QR codes for PDFs
Print the code. Update the PDF.
A PDF code opens your file on a phone in one scan, ready to read or save. When the document changes, upload the new version and every printed code opens it.
Next: style it, create your account, then choose a plan.
What to put in it
- A brochure, price list or catalog. Anything people would rather read on their phone than carry away.
- Instructions and manuals. Setup guides, care instructions and safety sheets, next to the thing they explain.
- Checked before it opens. We check every file, and the links inside it, before anyone can open it.
Each PDF can be up to 20 MB. More in PDF and contact-card codes.
Why a dynamic code
A document changes more often than the paper it’s printed on. Upload the new PDF in Your codes and every copy already printed opens it once it passes our checks. The code keeps the last version too, so you can undo the change.
- Changes
- Change what it opens in Your codes. We check a new address or file first, usually within seconds, then every printed copy follows. You can undo a change.
- Scans
- Counted by day, device and city.
- If you stop
- Printed codes work to the end of what you paid for, and we email you 7 days before they would stop.
- Short link
- Never given to anyone else, so a printed code never leads to someone else’s page.
Sizing and printing
- Smallest size
- At least 1 inch wide in the style above. A logo or finer dots can make it bigger, so the designer and the download page work it out for your design.
- Distance
- People can scan a code from up to about 10 times its width away.
- Contrast
- Keep it dark on a light background. The designer blocks colors too light to scan in print, even when they look fine on screen, and light codes on dark backgrounds.
- White margin
- Every file comes with a white margin as wide as 4 of the code’s dots. Keep at least 2 of them clear: don’t crop into it or print over it.
- Say what opens
- Put words on the frame, such as “Scan for the price list”, so people know what they’ll get before they scan.
- Read on a phone
- People open the file on a small screen, so large type and a single column read best.
- Test print
- Before you print a lot, print one copy at the real size and scan it with more than one phone, from as far away as people will be.
More in printing and sizing.
Every scan counted. No one tracked.
Each dynamic code gets its own report: when it was scanned, on what, and roughly where. See which flyer, table card or window is working. We count scans, not people.
01 · Scan
Someone points their phone at your printed code.
02 · kifu.to
Sends them on at once, then notes the hour, the kind of device and a rough location.
03 · Your page
Opens straight away. Counting never slows a scan down.
04 · In your report within about two minutes
1,284 scans
Devices
- Phone 1,207 94%
- Tablet 51 4%
- Computer 26 2%
Top cities
- Austin, TX, United States 784 61%
- Round Rock, TX, United States 154 12%
- San Marcos, TX, United States 90 7%
Counted
- The hour
- Phone, tablet or computer, and its operating system
- Country, state and city, estimated
Never kept
- The IP address
- Cookies or device IDs
- Anything that says who scanned
Counts are kept for 2 years, then deleted. Wi-Fi and text codes aren’t counted: phones read them without asking us.
Next: style it, create your account, then choose a plan.