Which QR code file format should you download?
Every generator offers the same code in several formats, and the choice matters more than it looks. The wrong one gives you a code that scans on your screen and turns to mush on a banner, or a file your printer’s software refuses to open. Here is what each format is for.
SVG: for anything that will be printed or edited
An SVG is a drawing, not a picture. It describes the code as shapes, so it can be scaled to a business card or a billboard with edges that stay perfectly sharp. Every professional design tool opens it, and a print shop will ask for it or for a PDF made from it.
Download the SVG when:
- A designer will place the code in a layout.
- The code will be printed larger than a postcard, or you do not yet know how large.
- You want to recolour it or match it to a brand in a design tool later.
- It is going onto a product label, packaging, signage or a vehicle.
SVGs from QRCodeEngine are plain, clean files with no embedded raster, so they stay small and stay editable. Gradients, shaped modules and frames are all preserved as vectors.
The one place SVG fails is software that does not understand it. Most office suites do now, but some older document tools, email clients and web builders still want a PNG.
PNG: for screens and documents
A PNG is a grid of pixels. It looks right at the size it was made and softens when enlarged. That makes it the format for anything displayed on a screen and for documents that will be printed at ordinary sizes.
Download the PNG when:
- It is going into a slide, a web page, an email signature or a social post.
- It is going into a word-processing document that will be printed at up to about 5 cm across.
- The tool you are pasting into does not take SVG.
The trap with PNG is size. A 300-pixel code looks fine on screen and prints acceptably at 2.5 cm. Scaled to 10 cm it is blurry, and blur at the edges of modules is exactly what makes a code hard to read. The rule is 300 pixels per inch of print, so a 10 cm code needs about 1200 pixels. When in doubt, download the largest PNG on offer. A big PNG costs nothing but a little disk space, and a small one costs a reprint.
If you need transparency, so the code sits on a coloured background in a document, PNG supports it and JPEG does not. Just remember that the background it lands on then becomes the code’s background, and it needs to be light and plain. See QR codes on dark backgrounds for what happens otherwise.
PDF: for a ready-to-print piece
A PDF is the format printers actually print from. A QR code inside a PDF is stored as vector shapes, so it has SVG’s sharpness with a page size, margins and fonts attached. It is what you want when the code is the whole piece rather than one element of a design.
Download the PDF when:
- You want a sheet of stickers, a table tent, a card or a poster you can print today without opening a design tool.
- You are sending a finished file to a print shop.
- You need the code at an exact physical size, in millimetres, not pixels.
QRCodeEngine’s print option makes these pieces for you at A4 with cut marks and the code at an exact size, so the file that comes out is the file the shop needs. It also includes a size test sheet that prints the same code at several sizes, so you can check with your own phone which size scans from the distance you care about before you commit to a run.
EPS: only if the shop asks
EPS is an older vector format that some print shops and sign makers still request. QRCodeEngine exports it as a plain black-and-white grid on purpose: colours, gradients and shaped modules are left out, because EPS goes into a press workflow where the shop sets the colour and a plain grid is the most reliable thing to hand over. If nobody has asked you for EPS, use SVG.
JPEG: avoid it for codes
JPEG compresses by smudging edges, which is fine for photographs and bad for a picture made entirely of edges. Faint noise appears around every module. A JPEG code usually still scans, but you have spent some of your error-correction budget on compression artefacts for no reason. If a tool insists on JPEG, give it a large PNG and let it convert, rather than starting from a JPEG.
Which resolution, in numbers
For PNG, the question is always “how big will it be printed?”:
| Printed width | Pixels needed |
|---|---|
| 2 cm (a label) | 250 |
| 5 cm (a flyer) | 600 |
| 10 cm (a table card) | 1200 |
| 20 cm (a poster) | 2400, or switch to SVG |
Above about 15 cm, stop thinking in pixels and use SVG or PDF. Below 2 cm, read minimum QR code print size first, because size, not format, is now the constraint.
A note on colours and formats
A gradient or a custom shape survives every format here. What does not survive is a brand colour that only looks right on screen. Printers work in CMYK and screens in RGB, so a vivid colour may print duller. For a code this rarely matters, as long as the contrast between modules and background stays high. If the design is critical, the SVG is the file to hand to whoever manages colour, because they can adjust it without re-generating the code.
Summary
- SVG if anyone will scale, edit or print it professionally.
- PNG for screens and small documents, at 300 pixels per inch of print.
- PDF for a finished piece to print now or send to a shop.
- JPEG never, if you can help it.
Whatever you pick, check the file itself by scanning it from the screen before you send it anywhere.
Make a free QR code with QRCodeEngine — every format free, no signup, and every code checked before you download it.