A QR code for any link, that never stops working

Many QR code websites give you a dynamic code. It does not hold your link. It holds the address of their server, which then forwards people to your link. That is how they count scans, and it is also how a printed code dies: when the free trial ends, the plan lapses or the company shuts down, the forwarding stops, and every menu, poster and card carrying that code opens an error page.

The code made here is static. Your link is written into the pattern itself, so any phone camera reads it directly with nothing of ours in between. It will open your link for as long as your link exists.

Keep it dark on light. Most phone cameras read a reversed code, but many older phones and payment apps do not. Leave the light border around the code, because readers use it to find the edges.

Size matters more than design. A short link scans at 2 cm wide on a visiting card. A long link makes a denser code, and the tool tells you the smallest size to print it. For a poster read from across a room, a good rule is one centimetre of code for every ten centimetres of distance.

Print a test copy on the paper you will use. Glossy paper can reflect light into the camera, and very thin lines can disappear on cheap printing.

If the thing behind the code will change, a static code means printing again. A menu with new prices, an offer that ends, a phone number you might replace: point the code at something you can edit instead, and the printed code never has to change.