How to Make a QR Code With Your Logo (That Still Scans)
By ERAGO · Published · 9 min read
A plain black-and-white QR code does its job, but it doesn't say whose it is. On a café table, a coffee bag or a business card, it looks like every other square. A QR code with a logo fixes that in a minute, and it still scans if you follow a few rules.
Below: how to add a logo to a QR code in three steps, seven rules that keep it readable, and what we learned decoding 180 ERAGO QR codes in an internal test.
Make your logo QR code — free, no sign-up →
What you need before you start
The link (shorter is better)
A QR code stores its link as a grid of small squares called modules. The longer the link, the more modules, and the smaller each one prints. A short link like erago.site/yourbrand keeps the grid open: bigger modules, more room for the logo. More in rule 3.
A square logo file
Use a PNG with a transparent background, or an SVG. ERAGO crops the logo to a square, so a wide wordmark loses its edges. An icon or monogram works best; thin lines and small text disappear at QR size.
How to make a QR code with a logo in 3 steps
1. Paste your link and pick a style
Open ERAGO's free QR code generator with logo and paste your link into QR content. Then set the look:
- Preset: start from Ink, Paper, Steel, Forest or Night.
- Color and Background: your brand colors, dark code on a light background.
- Modules: square, rounded or dots.
- Corners: square, rounded or leaf, for the three large squares that help a scanner find the code.
2. Upload your logo
Add your square logo under Logo. ERAGO centers it, clears the modules behind it and adds a small pad in your background color.
The rest is automatic. The logo is sized to about a fifth of the code's width, and error correction is set to level H, the highest, which lets a scanner rebuild roughly 30% of the code's data. That's what leaves room for a logo. The size is fixed, so there's no slider to get wrong.
3. Download PNG or SVG
- PNG (1024 px): for screens, WhatsApp, Instagram and small prints.
- SVG: for print shops, packaging and banners. It's vector, so it stays sharp at any size.
No account is needed to download either file.
Make your logo QR code — free, no sign-up →
7 rules so your logo QR code still scans
Keep it dark on light
Scanners look for dark modules on a light background. Contrast matters more than the exact color: navy, deep green or espresso brown all work on white or cream, as in the Ink, Paper, Steel and Forest presets. Night flips it to light on dark. It looks great on screens, but some cameras struggle with inverted codes, including a new iPad in our print test, so print dark on light.
Don't make the logo the hero
The logo says whose code it is; it doesn't need to fill the frame. Every module it covers is data the scanner has to rebuild. ERAGO already caps it at about a fifth of the width, so your part is a simple square mark that stands out from the pad behind it.
Shorten long URLs first
In our test, a 110-character product URL with tracking tags produced a grid of 57 × 57 modules. A 23-character short link (https://erago.site/menu) produced 29 × 29. At the same print size, each module prints nearly twice as big: easier to read when small, with more room around the logo.
A free ERAGO account gives you up to 25 short links with your own slug on erago.site. One tip: once the code is printed, don't change the slug. The printed code only knows the old one.
Leave white space around it
Scanners need a clear border, the quiet zone, to see where the code begins. The studio adds 4 modules of border in your background color by default. Don't crop it, and keep the code away from photos, patterns and the edge of the page.
Print big enough
A general rule of thumb, not an official standard: print at least 2 × 2 cm, and expect a code to scan from about ten times its width. A 3 cm code on a table card reads from roughly 30 cm; a poster across the room needs to be much larger.
Go easy on dots and leaf corners for tiny prints
Dots and leaf corners look softer and scan fine at normal sizes. The risk is a tiny code with a long link: in our test, every code the main decoder missed at the smallest size used dots on the long URL. For small prints, choose square or rounded modules, or shorten the link.
Test on two phones before printing 500 copies
Test it the way customers will: one iPhone and one Android, built-in camera, real distance, real light. If you can, print one proof on the actual material; glossy finishes can bounce light into the camera. If either phone hesitates, simplify the style or go bigger.
We tested 180 ERAGO QR codes. Here's what we learned
Internal test, digital render. We generated 180 QR codes with the same engine behind our QR code generator with logo: 2 links (the 23-character short link and the 110-character URL) × 5 presets × 3 module styles × 3 corner styles, each with and without a logo. Each was rendered at three sizes and decoded with ZXing, a widely used open-source decoder.
| Render size (internal test, digital render) | Decoded by ZXing |
|---|---|
| 1024 px | 180 of 180 |
| 240 px | 180 of 180 |
| 120 px (stand-in for a very small print) | 170 of 180 |
- Short links held up. With the short link, every style passed every test on the ZXing decoder, with or without a logo, at all three sizes.
