What is a QR code?

More and more often, we can see such codes on our streets: in advertising posters and booklets, on business cards or on the packaging of a purchased item. If you have not yet encountered such codes, then this means that you were simply not very attentive. Look around and I am sure that the QR code will surely catch your eye.

What is this code and how does it work?

The abbreviation QR is derived from the English words Quick Response, which translates as “quick response” or “quick response.” A QR code is a two-dimensional bar code that can contain a sufficiently large amount of encoded information (for example, up to 7089 numbers or 4296 letters and numbers).

Anyone can create their own QR-code by placing in it any information about themselves, be it the website address, phone number, e-mail or any other text. Why do you ask?

The main advantage of a QR code is its simple and fast recognition by the simplest scanning equipment, which allows you to transfer the necessary information to the recipient in just a few seconds without entering text manually and without errors.

Any owner of a mobile phone with a camera and the ability to install a scanning program (such phones are usually called smartphones) can scan the QR code. It should be noted that many modern phones are already available with the built-in program scanner. If there is no firmware, you can always download it to your phone and install it yourself.

Having launched such a program in the phone for scanning (for example, the QR Barcode Scanner program), we simply point the phone’s camera at the code and after a couple of seconds we get its decryption.

For example, having scanned such a code, you can immediately go to the site (if the code contains the site address), enter the phone number in the address book or call the subscriber (if the code contains the phone number), send a letter (if the code contains an e-mail) or just read and save the text in the phone (if the code contains plain text).

Here’s how it looks on the phone’s screen (after scanning the code from the page you are currently reading):

As you can see, in this code the address of the site “To Teapots-No!” Is encrypted, so immediately after scanning you can see our address and go to the website (directly in the phone) by clicking the Open Browser button.

If you are engaged in trade, you have your own website or you just want to put a QR code on your business card with information about yourself, then you may also want to create your own code. To make it easier, you just need to go to one of the sites to generate a QR code, enter your data (which you want to put in the code) and click the Create code button. In just a second, your code will be ready. Here are a couple of addresses of such sites:

Try it, it’s really easy! If we need to quickly transfer the address of the site you like from computer to phone, then the easiest way to do this is using a special extension for our browser. One of these extensions is called QR Code Generator:

Having installed this extension in the browser, we can quickly create a QR code of any site and transfer this address to your smartphone without typing it manually (this is especially convenient if the address is long). Simply open the desired page in the computer’s browser and click the icon for this extension:

And after a few seconds, we scan the resulting code as described above and open the site on the phone:

As you can see, everything is pretty simple! Now you know what a QR code is and you can also use it in your life, at work or on vacation.