Dynamic QR Codes in Adobe InDesign

Report · Oct 07, 2021

Is it possible to create dynamic QR codes in InDesign? I realize that static QR codes can be generated, but what about dynamic QR codes? I would like to create codes that will be printed on products that link to videos and other educational information that may change over time so the codes need to be dynamic but still link to data that may change. Can this be done? How can this be done? If it isn't currently possible please MAKE THIS POSSIBLE ADOBE! 🙂

Report · Nov 28, 2022

I'm reading marketing drivel and word salad. Unless I missed something, all of this wondrous magic takes place in the back end, with nothing more than existing link- and click-tracking methods that happen to start with a QR code.

In any case, I can't see any way to do a 'dynamic QR code' on anything but a web site that pulls the code from a generating service of some kind. It does not seem to be — and to me cannot be — anything one-time document creation can manage. And the difference between changing the QR code and re-publishing the document and a "dynamic" process seems to be entirely semantic.

If there is anything to "dynamic QR codes" except some ability to have the code on a web page changed by a back-end process, please point to it. The codes themselves are static no matter how many times you update them, and again, every variation of this I am familiar with simply embeds tracking information to the nominal link and does all the fandancing somewhere in the back end. The QR code content is... just a link.

In any case, no, InDesign doesn't do any of this except that you can update a QR code and republish the document. If there is any tool, service or process that does not depend on subscribing to a provider like the one in your link — that is, a tool one designer uses and that requires nothing 'as a Service' — please elucidate further.

Report · Feb 26, 2023

Yes, they are certainly Dynamic QR Codes. Once set up, if you need to point the same QR Code to another URL, you simply click Object > Edit QR Code and change the URL to you new location. I'm using it for a MS Form input for safety inspections and other uses. When we create a new Safety Inspection form, I simply edit the URL to the new form. That allows me to test the new form, while the organization continues to use the old form. When I am ready to make the switch, I simply edit the URL in Adobe InDesign.

Report · Feb 27, 2023

That's not the — usual — defintion of "dynamic QR code."

Being able to edit something to a different form is "dynamic" only in perhaps dictionary terms. The usual implication, from services that inherently control, track and charge for forwarding from the actual encoded URL, is often that the code itself (which is by now printed or distributed in many ways) is "dynamic" and magically changes. It does not.

Report · May 10, 2023

Nobody is talking about changing the visual appearance of a printed QR code. What five users told you now is, that we want a solution for example where our InDesign QR Codes are listed on a cloud based website like "qrcodes.adobe.com" where we have the option to change the destinations of our generated QR Codes so that the printed QR Code can be editable. Just like you can change the destination of your subdomain on the website of your provider.

Report · May 10, 2023

The solution is to use a 301 redirect. You don't need Adobe to do this.

Report · May 10, 2023

I appologize, but I was incorrect about the InDesign QR codes being dynamic. When I tested changing the URL, the URL must have been very close to the original, so the pixels in the QR code didn't change enough for me to note the change. They in fact do change and thus they are NOT dynamic. I would certainly like Adobe to enable this function, at least as an option. I would like to be able to edit the URL web link of the QR Code, without changing the layout of the QR Code pixels, so that already published QR Codes direct the user to the new URL location. I believe Adobe would have to host the URL address of the QR Codes and redirect the user to whatever URL code they enter.

Report · May 10, 2023

As I've been saying, there are plenty of people already hosting redirection URLs which you can manage - not just change the redirection, but get statistics on how many scans. Why do Adobe need to enter this market, it is only likely to lead to confusion. (And people ending up talking about vinyl overlays...)

Report · May 10, 2023

That is not going to happen. You need to learn about 301 redirects and if you've made the mistake of sending a QR Code to the wrong site altogether, that's on you.

Report · Apr 18, 2024

Unfortunately, I was mistaken in my original message. The URL's were so similar that I did not detect the the slight difference in the QR Code when I ran my tests. I appologize for misleading anyone.

Report · Aug 30, 2024

Hi Carlos17, I tried to change the type from "Business card" to "URL", and the QR code changed. Do you think this only works if you since the very beginning chose "URL" and only change the link? Or is there a way to change also the type and keep the same QR code?

Report · Aug 30, 2024

TDE, sorry, but see my last response: Unfortunately, I was mistaken in my original message. The URL's were so similar that I did not detect the the slight difference in the QR Code when I ran my tests. I appologize for misleading anyone.

Report · May 10, 2023

The link not the QR needs to be dynamic. What you are talking about is some sort of redirection service you are letting the QR code link to. A QR can only link to a single address. Where the address takes you from there is totally up to you.

Report · May 10, 2023

Just as a postscript to this discussion (I hope), I find it to be a monument to the power of marketing-speak. Part of it is how many are misinformed about the nature of QR codes and what constitutes 'dynamic' behavior, driven by all the hand-waving, misleading misdirection of both the free and pay code services. But what strikes me more is how many resist the simple, obvious point that a printed code cannot be changed by some mystical, magical, secret marketing trick.

Marketing has always been a field neck-deep in bovine end product, but when you mix in 'tech of the week' and the usual horde of sharpsters who make their money mis/representing it, it reaches ludicrous levels. And their marketing gas becomes online reality. 😛