QR Codes for Flyers
A flyer gets about three seconds. The code has to be findable in one of them, and it has to say what it does.
Tell people why
A bare black square is an instruction with no reason attached. The scan rate difference between a naked code and one with a line of text beside it is not subtle. Write the payoff: Scan for 20% off, Scan to book a table, Scan for the full programme. Not Scan me, which says nothing.
Where to put it
- Bottom right is where eyes finish on a page in left-to-right languages.
- Keep it out of the fold if the flyer folds. A crease through a code costs you scans.
- Do not overlap it with a photograph. If the background is busy, put the code in a solid white box with generous padding.
- Leave the quiet zone — four modules of blank space on all sides. Designers routinely crop it away to tighten a layout.
Size for a flyer
A flyer is held at reading distance, roughly 30 cm, so 3 cm is the working minimum. If the flyer will also be pinned to a noticeboard and read from a metre away, size for the metre: 10 cm.
Point it somewhere that matches
If the flyer advertises an event, the code should land on the event page — not the homepage with a menu to hunt through. Every extra tap between the scan and the thing you promised loses people.
Print one flyer and scan it before the run. Test in the light where it will actually be read: a dim bar, a bright street, a fluorescent corridor.