Putting a QR code on a business card so it actually scans
Size, contrast, placement and what the code should point at, plus the two mistakes that make a printed code fail in somebody hand.
Read it →NFC business cards carry a small chip: hold one against a phone and it opens a web address stored on the chip. They impress in the right room but fail in ordinary situations where a printed code works, so most people should start with a code.
What actually happens on a tap
The chip holds a short web address. A phone with near field communication reads it when the two are held together, usually near the top of the back of the phone, and offers to open that address. Nothing is installed and nothing is paired.
The address on the chip is the same kind of address a QR code carries, which is the key point: the destination is the same, only the delivery differs. If that address is a tracked link, both a chip and a code can be re pointed later without reprinting anything.
Where a tap wins
It is quicker in a quiet, well lit room. No camera to raise, no aiming.
It feels like a small event. At a dinner or a pitch, the tap is memorable.
It needs no clear space on the card. The chip is inside the card, so the design is uninterrupted.
Where a tap loses
Not every phone offers it. Support and behaviour differ by handset and by settings, and some phones need the screen unlocked or the feature turned on.
It needs the two objects touching. Across a table, at a stall, on a video call, through a shop window, a tap is impossible and a code is fine.
It cannot be shown on a screen. A code can be held up on your own phone, printed on a poster, put in an email signature, dropped into a slide or set as a video call background. A chip does one thing in one place.
It costs per card. A chip card costs several times a paper card, which changes how freely you hand them out. People stop giving them away, which defeats the object.
It cannot be printed at home. You cannot make more on a Sunday evening before a Monday event.
Our print shop makes two chip cards as well as paper ones, and these trade offs apply to ours too, so weigh them before you order. What matters most is the half both methods share: the destination.
The thing both need: a link you control
Whether the address travels in a chip or in a printed code, the mistake is pointing it at something fixed.
Point it at a tracked link instead. It is a short address of ours that sends somebody to your card and records the visit. You can write a chip once and print a code once, then change where either one lands from your own screen. Change jobs and every card already in the world keeps working.
You also get to tell your sources apart, because each place you hand something out gets its own link: a printed batch, an event, a signature, a profile. The links and codes tab covers making them and reading the counts.
After the tap
A tap is a good first impression and a poor memory: the page opens, the phone goes back in a pocket, and a week later nobody recalls your name. What matters is whether they keep the card. Someone who saves it can get card notifications from you afterwards, and someone who adds it to Apple Wallet holds a pass that can raise a location notification when they are near a place you chose, such as your stand at next month's trade fair. Pro is $0.99 a month; location alerts are an add-on on top of it.
A sensible progression
- Start with a printed card and a code on the back. It costs nothing beyond the printing and works everywhere, including on a screen.
- Add the email signature and a call background. Both carry the same tracked code into places a physical card cannot reach.
- Buy a few chip cards later if your trade rewards the gesture. Carry two or three for the meetings where it lands, and keep paper for everyone else. If you are unsure whether yours is one of them, the consultants' page and the event planners' page show what the card behind the tap carries in those jobs.
The NFC business card page sets out the whole comparison, and the QR code page covers the printed half in detail. Whichever way you hand it over, the card behind it is where the value sits, so make your free card before you order either.
Questions people ask
Do NFC cards work on every phone?
No. Support depends on the handset and on how it is configured, and some phones need to be unlocked first. A printed code works on any phone with a camera, which in practice is all of them.
Can one card have both a chip and a code?
Yes, and that is the safest arrangement: the chip for the people whose phones take it, the code for everyone else. Point both at the same tracked link.
Do you sell NFC cards?
Yes. The print shop makes two NFC cards, Frosted Transparent Plastic with NFC Chip and Anodized Black Matte Aluminum NFC, in packs of 25, 50 or 100, with your card's address written on every chip. If you buy chip cards elsewhere, write your tracked link onto them and everything on this page still applies.
Is a tap more secure than a code?
Neither is secret. Both carry a web address that anybody can read, which is exactly what you want from a card. What matters is that the address belongs to you, so you can change where it goes. There is more in our guide to digital cards.