What is a vCard QR code?
A vCard QR code encodes your contact information - name, phone, email, company, website, and address - in a standardised format (vCard 3.0) that phone cameras recognise. When someone scans it, their phone offers to add the contact directly to their address book, pre-filled with your details.
This is the most practical upgrade you can make to a business card. Instead of someone having to type your email or copy your phone number, one scan adds everything.
What to include
Be selective. The vCard format supports many fields, but fewer fields means a smaller QR code with larger, easier-to-scan modules.
Include:
- Full name
- Phone number (in international format: +27 82 000 0000)
- Email address
- Company name and job title (if relevant)
- Website URL
Think twice about including:
- Physical address - if it is relevant (a clinic, a studio, a showroom), include it. For most professionals, a street address on a business card is less useful than a website.
- Multiple phone numbers - pick the one you actually answer.
- Social media handles - these change, and a URL to your LinkedIn or Instagram profile is more useful and more stable.
Avoid:
- Anything that may change in the next 6–12 months - changed numbers and emails create useless contacts that people save and never clean up.
Generating the code
Use the vCard QR code generator on this site. Fill in the fields that are relevant to you and leave the rest blank. The tool encodes only the fields you fill in.
Download the code as SVG for use in a design tool, or as PNG if you need a raster image.
Error correction for business cards
For business card use, set error correction to M (medium). This provides a reasonable balance of resilience (15% recovery) without adding excessive module density. You do not typically need H for a clean, printed business card.
If you intend to place a small logo or monogram in the centre of the code, use H instead.
Sizing for a business card
A standard business card is 85 mm × 55 mm. A QR code on the back of a business card is typically scanned at 15–25 cm distance. At 20 cm, the minimum QR code width is 20 mm. A 25–30 mm code leaves a good margin of safety and leaves room for your other contact details in text alongside it.
Do not go smaller than 20 mm on a business card. Below that, older phone cameras and QR apps may struggle to lock on, especially in variable lighting at a networking event.
Phone number format
Always use international format for phone numbers in a vCard: +27 82 000 0000 (not 082 000 0000). This ensures the number is dialable from any country. The + prefix is the international dialling code indicator - it works worldwide.
For UK numbers: +44 7700 000000. For US numbers: +1 555 000 0000.
Testing before printing
Scan the generated QR code with your own phone before printing. Confirm that:
- The contact card that appears has the correct name
- The phone number is in the correct format and dials correctly
- The email address is correct
- Any website URL opens the correct page
Also test on a second phone model if possible - iOS and Android handle vCard imports slightly differently, and field names can render differently in each address book.
A note on vCard versus URL
An alternative approach is to generate a URL QR code that links to a digital business card page or a LinkedIn profile. This gives you the ability to update your contact details without reprinting - change the page content, and every printed QR code immediately points to the new version.
The tradeoff is that it requires a working internet connection to scan, whereas a vCard QR code works offline and imports directly to the address book. For most networking use cases, the URL approach has become more common because of the update flexibility. For a contact you want to be sure is saved even in a venue with poor signal, vCard is the more reliable choice.