- Long URL plus dots is the weak spot. All 10 misses at 120 px combined the long URL with dots modules.
- Weaker decoders are pickier. OpenCV read none of the inverted Night codes and missed more dots and leaf styles. On a digital render of our print test sheet, pyzbar started to miss codes with a long URL, dots and a logo on a colored background; ZXing still read them. Older scanners can be just as fussy.
These are digital renders, not phone-camera photos, and they don't prove every phone will scan every code. That's what rule 7 is for.
Printed test (3 Oct): we printed 14 of these codes at 3 cm and 2 cm on a home inkjet printer and scanned them indoors with the built-in camera of an iPad and an Android phone. The Android phone read all 14. The iPad read every dark-on-light code but none of the three light-on-dark Night codes. The long-URL, dots and logo codes that tripped up pyzbar on the digital render scanned on both devices. At 2 cm everything still scanned, though the densest code (long URL, dots) took the iPad about 16 seconds.
PNG vs SVG: which one for print?
PNG at 1024 px covers screens, chat apps and small prints such as stickers and table cards. SVG is vector, so your custom QR code scales to a banner without going soft, and it's what most print shops prefer. One catch: a logo uploaded as a PNG stays a pixel image inside the SVG, so for large prints, upload a high-resolution or SVG logo.
Static QR vs a QR on a short link
Static QR. Made at /qr without an account, the code holds your full URL. Nothing sits in between, so it doesn't expire on our side and works as long as the page it points to is online. The trade-off: a new URL means a new code.
QR on a short link. The code holds an ERAGO short link, such as erago.site/yourbrand, which opens your page. You get a less dense code and a tidy address to print under it. And once it's printed, you can still change where it goes: update the destination in your ERAGO dashboard, on a free account, and the same printed code opens the new page. Keep the slug; change only the destination. The trade-off: the code works as long as that short link stays active on your account.
Want your own name in the address? Pro is $5/month, plus tax where applicable: short links on your own domain, like yourbrand.com/menu, plus clicks by device, country and source.
Put it on your own domain with Pro — $5/month.
Ideas: where small brands use logo QR codes
Table menus in cafés. Coffee bags and snack labels. A counter sticker that opens your Instagram or WhatsApp. Business cards, with the short link printed under the code. Or one code that leads to a bio page with all your links (see an example bio page); bio pages are part of Pro.
FAQ
Will adding a logo stop my QR code from scanning?
Not if the logo stays small and the contrast stays high. Error correction rebuilds the part the logo covers; ERAGO always uses level H, the highest, and keeps the logo at about a fifth of the code's width. Still, test on two phones before you print.
How big should the logo be?
Small and centered. ERAGO sets it automatically to about a fifth of the code's width, which leaves plenty of data for the scanner. Use a square icon or monogram: the studio crops logos to a square, so a wide wordmark would lose its edges.
Should I download PNG or SVG?
PNG (1024 px) for screens, WhatsApp, Instagram and small prints such as stickers. SVG for print shops, packaging and banners: it's vector and stays sharp at any size. For large prints, use a high-resolution logo, since a PNG logo stays a pixel image inside the SVG.
Is ERAGO's QR code generator free? Do I need an account?
Yes, it's free, and you can download PNG or SVG without an account. A free account adds up to 25 short links on erago.site with your own slug, plus two-factor sign-in. Pro, at $5/month plus tax where applicable, adds a custom domain, analytics, OG share cards, a bio page and unlimited links.
Will my QR code expire?
A code made at /qr without an account holds your link directly, so there's no expiry from our side; it works as long as the page it points to is online. A code that points to an ERAGO short link works as long as that link stays active.
Can I change where my QR code goes after printing?
Yes, if the code points to an ERAGO short link. Open the link in your dashboard and change its destination: this works on a free account, and the printed code opens the new page. Keep the slug as it is, because the printed code holds it; renaming the slug breaks codes already in print. A static code from /qr holds the URL itself, so it can't be changed.
Can I see how many people scanned it?
Not with a static code: it opens your page directly, with nothing in between to count. For a code that points to a short link, Pro ($5/month) shows clicks by device, country and source. The free plan doesn't include analytics.
What colors are safe for a QR code?
Dark on light, with strong contrast: black, navy, deep green or dark brown on white or cream, like the Ink, Paper, Steel and Forest presets. Inverted colors, like the Night preset, look good on screens, but some cameras struggle with them, including a new iPad in our print test, so print dark on light.
Make yours
A QR code with your logo should look like your brand and scan like a plain one. Keep the link short, the contrast high and the logo small, and test before you print. If the page changes later, a short link lets the same printed code follow it. More questions? We've answered the common ones.