Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>QR Business Cards and Moo.com</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/06/qr-business-cards-and-moo-com/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/06/qr-bu</span><span class="invisible">siness-cards-and-moo-com/</span></a></p><p></p><blockquote><p><a href="http://uk.moo.com/ideas/better-connections-with-qr-codes.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">An edited version of this paid-for post appeared at Moo.com on the 7th of June</a></p></blockquote><p>QR codes are <em>awesome</em>! I mean, you may think your <a href="http://moo.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">moo mini-cards</a> are pretty funky - but they're <em>nothing</em> without a QR code.</p><p>Why do you hand your card over to someone? You want the recipient to plug your contact details into their address book, right? So you give them a bit of card and then you expect them to tap away on their phone, like a primitive ape, until they've saved your number. And hope they've saved it correctly.</p><p>That's just so.... <em>analogue</em>... Isn't there a better way of doing things?</p><p>Yes. Yes there is. QR Codes are here and they are going to <strong>ROCK YOUR WORLD</strong>!</p><p><strong>Introducing QR Codes</strong></p><p>QR Codes are two dimensional barcodes which can quickly and easily be scanned by most camera phones. They're free to create, easy to use, and they look like this.Go take a look in your phone's app store - you'll find several free readers. If you can't, point your phone to <a href="http://GetReader.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">GetReader.com</a> to see what's available for your device.</p><p>QR Codes can contain many different types of data - URL, phone number, SMS, and vCard. I'm going to show you how you can integrate these into your Moo Cards.</p><p><strong>URL</strong></p><p>With a QR code on your Moo Card, you can point people straight to your blog.To your .tel website.Or any other site you like. Perhaps to search Twitter for your hashtag?</p><p><strong>Phone Number</strong></p><p>Scanning in this code will prompt your phone to give me a call. Why not leave me a message?</p><p><strong>SMS</strong></p><p>Want someone to scan your card and send you a message? Dead easy.</p><p><strong>vCard</strong></p><p>Scan this code and my address will appear in your phonebook as if by <em>magic</em>One thing to note is that these QR codes are rather large - it's probably best to print them on full size cards.</p><p><strong>Putting It All Together</strong></p><p>Here are some of my cards. I've used free or Creative-Commons images of phones and placed the QR code inside them.</p><p><strong>Resources</strong></p><p>There are several free sites you can use to create your QR Codes.I recommend using <a href="http://www.qrstuff.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">QRstuff</a> to generate these codes.You can also use <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110721040646/http://code.google.com/apis/chart/image/docs/gallery/qr_codes.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Google Charts for QR Codes</a> if you want dynamic, highly customised codes.Finally, if you want to generate QR codes on your own site, there are several free resources. I use Swetake's <a href="https://www.swetake.com/qrcode/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">QRCode v0.50</a>.</p><p><strong>Final Tips</strong></p><p>Here are some tips to make sure you get the most out of your QR codes.</p><ul><li>Use black ink on a white background to ensure the code is readable.</li><li>Ensure there is some whitespace around the code.</li><li>If you resize the QR codes, don't use any interpolation.</li><li>QR Codes can have variable error-correction. Unless your codes are likely to get dirty, you can set this to "low".</li><li>If you're pointing people to a URL, make sure it's mobile friendly.</li><li>Make sure your phone numbers are in International Format (+44 for the UK).</li><li>Be creative! QR Codes are appearing on everything from <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/04/ubiquitous-qr-codes/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">advertising posters to urban graffiti</a> - make sure yours stand out.</li></ul><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/business-cards/" target="_blank">#businessCards</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/howto/" target="_blank">#HowTo</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/moo/" target="_blank">#moo</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/moo-cards/" target="_blank">#mooCards</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/moo-com/" target="_blank">#mooCom</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/qr/" target="_blank">#qr</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/qr-codes/" target="_blank">#QRCodes</a></p>