Why QR codes look the way they do, and can I colour them?

The codes on Home, on the Share & QR screen and on Links & QR are black on white. You can download them as a PNG picture or an SVG file, but there is no setting for their colour or their size.

Why they look this way

• Dark on white, with a white margin all round, is what every phone camera reads first time.
• Each code can still be read when a small part of it is smudged or covered.
• The eight letters and numbers at the end of the links you make leave out look-alikes, such as zero and capital O, or one and small L, so a code read off a printed card can be typed by hand. Your card's own link, made when you signed up, may contain them.

Where a code takes your colours

• A printed card: on Print Design's Freeform Canvas, a QR code you select has a Code colour and a Behind the code colour, and you can drag its corner to make it bigger or smaller. Keep it dark on a light square, or phones will not read it. See Adding text, pictures and shapes.
• Your video-call background draws its code in your card's brand colour when that colour is dark enough for a phone to read, and in dark ink when it is not. See Making a video-call background with your QR code.
• The Share & QR screen draws a small VC mark in the middle of its code, on the screen only.