QR Mason.me

About The workshop

About QR Mason

A free workshop for making QR codes that look the part and still scan, plus the everyday helpers around them: format builders, a bulk generator, a careful scanner and barcodes.

What it does

The styled QR code generator lets you pick module and corner shapes, colours, gradients and a centre logo, checks contrast and margins as you go, and test-scans every change. The builders write the exact formats phones expect for Wi-Fi, contacts, email, text messages and calendar events. The bulk generator turns a list or CSV into a ZIP, the scanner explains a code before you act on it, and the barcode generator covers Code 128, EAN-13, UPC-A, Code 39 and ITF-14.

How it works

  • Everything runs in your browser. The pages are static files. Codes are generated, drawn, exported and decoded by JavaScript on your device; there is no server-side processing and nothing you enter is uploaded.
  • Static codes only. The content is stored in the code itself. There is no redirect service, no scan tracking and nothing that can expire.
  • Open-source building blocks. QR matrices come from qrcode-generator (MIT); the shapes, SVG and PNG output are drawn by QR Mason’s own code. Scanning uses jsQR and the QR reader from ZXing (both Apache-2.0). Barcodes are encoded from the published symbology rules, and ZIP files are built with fflate (MIT).
  • Tested round trips. The code generator is checked by decoding its own output in every module and corner style, with and without a logo, and the barcode encoders by reading them back with ZXing.

Limits worth knowing

  • A test scan in the browser is a good sign, not a guarantee. Print a proof and scan it with a few different phones before a large run.
  • Static codes cannot be edited after printing. To change the destination, make a new code or point it at a page you control.
  • Barcode numbers for retail products must come from GS1; QR Mason draws barcodes but does not issue numbers.

QR Mason is free, needs no account and shows no ads. Page views are counted with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which works without cookies or cross-site tracking and never receives what you type, paste or drop into the tools. The privacy page has the details.