Minifigure showing frustration while putting together a QR Code puzzle

Share a Website Address Using a QR Code

  • Adam Douglas

No matter what we seem to share there can be issues either in communication or what was shared is recorded with errors. Sharing a website address is no different, however these issues can be resolved by creating a QR Code (quick response code). Think of the QR Code as specialized bar code one sees in a grocery store, only difference here is the bar code when scanned will send the user to a website.

The following steps were done using a Linux terminal that generates a QR Code to share my website address. A graphical interface maybe used on Linux called QtQR (Arch Linux package).

Environment

The following was used to test these instructions.

  • Arch Linux x86_64
  • Pacman v6.0.1
  • qrencode v4.1.1
  • ZBar v0.23.1

Install Packages

Arch Linux

# pacman -Syu qrencode zbar

Debian

# apt install qrencode zbar-tools

Generate QR Code Terminal Output

$ qrencode -s 6 -l H -o - -t utf8 "https://www.adamsdesk.com/"
-s    Specify the size of the dot (pixel). (default=3)
-l    Specify error correction level from L (lowest) to H (highest). (default=L)
-o    Write image to FILENAME. If '-' is specified, the result will be output to standard output.
-t    Specify the type of the generated image. (default=PNG)
QR Code to share website address for Adamsdesk outputted to the terminal in UTF-8
An Example of a QR Code Sharing a Website Address (terminal output UTF-8)

Generate QR Code Output To File

$ qrencode -s 6 -l H -o "website-qrcode.png" "https://www.adamsdesk.com/"
-s    Specify the size of the dot (pixel). (default=3)
-l    Specify error correction level from L (lowest) to H (highest). (default=L)
-o    Write image to FILENAME. If '-' is specified, the result will be output to standard output.
QR Code to share website address for Adamsdesk
An Example of a QR Code Sharing a Website Address

Verify QR Code

By checking the contents of a QR Code one can verify that the QR Code has been generated as desired.

$ zbarimg website-qrcode.png
QR-Code:https://www.adamsdesk.com/
scanned 1 barcode symbols from 1 images in 0.03 seconds

	. EAN/UPC (EAN-13, EAN-8, EAN-2, EAN-5, UPC-A, UPC-E, ISBN-10, ISBN-13)
	. DataBar, DataBar Expanded
	. Code 128
	. Code 93
	. Code 39
	. Codabar
	. Interleaved 2 of 5
	. QR code
	. SQ code
  - is the barcode large enough in the image?
  - is the barcode mostly in focus?
  - is there sufficient contrast/illumination?
  - If the symbol is split in several barcodes, are they combined in one image?
  - Did you enable the barcode type?
    some EAN/UPC codes are disabled by default. To enable all, use:
    $ zbarimg -S*.enable <files>
    Please also notice that some variants take precedence over others.
    Due to that, if you want, for example, ISBN-10, you should do:
    $ zbarimg -Sisbn10.enable <files>

This is post 27 of 100, and is round 2 of the 100 Days To Offload challenge.

References
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