Why vCard 3.0 instead of 4.0?

Compatibility. 3.0 reads cleanly on every camera app and QR scanner we have tested. 4.0 has marginal benefits and breaks in older readers.

Can I include a photo?

Not in this tool. Embedding a photo balloons the QR size to the point of unscannability. The logo overlay you can add is purely visual — it does not encode a photo into the contact card.

How do I update the card later?

Regenerate the QR. Static QRs cannot be edited after the fact. If you want a single QR pointing at always-current contact info, use a URL QR pointing at a vCard hosted on your own site.

PLATE 04

SCALE 1 : 1

EDITION v0.26.10

FILE KMK·QR·04

FIGURE A · VCARD ENCODE

Free vCard QR code generator

Pack contact details — name, organization, phone, email, address — into a QR code that adds you straight to someone’s phonebook. vCard 3.0, broadly supported.

Create QR code

process: client-side · zero upload
cost: free · no signup · no expiry
format: PNG · SVG · PDF
license: MIT · open source

§01

Notes on the artifact

A vCard QR carries a contact card in the same format your phone uses to share a contact via AirDrop or Nearby Share. When scanned, the recipient is offered an "Add to Contacts" sheet pre-filled with the fields you set. It is the modern equivalent of a paper business card, except it survives the wallet.

We emit vCard 3.0 because it has the widest scanner support across iPhone, Android, and the long tail of QR-reading apps. Newer versions (4.0) are slightly more compact but break in older readers. The trade-off is not worth it for a contact card.

Only fill the fields you want shared. Everything you leave blank is omitted from the output entirely. If you put a logo on the QR, the scanner still gets the contact data — the logo is decorative, the data is in the surrounding modules.

§02

Footnotes & queries

Why vCard 3.0 instead of 4.0?: Compatibility. 3.0 reads cleanly on every camera app and QR scanner we have tested. 4.0 has marginal benefits and breaks in older readers.
Can I include a photo?: Not in this tool. Embedding a photo balloons the QR size to the point of unscannability. The logo overlay you can add is purely visual — it does not encode a photo into the contact card.
How do I update the card later?: Regenerate the QR. Static QRs cannot be edited after the fact. If you want a single QR pointing at always-current contact info, use a URL QR pointing at a vCard hosted on your own site.

§03

Anatomy of the code

QR ANATOMY FUNCTIONAL REGIONS DRAFTING SCHEMATIC

Every QR code is a part-functional, part-data grid. Three finder patterns at the corners let a scanner lock orientation; an alignment pattern at the bottom-right corrects perspective skew when the code is photographed at an angle. The timing patterns — alternating modules running between the finders — tell the scanner the cell pitch. Format info encodes the error-correction level and mask pattern across 15 bits arranged in an L-shape. The rest of the grid is the payload — data plus Reed–Solomon error-correction codewords. The quiet zone is mandatory whitespace; without four clear modules of margin, scanners reject the code. The detail below the main figure shows the finder pattern's 1·1·3·1·1 ring construction — proportions deliberately chosen so a scanner can recognise the pattern at any rotation, with three patterns at three corners triangulating the code's orientation.

§04