What a contact QR code actually contains
Not a link to a profile — the contact card itself, in a plain-text format called vCard that phones have understood for decades:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Lovelace;Ada;;;
FN:Ada Lovelace
ORG:Example GmbH
TITLE:Engineer
TEL;TYPE=CELL:+49 170 1234567
EMAIL:hello@example.com
URL:https://example.com
END:VCARDWhen a camera reads it, the phone recognises the BEGIN:VCARD header and offers to save the contact. No server, no app, no signal required.
Note the two name fields. N: is structured — surname, then first name — andFN: is the display name. Both need to be present, and FigQR builds them from what you type.
Density is the thing to watch
This is where contact codes differ from every other kind. A short URL is around 25 characters. A complete vCard is closer to 250. Ten times the data means a much denser grid, and dense codes fail at small print sizes long before they look wrong to the human eye.
The generator shows the version and a suggested minimum size as you type. In practice:
- Name, phone, email — comfortable, scans reliably from a business card.
- Plus company and title — still fine at normal card sizes.
- Every field filled — often version 10 or higher, which needs around 3 cm and gets unreliable on textured or matte card stock.
If the code looks busy, the fix is to remove a field rather than shrink the code. A website URL is usually the first thing to drop — people can find it from your name.
Why no photo field
vCard technically supports an embedded photo, and it is a trap. The image has to be base64-encoded into the text, which turns even a small compressed portrait into thousands of characters — generally beyond what a QR code can hold at all. In the rare cases where it fits, the result is so dense that phones cannot read it from print.
Every contact app pulls a photo from elsewhere anyway. It is not worth the code.
vCard or a link to your profile?
Both are reasonable, for different reasons.
- vCard — lands directly in the address book, works with no signal, requires no account on either side, and cannot break. Better on anything printed.
- A link — stays current when your details change, and can show a richer profile. Better when the relationship is ongoing rather than a single handshake.
There is a middle path: put your personal website in the URL field of the vCard. The contact details go straight into the phone, and the link stays useful even after your job title changes.
Printing it on a business card
Cards are the hardest surface for a QR code: small, often matte or textured, sometimes dark. Three things matter more here than anywhere else — send vector rather than a scaled PNG, keep the blank margin clear on all four sides, and stay dark-on-light, because inverted codes fail on many scanners.
The full version — sizing for 85×55 mm, where on the card it should sit, inks and stock to avoid — is on the business card QR code page.
Where else it works
Email signatures, conference badges, the back of a laptop, a slide at the end of a talk. Anywhere someone might want your details in the two seconds before they walk away — which is the real argument for a contact code over saying "I'll email you".