codes. This is useful for internal references, instructions, and other information you may not want to upload to a third-party service.

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