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bschaefer6
bschaefer6
Inspiring
October 31, 2022
Answered

QR code becomes distorted and unusable after exporting my file to PDF

  • October 31, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 8395 views

The QR code is clear and works in my InDesign file but becomes distorted and unusable when I export the document.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Shanpub

Hi @bschaefer6,

 

Where your using QR code if background color is black or dark color you will face issue to scan that code.

 

Make sure you have white border in barcode.

3 replies

S
ShanpubCorrect answer
Inspiring
October 31, 2022

Hi @bschaefer6,

 

Where your using QR code if background color is black or dark color you will face issue to scan that code.

 

Make sure you have white border in barcode.

    bschaefer6
    bschaefer6Author
    Inspiring
    October 31, 2022

    Placing the QR code inside a white square and switching its color to black works. What I ended up doing was bringing the white QR code into Illustrator and exporting it as a 300 res png with a transparent background and then placing that into InDesign which also worked and is the workaround I'll use to keep the look I wanted.

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    October 31, 2022

    Contrast is essential (which is why things such as black-on-red or even black on a lighter color often has degraded readability), and white-on-dark is sometimes difficult for some readers to pick up accurately.

     

    It does limit the graphic options if you want reliable reads. 😛

     

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 31, 2022

    Where does the QR code come from? Do you use InDesign's qr functionality, which is the best. Or do you import some other file?

    bschaefer6
    bschaefer6Author
    Inspiring
    October 31, 2022

    I'm using InDesign's QR code functionality.

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    October 31, 2022

    It's a raster graphic, so I'd guess that the problem is a combination of a too-fine QR code (too much data, very fine grid) and loss of resolution on export to PDF.

     

    You'll need to reduce the data to create a coarser code matrix, or export the PDF to a higher resolution.

     

    The major workaround would be to convert the QR code to a vector format (via Illustrator), or use another QR generating tool that will export to, say, EPS. That would help preserve the detail at lower resolution output, but not by much. If you need a lot of data and a low resolution/file size, I'm not sure there's a workable medium.

     

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