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My pet peeve is that everything is a website these days.

I thought a qr code making is free?

Enshittifation strikes again! Corporate management thievery... If they have their way, we would own *nothing*. LAAS (life as a service). Neofeudalism: Owners and serfs.

jfc

My *one* suggestion is that there really ought to be a clear border around the grid. Other than that, this is great.

bless you 🙏

If a QR code is just an encoding of the URL (or whatever), how can it "stop working"?

Don't you just click in a browser?

I love this video about it: youtu.be/w5ebcowAJD8?...

My absolute hero. I was pissed when I got caught by one of these scams!

Awesome Adam! Great you brought awareness to this. What a devious scam. Tiiiiny nitpick is that QR codes have a 2 block boundary around them, as per spec, but they often scan fine without :)

Now how to stay off the Internet while searching the drawer for triple AAA's for the "vibes"

Very puzzled. We've had in-browser features (like, Chrome) that literally will make QR codes for whatever page you're on for more than half a decade ?

right on, adam! u rock, buddy!

Creating QR codes is like playing a game of whack-a-mole.

Indeed. Here's the link. mini-qr-code-generator.vercel.app Don't trust me blindly. You can validate this URL by comparing it with what you see here - github.com/lyqht/mini-q... . Please note that the line number in this `README.md` file (currently it is 45) may change over time.

I didn't make the tool I linked, but I'm sure they'd welcome you opening an issue on their github

Thank you for doing the internet a great service, king. I'm a graphic designer and have run into "expired" QR-codes more than once.

Oh wow!!

This will be a godsend for the faires I have to help run because all our hunting for a free, decent, not scam QR Generator were fruitless. Thank you so much for making one!

Super feedback. Like!

Agreed, it's a shame that there are so many parties out there that just cannot be trusted.

The average person is not going to think to use an additional app to check if the free instant QR code is trying to trick them or if it actually links to their website, especially when testing the link brings them to the correct website

I did the exact same thing, and for the same reason: dpoisn.com/demos/qrcode...

That’s a bloody thing?! Wild

bless you sir

FANTASTIC!!! Thanks!!!

"QR code middleman" is real ingenuity. I never in a million years would have thought that one up.

where the fuck are you finding those ive never seen anything remotely like it

qr code monkey is great and has been around for years - they let you do color gradients and some fun variations on grid shapes too

Hey Lowkey A few seconds may not seem like much to you, but they could mean hope to a family facing difficult days. Please visit my page and read the pinned post. 🙏

Yes, I know, but I think it is worth while reminding people not to trust such things.

thats literally a function built-in for chrome nowadays. Dunno about other browsers

Thanks

Oh... I should put a QR code in a map of mine, that'd be funny

Wait so… if I tattooed a QR code on my back, would it work forever?

Thank you!! I experienced that scammy behaviour from a "free" site too. In my case I had printed cards with the QR codes. They lied multiple times and claimed that people had tried to scan the code before the cards had even left my house!

I had a random pile of people at my job who wanted QR codes for their projects all of a sudden, and all of the sites to make them seemed skeevy as hell, so I wound up coding up a quick internal site to do it for them easy-peasy... and then nobody there has ever wanted another one again. Sigh.

I roll with this Firefox extension for QR codes github.com/rugk/offline...

The truth is: scammers don’t have to make it that clever. Just like how a scam email doesn’t have to have good grammar.

I have a t-shirt with one of those qr codes.

That is absolutely terrific!!

omg i was just thinking of using a qr code generator to make it easier for people to read my thesis this is so helpful, thank you!!!!

🫡 Not all heroes wear capes. Bless young Sir!

Affinity Photo and Designer have a QR code generator in their shapes tool!

I wish noone would ever use any other website to generate qr codes ever again so they all can pack their things. Thanks for creating this ^^ i might not need it now but there have been many occasions where i did.

Good stuff. Thanks.

Irreversible QR steganography!

I mean if you are using a platform that requires a subscription for a URL you provided that's stupid and you shouldn't be on that platform.

Thank you for this!

Thank you. Bookmarked for that inevitable day.

