A QR Code (QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response) is a two-dimensional code, readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. It was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994.
QR Code is capable of handling all types of data (see a table below):
|
Numeric mode: |
0123456789 |
Maximum 7089 characters |
|
Alphanumeric mode: |
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789 $ % * + - . / : space |
Maximum 4296 characters |
|
Binary mode (8 bits byte data): |
JIS 8-bit (Latin and Kana) |
Maximum 2953 bytes |
|
Kanji mode: |
Shift JIS (8140H-9FFCH and E040H-EBBFH) |
Maximum 1817 characters |
The QR Code characteristics:
The bar-code size (not including quiet zone): Versions 1 to 40 (21*21 modules to 177*177 modules, increasing in steps of 4 modules per side)
Four levels of error correction allowing recovery of:
|
Correction Level |
Percentage of the recovered information |
|
L |
7% |
|
M |
15% |
|
Q |
25% |
|
H |
30% |
The higher the
level of correction is, the bigger percentage of information of the
corrupted bar-code can be recovered, but fewer information can be
encoded in the bar-code of the same size.
A "QR Code" barcode.