How to Turn a Link Into a QR Code (Step by Step)

Turning a link into a QR code takes about a minute. Turning it into a code that still scans on a creased flyer, under a café's warm lighting, from the other side of a counter, takes a few decisions, and most of them happen before you open a generator.

This is the full sequence on ShareCut's free QR generator, in the order the decisions should be made: the one choice to settle first, the steps themselves, then the details that decide whether a printed code works in the real world.

Decide first: static or dynamic

Everything else follows from this choice, and it cannot be undone once the code is printed.

Static encodes your URL directly into the pattern. Nothing sits between the phone and your website. It works as long as that URL works, but it cannot count scans, and if the URL changes you reprint.
Dynamic encodes a ShareCut short link, which redirects to your URL. Every scan is counted, and the printed code never has to change: what changes is what sits behind the short link. On ShareCut that happens through the REST API on the Business plan, or by pointing the code at a page you can edit anytime, such as a TreeLink page or a digital menu.

A simple rule: if the code will be printed in quantity or stay up for months, choose dynamic. If it is a one-off on a slide or a screen, static is fine. The longer comparison is in static vs dynamic QR codes: which one do you need.

Step by step: from a link to a printed QR code

Open the ShareCut QR generator. There is no sign-in gate on this page. Pick Dynamic or Static at the top.
Paste the final URL. Open it on your phone first and copy it from there. It should start with https://, load without a login and be the public version of the page, not a preview or an edit link.
If you chose static and the URL is long, shorten it first. Make a short link on the ShareCut shortener and paste that instead (the next section explains why). In dynamic mode you can skip this: the generator turns the URL into a short link for you.
Create the code. In dynamic mode the short link is saved in your browser, and you can log in later to claim it, see its scans and manage it.
Style it, conservatively. Choose a dot style and colour, but keep dark modules on a light background with strong contrast. A logo in the centre is a Pro feature; if you use one, keep it small.
Download the right format: PNG for screens, SVG or PDF for print (details below).
Test on two different phones before anything goes to the printer.
Print one proof at the final size, put it where it will hang, and scan it from where people will actually stand.

Why shortening the link first gives a cleaner code

A QR code is a grid of black and white squares called modules, and the grid grows with the data. Under ISO/IEC 18004, the QR code standard, the smallest version is 21 by 21 modules, each version adds four modules per side, and the largest, version 40, is 177 by 177.

Compare two payloads:

https://example.com/collections/autumn/wool-scarf-grey?utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=autumn
https://sharecut.site/ab12cd34

The first needs a noticeably bigger grid than the second. Printed at the same physical size, a bigger grid means smaller modules, and smaller modules are what fail first: on a cheap print run, on a phone with an older camera, at a distance, in poor light. Shortening the link is the cheapest way to make the same printed square easier to read. It also keeps your UTM tags out of the code itself: they live behind the short link, so you can still track the campaign.

Size and error correction for print

Error correction

ISO/IEC 18004 defines four error-correction levels: L, M, Q and H, which can recover roughly 7%, 15%, 25% and 30% of a damaged symbol. More correction means more redundancy, and more redundancy means more modules for the same link. That is the trade-off: a code that tolerates scuffs, folds or a logo in the middle is also a denser code.

To be clear about the tool: the generator at /p/qr/ does not offer an error-correction setting. The levers you control are the length of the payload (shorten it) and the size you print at.

Size

A widely used rule of thumb in print, not part of the standard, is to make the code about one tenth of the scanning distance wide: roughly 3 cm for a code read from 30 cm away, like a table card, and much larger for a poster read from across a room. Treat it as a starting point and let the proof decide.

Quiet zone

The standard also asks for a blank margin around the code, the quiet zone, four modules wide. Designers love to crop it to save space or run a border right up to the pattern. Leave it: it is how the scanner finds where the code starts.

Test on two phones, not one

Your own phone has scanned hundreds of codes and sits at the angle you always hold it. Borrow a second one, ideally a different system: an iPhone with the built-in Camera app and an Android phone with its camera or Google Lens. Then check:

Scan the printed proof, not the screen. A code that scans from a monitor can still fail on matt paper.
Scan from the real distance and angle, under the real light, including the glare from a laminated card.
Turn Wi-Fi off and scan on mobile data, the way a passer-by would.
Read where it lands. It is not enough that the phone recognises the code; the right page has to open, and load properly on a small screen.

Which file format to download

PNG for screens: slides, social posts, emails, a website. It is a pixel image, so do not enlarge it much for print.
SVG for designers. It is vector, so it scales to any size without blurring, and drops cleanly into Illustrator, Figma or Inkscape.
PDF for the print shop or for printing it yourself. It is also vector, and most printers accept it as is.

Two things to avoid whatever the format: stretching the code in one direction only, and re-saving it as a heavily compressed JPEG, whose artefacts blur the edges of the modules.

Mistakes that make a QR code fail after printing

A temporary or wrong URL. A staging link, a page that needs a login, a file-sharing link that asks for permission, a campaign page you will delete in a month. The code keeps sending people there long after you have forgotten it.
Too small. The most common failure, and the reason the proof step exists.
Low contrast. Light grey on white, pastel on pastel, or a code laid over a busy photo.
Inverted colours. Light modules on a dark background look stylish, but not every scanner reads them. Keep dark on light.
No quiet zone. Text or a frame pressed against the pattern.
Placed where there is no signal. A basement bar, an underground station, a field at a rural event. The code scans and then the page does not load. For guest Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi QR code works offline, because the phone never touches a server.
A code with no words around it. Say what the scan gives ("Today's menu", "Book a table") and print the short link next to it, so people without a working camera can type it. Short links for print and flyers covers which characters to avoid when a human has to type them.

What the generator will not do

A static code cannot be tracked or changed later. That is the price of having nothing in between.
It does not host files. For a PDF behind a code, host the PDF somewhere you control and point a short link at it.
It cannot rescue a code printed too small or in low contrast. Only a reprint does.
Scan counts are counts, not people. Bots and link-preview crawlers are counted separately from human scans, but one person scanning twice is still two scans.
On the free plan, the public pages of free links can show ads.

What it does guarantee: ShareCut links and codes have no expiry date, and if you cancel a paid plan every code you printed keeps resolving, free, indefinitely.

Make your first code now: open the QR generator, choose static or dynamic, paste your link and download a print-ready PDF. It is free, with no sign-in to make the code; log in only when you want to see the scans.