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QR Code on a Business Card but how?

By Roger ⋅ April 19, 2008 ⋅ Email this post ⋅ Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

George Bush Business Card with QR Code

(Added: January 18th, 2010 QR Coded LinkedIn profile with tracking on your business card).

(Added: January 13th, 2010 Since I wrote this post Viscards seems to have ceased operation).

(Added: May 3rd, 2009 I am now using my new and very different Web 2.0 business card to great effect).

How many different ways can you think of to get a working QR Code on your business card?

Here are two to start the ball rolling and when you think of others please add them in a comment.

First, the way that MT Digital’s Viscards would have you do it.

1. Sign up at viscards.com
2. Enter your contact information
3. Download your QR Code which points to http://www.viscards.com/your-user-name, the location of your vCard .vcf file.
4. Print the QR Code on your business card

Quite straight forward and once you have signed up you can go back and change the contact information (if you change jobs for example) and still use the same QR Code.

A second method using a drop.

1. Create your vCard .vcf file in Outlook or one of the many online generators like vCardMaker
2. Creat a new drop at drop.io and upload the .vcf file like this for example http://drop.io/hgjyqfr
3. Create a QR code somewhere like here for your drop.io url.
4. Print the QR Code on your business card

If you change jobs then you just create and upload a new .vcf file

Here is an example of one I produced on drop.io and one on Viscards both for The President.

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Discussion

19 comments for “QR Code on a Business Card but how?”

  1. Some QR Code business cards in Japan have 3 qr codes on them, one for personal contact details which format & intergrate with outlook. The others are for down loading product catalougues and company or brand partners or the same product data but in English
    QR business cards are also stored as an image on the phone so at meetings people scan each others QR image off the screen.

    Posted by Kupa | May 9, 2008, 10:07 pm

  2. Is it an option to put the whole VCF file into a QR-code?

    Posted by Martin Tod | May 10, 2008, 2:17 am

  3. Hi Martin
    I think it would be OK to write the whole VCF into a QR code, I keep several QR codes as images on my phone which can be scanned or e-mailed. Each QR code is in a different languages (English, Japanese, Korean) and depending who I am meeting with and what I want them to know, thats the QR code I provide.

    Posted by Kupa | May 10, 2008, 7:30 am

  4. Say, I just saw this message. Might I suggest you use the “MECARD” format from DoCoMo. While VCF is a quite standard format, it’s a bit verbose. MECARD is a more compact standard in Japan for this type of info.

    See http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/make/content/barcode/function/application/addressbook/index.html ; also we have put together a wiki trying to summarize some de facto standards out there: http://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/BarcodeContents

    We use MECARD at Google to encode contact info on our business cards as QR Codes.

    Posted by Sean Owen | May 11, 2008, 4:05 pm

  5. I have put the link to a mobile version of my website, on the back of my business card. I think graphically, it works very well like that.
    http://jandecoster.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/qr-codes/

    Posted by Jan De Coster | May 19, 2008, 12:45 pm

  6. You can generate your own business card linking to your mobile site or mobile blog
    www.ventipix.com/qrcode_business_cards.html

    Posted by Perry | June 19, 2008, 6:47 pm

  7. I would like to share my vcard only with the people I give a business card so putting a QRcode link to my online vcard seems stupid (same as sharing it with the world) so I was thinking to encode the full vcard in a QRcode. This makes the code larger and harder to scan so… does anyone know if QRcode scanners can read vcards or do they all expect links?

    Posted by Simon | September 27, 2008, 1:06 pm

  8. Simon you can use something like QuickMark and most QR enabled mobiles like the N95 will not have a problem reading it and I believe the Kaywa reader recognizes vCard format too.

    Posted by Roger | September 27, 2008, 2:22 pm

  9. i think some of the Q&A here misses the point that a vcard hcard or M(E?)Card can all be encoded in a 2d code but** They all entail coding too much data to keep the resulting image to a reasonable size.

    When they have to much data the image becomes too hard for a mobile phone reader to read.

    URL shortening and/or linking to a v/h/m/card on line is a solution.

    You can then change the information without reprinting the card.

    unfortunately the standards are still a mess and no winners are obvious.

    All the Best Dave - @ http://geohash.org/gc0vg2×6uw5t

    Posted by Dave Spathaky | October 5, 2008, 11:55 pm

  10. Try this online tool, to generate business cards-
    http://www.ventipix.com/in/solo/.

    If you also want to generate QR Code flyers, that enable people to download coupons either in Aztec, Datamatrix,or QR code formats, then try this one-
    http://www.ventipix.com/in/

    Posted by Perry | February 9, 2009, 1:41 pm

  11. Can you upload also photo and read part of some document using 2d code?

    Posted by Zanda | April 16, 2009, 10:24 pm

  12. With http://www.qrvcards.com/ you can create a QR Code with your contact infos as vcard or as mecard.
    Regards - Thomas

    Posted by Thomas Staub | August 14, 2009, 2:54 pm

  13. I have a blackberry storm and I tried to download the beetagg reader so I can scan a QR code and it does not seem to work with my blackberry.
    Can anyone tell me which reader is the best for qr codes and blackberry?
    Thank you!
    Laura

    Posted by Laura Erickson | August 24, 2009, 7:37 pm

  14. I just started exploring QR with BeeTagg. I created a “contact card” meaning I filled in the necessary info, uploaded my photo and company logo and created or generated the BeeTagg code. It works great, but I can’t save the info to my phone. I have a BB Pearl. Anyone have any answers?

    Thanks

    Posted by TJ | September 4, 2009, 9:26 pm

  15. It sounds like Blackberry is unable to take a vcard code or URL pointing to a vcard and add it to the Blackberry address book. Has anyone found a way to do this? thanks!

    Posted by SH | September 29, 2009, 10:25 pm

  16. For Blackberry and iPhone try this QR generator:
    http://www.mskynet.com/static/maestro

    And for readers:
    http://www.sparqcode.com/sparqreader/

    BB Messenger, Barcodes, I-nigma

    This was the only way to get my iPhone to add a contact via MeCARD; BB should work with vCard

    Posted by Dave E | March 11, 2010, 9:16 am

  17. Yup, these folks made a work around so that vCard works on BB via QR codes.

    http://www.mskynet.com/msky-blog/2010/01/20/mskynet-adds-vcard-support-for-blackberry-qr-codes/

    Posted by Dave E | March 11, 2010, 1:25 pm

  18. You can also register at www.scanlife.com and fill in your contact details. Download the code (EZ or Datamatrix code types) and you have it all in one place. Can update as you please.

    Have a good one

    2Dcode media - or not to :-)

    Posted by jesper stuhr | April 12, 2010, 1:23 pm

  19. Here’s another approach thats focused on sharing your social networks + be able to edit it in the future + see the analytics!

    http://getsharesquare.com/

    Here’s mine: http://shrsqr.com/ABCDE

    Tip: if you add a plus sign to the above URL you can see some cool analytics!

    Posted by Matthias Galica | June 2, 2010, 1:45 am

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