Can you increase the number of fields in generating QR Codes in Indesign?

[trevorm31108027]

Can you increase the number of fields in generating QR Codes in Indesign? I need to add social media links to the business card layout fields.

[Mike Witherell]

One Quick-Response (QR code) is one hyperlink.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Er, only true in the narrowest sense that most QR code readers will only properly interpret one URL if that's the first data in the encoded string. You could export your whole bookmarks list to a QR code, but not usefully only because no common app would read it back correctly.

But for all the other data types like vCard/BizCard, you can have many fields, and usually as many duplicates of each field as you like. It's all up to code reader to parse them and pass them to a suitable app (like Contacts, Phone, Map, etc.)

As noted in my other reply, the idea that fields are fixed or limited comes entirely from the convenience entry forms of most generators, including IDs. The form entry mode is not required.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You can have almost any fields of any type in a QR code if you use the Plain Text mode of data entry. The various form-entry modes simply take field data and combine it into the overall text string that is then embedded into the graphical code. A QR code can hold a text string of approximately 3,000 characters, if you want to go bonkers.

That is, creating QR codes by entering data in defined form fields is just a convenience. You are not limited to those fields, in type or number.

Pretty much everything you need to know is here: http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/DPR/dpr_qrcodes.php. Happy to answer further questions.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Afterthought (aftercoffee) — you can add almost any number and type of fields to vCard codes, even following the standards and defined field names and formats. However, it's entirely dependent on the end reader as to whether those SM links are correctly passed to, for example, a Contacts record. You can have perfect fields with perfect data and generate a perfect QR code that reads and decodes perfectly... but if the QR applet on a particular device doesn't "recognize" a field, it will ignore it; if the Contacts app doesn't have a standard field for that contact type, it won't show it. This is not, as always first assumed, a fault of the QR code itself.

[Peter Spier]

Very nice tutorial, James.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Thanks. Now if I could just back it up, and close the loop, by being able to point users to a reliable, secure, easy to use diagnostic reader. The closest I can come is ZXing Decoder Online , which is online and thus not necessarily private/secure, and has some reported problems with newer gen codes. (It also doesn't report the error correction level, which would be nice.) The app/site is no longer being updated, either.

I hope, some sunny day, to hook up with a decent app coder to create a standalone QR code analyzer; all of the key libraries are readily available but my programming skills are... dusty.