How to add QR codes to name badges

What a badge QR code can do

A QR code on a badge turns a glance into an action: someone points a phone at it and something useful opens. The useful part is up to you. Good uses at events:

• Swap contact details without typing: the code opens the attendee’s profile or contact page.
• Check-in and session scanning, when your registration or check-in system issues an ID per attendee and has its own scanner app.
• Exhibitor lead capture, if the exhibitors’ app reads the same IDs.
• Event information on every badge: the agenda, the venue map or the feedback form.

A QR code is only a way of writing text that a camera can read. It doesn’t do anything by itself, so the system or page behind it is what makes it work.

What to encode

The shorter the content, the simpler the code and the easier it scans. Every extra character adds modules (the little squares), and at the same print size more modules means smaller ones. These are real numbers from the encoder our editor uses (byte mode, error correction level M):

• Use a short link on a domain you control, such as https://nbc.example/u/1042. You can change where it points later without reprinting.
• Skip tracking tags in the code. They took the profile link from 33 to 45 modules per side above. If you need them, add them on the page the short link redirects to.
• Be careful with contact cards. A vCard puts the details in the code itself (53 × 53 modules for a basic one), so anyone who scans, or zooms into a photo of the badge, gets them. See privacy below.
• For check-in, encode exactly what your system expects, usually its own ID, nothing more.

One code for everyone or one per attendee

One code for everyone suits event information: type the agenda link into the QR element once and every badge shows the same code.

One code per attendee needs a value per person. Add a column to your list (a link or an ID for each row), import it, and connect that column to the QR element; in a design it appears as the {qr} field. You can also build a link from another column, for example https://events.example.com/people/{externalId}, so the spreadsheet only needs the ID.

Each code belongs to the person, not to a row position. When you sort by last name, filter to one group, or print just the people who changed since last time, every badge still carries its own code. A person with an empty QR cell gets a blank space, and the review list tells you who.

Most registration platforms can export an attendee ID or a personal link to CSV or Excel. The Excel and CSV importer reads that column as text, exactly as exported, so long IDs and leading zeros survive.

How big to print it

What matters is the size of each module once printed. Our editor warns with “QR too small” when a module would print below 0.25 mm, which for a short link means a code narrower than 8.3 mm overall. That is the floor, not a target. For comfortable scanning, a common rule of thumb is a code about one tenth of the scanning distance:

• Phone held 25 cm (10 in) away: about 2.5 cm (1.0 in) wide.
• Phone held 40 cm (16 in) away: about 4 cm (1.6 in) wide.
• Phone held 60 cm (24 in) away: about 6 cm (2.4 in) wide.

The 4-module quiet zone is part of that width: Name Badge Creator always draws it in the QR background color and never lets artwork into it. In practice, a 4 × 3 in insert has room for a code of about 2.5 cm (1 in) beside the name; a 4 × 6 in lanyard badge has room for more. If the code has to be small, shorten the content rather than squeezing the code.

Print dark modules on a light background. Inverted codes (light on dark) and low-contrast color pairs fail on some phone cameras. Matte stock scans better than glossy, which can reflect overhead lights straight into the camera.

Test before you print the batch

1. Scan the proof on screen with two different phones, ideally one iPhone and one Android, using the built-in camera app.
2. Check where it goes. Spot-check the first, a middle and the last badge: each should open the right person’s page or ID.
3. Print one page on the real stock, at 100% scale, and scan it from the distance people will actually stand.
4. Test glossy or colored stock in room lighting, from a couple of angles.
5. Check the links will last. A printed code never expires, but a link only works while the page exists. Keep event pages up for a while afterwards, or point the short link somewhere sensible.

Privacy and QR codes

A badge is worn in public and photographed, and anything in a QR code can be read by anyone with a phone. Treat the code like printed text.

• Don’t encode personal data by default. No phone numbers, home addresses or private emails unless each attendee chose to share them.
• Prefer a link to a page the attendee controls over a vCard: they can update or remove it after the event.
• Avoid guessable links to private data. If /attendee/1001 shows a profile, someone can try 1002. Use random IDs, or require a login.
• Check-in IDs should only mean something to your system. An opaque ID on its own reveals nothing.

On our side: your attendee list stays in your browser while you design. It is saved to your account, list included, only once you create a free account to download, so you can come back and reprint.

What Name Badge Creator does and doesn't do

So the code has to point at something that already exists: a page you publish, or an ID your check-in system understands. For full event setups with roles and lanyard layouts see conference badges, browse the templates with QR codes, or get ideas for the rest of the badge in name tag ideas. When you’re ready, open a QR badge in the editor or start from your list on the name badge creator.