Make a QR code for a link, text or your Wi-Fi

Make a QR code

Nothing you type leaves this page. The tool pages are served with a content security policy that forbids every network connection, so the page’s own script could not send a photo anywhere, not even back to this site. A check on every build fails if a tool script uses cookies, local storage, session storage or IndexedDB, so the photo tools keep nothing in your browser.

What the code holds

A linkA web address. The camera offers to open it. TextAny words or numbers, shown as text when scanned. A Wi-Fi networkGuests scan it and join without typing the password.

Link

How to make a code

1. Choose what it holds. A link opens a web page, text shows words, and a Wi-Fi code lets a guest join your network without typing the password.
2. Type it in. The code appears as you type. A link typed without “https://” gets it added, and anything that is not a web address is refused, so a typo does not end up printed.
3. Pick a size and save. Save a PNG for a message, a slide or a document, or an SVG for print, since it stays sharp at any size.
4. Test it before you print. Point your own phone’s camera at the screen and check that it opens what you meant.

Many free QR sites count your scans

Plenty of free QR code sites do not put your link in the code. They put their own short link there, which sends each person on to yours. That lets the site count scans, show an ad page first, or switch the code off later unless you pay. A printed menu or flyer then depends on a company you never chose.

The codes made here hold your words and nothing else. There is no account and no short link, and nothing is sent anywhere when you make one. The tool pages are served with a content security policy that forbids every network connection, so the page’s own script could not send a photo anywhere, not even back to this site. If a code ever needs to change, make a new one.

Wi-Fi codes

A Wi-Fi code holds your network’s name, its password and its security type in the form most phone cameras read: WIFI:T:WPA;S:name;P:password;;. The page writes it for you and puts a backslash in front of the five characters that would confuse a scanner: backslash, semicolon, comma, quote and colon.

• Security. Choose WPA for nearly every home router, including the newer kinds. Choose WEP only for a very old router, and “No password” for an open network.
• A network missing from the list. Tick the box only if the network does not broadcast its name, so phones know to look for it.
• Check the password. The field shows it as you type so a typo is easy to spot. The page warns you when a WPA password is too short or too long to be real.

A Wi-Fi code is a printed password. Keep it where you would say the password aloud, such as on the fridge, and not in a shop window. If your router offers a guest network with its own password, that is the one to print. Our page on hotel and rental Wi-Fi covers what a shared network can see from the guest’s side.

Size, damage and print

The page makes codes of up to 213 bytes, enough for a long link or a short note. It always uses error correction level M, which still reads with about 15% of the code damaged, so a crease or a smudge rarely stops it. It leaves a white border four modules wide around the code, because scanners need that quiet space to find it.

For print, use the SVG, or the largest PNG. Keep the code dark on light, and print it larger for a poster read from across a room than for a card held in the hand. A short link makes a simpler code that scans from further away.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps keep the Wi-Fi password itself somewhere private, with a code you can show a guest when they ask. A Wi-Fi record can show a QR code that other phones scan to join the network. Records keep logins and networks sealed with the rest of the vault, and our guide to storing Wi-Fi passwords on an iPhone covers the other ways.

It doesn’t make QR codes for links or text, scan codes for you, or keep a list of the codes you made here, and nothing on this page reaches your vault. Records are not part of the free plan: On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.