vCard QR code generator for business cards
Build a contact QR code that adds your name, phone, email, company and address straight to a phone. Valid vCard 3.0, with a .vcf download too.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing you enter is sent
- Free, no account
Use the +country format so it dials from anywhere.
A short line that shows up under the contact once saved.
A vCard is a lot of data. Level L keeps the symbol smaller and easier to scan; only raise it if the code will be printed small or on a rough surface.
Enter at least a name or an organisation and the contact QR code appears here.
How to make a contact QR code
- Fill in the fields you actually want on the card. Everything left blank is omitted from the vCard rather than written as an empty property.
- Watch the byte counter under the code. Under about 300 bytes scans comfortably from a printed business card; past 400 the symbol gets dense.
- Keep the error-correction level at L or M. A vCard is already a lot of data, and extra redundancy makes the symbol physically larger for no practical gain on a clean printed card.
- Download the SVG for print, the PNG for a screen, or the
.vcffile if you want to email the contact directly.
What a vCard actually looks like
vCard is a plain-text format defined by RFC 2426 (version 3.0) and RFC 6350 (version 4.0). This tool emits 3.0, because that is what iOS, Android, Outlook and Google Contacts all read reliably from a QR code. A finished card looks like this:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Lovelace;Ada;;;
FN:Ada Lovelace
ORG:Analytical Engines Ltd
TITLE:Head of Computation
TEL;TYPE=CELL,VOICE:+44 20 7946 0958
EMAIL;TYPE=INTERNET,PREF:ada@example.com
URL:https://example.com
ADR;TYPE=WORK:;;12 Marylebone Road;London;;NW1 5LS;United Kingdom
END:VCARD| Property | Holds | Notes |
|---|---|---|
N | Family;Given;Additional;Prefix;Suffix | Structured name — the five parts are always present, even when empty |
FN | Formatted name | The only mandatory display field; what the phone shows |
ORG | Organisation | Sub-units are separated with semicolons |
TEL | Phone number | TYPE=CELL, WORK, HOME, FAX |
EMAIL | Address | PREF marks the preferred one |
ADR | PO box;Extended;Street;City;Region;Postcode;Country | Seven parts, the first two normally left empty |
URL | Website | Include the scheme or some clients will not linkify it |
NOTE | Free text | Newlines are written as \n |
Inside a value, backslash, semicolon and comma are reserved and get escaped automatically, and
literal line breaks become \n. That is what stops a company name like
“Smith, Jones & Co.” from silently splitting into two fields.
Keeping the symbol scannable
The single biggest problem with contact QR codes is density. Each character of vCard text adds modules to the grid, and past a certain point a phone camera can no longer resolve them at business-card size. Some practical ways to cut bytes:
- One phone number, not three. Mobile is almost always the one people want.
- Drop the address unless people physically visit you. It is typically 60–90 bytes on its own.
- Skip the note. Whatever it says, the person who scanned your card will not read it.
- Shorten the URL.
example.comworks as well ashttps://www.example.com/team/ada-lovelaceif the short form redirects. - Use level L or M correction. On a clean, flat printed card there is nothing to correct for.
vCard code or a link to a profile page?
| vCard QR code | Link to a page | |
|---|---|---|
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Saves in one tap | Yes | Usually two or three |
| Details can be changed later | No — reprint required | Yes |
| Can show a photo or logo | Not practically | Yes |
| Tells you who scanned | No | Yes, if you add analytics |
| Depends on a service staying online | No | Yes |
For a conference badge or a printed card that will outlive a job title, many people put both: a vCard code on the back for instant saving, and a short URL in text for anything that needs updating.
Testing before you print
Print one card at final size on the actual stock, then scan it with an iPhone camera, an Android camera and one third-party scanner, at arm’s length, under normal office lighting. Check that the name, phone and email all arrive intact — accented characters and long organisation names are where cheap generators fall over. Only then commit to the print run.
Questions
Which vCard version does this produce?
vCard 3.0, the version with the widest support across iOS, Android, Outlook and Google Contacts. vCard 4.0 is newer but is still read inconsistently by phone cameras, and the extra features it adds are not useful inside a QR code.
Why is my QR code so dense?
A vCard carries far more text than a URL, and every field you fill in adds to it. Drop the address and the note first, use one phone number rather than three, and keep the correction level at L or M — a smaller, cleaner symbol scans better than a heavily protected dense one.
Should I use a vCard code or a link to a contact page?
A vCard works offline and saves the contact in one tap, which is ideal for a printed business card or a conference badge. A link is better if the details change often, because you can update the page without reprinting anything.
What happens to accented characters and emoji?
They are encoded as UTF-8 inside the QR code and survive intact on modern phones. Very old contact apps occasionally mangle them, so if the card is for a print run worth testing, scan it with both an iPhone and an Android before going to press.