You're like the VLC guy, doing the lord's work on behalf of all the people. Thank you

Goated. 🗣️

This is one of my pet peeves as well. Its so exploitative. Because people make print media, the QR code works, they print it out, and then their prints are held hostage. I know two people who had that happen to them. I use this tool: zint.org.uk There is a Flatpak on Flathub which I use.

TY!! I was looking for one for ages

Not that I recommend them for anything except this, but Adobe also has a free QR code generator that I've used a bunch. I like the options it gives with square, round, and circle styles for each element. Consider adding that option to yours? Maybe with a color wheel? www.adobe.com/express/feat...

Generating QR codes is fast and cheap, which makes it even more scammy that websites either paywall, or generate redirect links instead of putting your actual link in. It doesn’t cost Pavel anything to have this little website up for you.

BLESS YOU. Thank you.

I made a free qr code generator 20+ years ago. It's still running I think. There are so many others. How lucky did you have to be to find the dodgy one?

Oh my GOODNESS i can finally carry around a QR code for my commissions around when Im out of the house, thank you

You’re goated king, I got scammed like this and had made business cards with the scam QR code and it screwed me soooo bad

Duckduckgo has a built in QR code generator. To use it simply search qr code followed by your url. Eg: qr code www.kernel.org

TANSTAAFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Eww they generate a QR code around a redirect link instead of just the actual link? That's so gross but so obvious. I'm surprised I am surprised.

QR codes are just a compression algorithm from string to image!!! We have the tech to implement just that!!!!!!!

Excellent! As a coder, that's pretty simple to do. I wish I had thought of it.

Great effort Adam.

LibreOffice also has a QR code generator.

LOL 😂

FUCKING WHAAAAATTTTT

Yeah these are super scammy, few years back ran into a service which allowed you to have a QR for paramedics including your blood types, diabetes etc. info, and it was also paywalled. 😅

Neat! I despise people who do crap like this as well so it's really nice to see someone do the actual thing properly. Just one thing: The colour picker in Firefox uses the Windows' native colour picker dialog which is the same rubbish as the one in MSPaint.

Legend!

My ghods, thank you!

I just vibecoded an app that's much less useful... A quirky unit converter that measures time in Scaramuccis, distance in Smoots, length in Canada Geese, area in Manhattans, speed in Furlongs per Fortnight, and casualty rates in Benghazis per Scaramucci. absurdunitconverter.my.canva.site

MIT Licensed go-qrcode worked for me to easily create qr codes, though that was not going to be a solution for my auntie to download and use :)

There is a Firefox plugin generating QR Code pointing to the current webpage: github.com/rugk/offline...

You are awesome, thank you!

I did not at all intend to do this promotion but now that’s it’s blown up if you like making GOOD FREE QR codes you might like this indie game about rats my friends and I made a year ago on steam?? store.steampowered.com/app/2844360/...

Also this whole page runs on ONE index.html file so feel free to inspect the page and steal the code I literally don’t care just stop getting scammed!!!

... i will not go

Since we're discussing this, here's a command line python script pypi.org/project/qrco...

awesome that you’ve done this! i’m not sure if this still applies in 2026, but i wrote some qr code generation software years ago and ran into issues with some readers when i didn’t generate a border around the qr code. it’s apparently part of the standard.

Some QR readers will show you what was scanned and then allow you to follow it or not. This one is safe as it's just text lyrics of a certain song.

I didn't know this scam was possible, let alone a thing. I recently ordered 100 business cards with a QR code. I hope it still works when I need it.

I agree with the fact that the QR code was a crappy redirect, and one should verify the result. As the (SW / embedded developer) husband of a very non-technical psychologist I have learned not to be too judgmental of those who do not fully grok (sorry) these technologies.

Scan it and see if the link that appears is actually the one you entered, before clicking

and you think if someone doesn’t take this exact step because they failed to anticipate foul play, that’s on them?

no thanks several apps on my phone already make real qr codes this is a non issue

Thanks for this. As a volunteer gardening group, we've had to keep finding new ones to use as the sites want to charge us after a few weeks of "free"

I was just looking for exactly this just now

what a badass honestly, you dropped this 👑

I have been meaning to build this exacttttttt thing thank you!!! So glad it already exists

I can't thank you enough for this!