What is a QR code?

Where and how are QR codes used? What is better: dynamic or static codes?

The term “QR code” is the short form for “Quick Response Code.” To keep it simple, they are “square bar codes” that were first developed and used in Japan for the Automotive Industry. Used to transfer information from the user to a smartphone, they can store a great deal of information such as calendar events, phone numbers, text messages, product details and filed email messages just to mention a few. They function like advanced and machine-readable UPC barcodes and can be used on product packaging, business windows, billboards, signboards, business cards and advertisements and also to track products and identify items.

To read a QR code, you must have a QR-code reader app such as “QR droid” for Android phones, “RedLaser” for iOS and “QR code Scanner Pro” for Blackberry on your tablet or smartphone. Launch the QR app and the camera will be activated automatically. Line up the QR code with the camera and hold your device steadily until the QR app beeps, showing all the information stored by the code. Some apps will also activate your web browsers and redirect you to a designated link containing the information stored in the code.

Where and how are QR codes used?

There are many ways to use QR codes, from spreading information about yourself to marketing solutions for your business. Below are a few ways in which QR codes can be used:

Business cards / Advertising materials

You can print QR codes on your business cards, prospectus and brochures so that they can direct your contact details to the address book of a smartphone or show a webpage with a detailed description of your business. They can be printed on anything and everywhere, from t-shirts for self-branding to billboards and aircraft.

Event tickets

If you are an event planner, add a QR code to event tickets that link to an RSVP page (French, “répondez s'il vous plaît”) and GPS coordinates of this event, so that a potential visitor could confirm his participation and mark the place on his GPS navigation app on his smartphone.

Product packaging / Product tracking / Customer reviews, quite in real time

You can add QR codes to your final product packaging to link customers to a web page about your business and products. The link can include an explanation of the product and its benefits, user manuals, customer service contacts and general company information among other details.

Types of QR Codes

There are two main types of QR codes: dynamic and static.

Dynamic codes, also referred to as “live QR codes”

Once created, their main destination link can be edited without interfering with the code. When scanned, the dynamic code redirects you to a server, where specific instructions have been stored in a database and programmed to interact specifically with that scan. Dynamic codes are convenient because they are created and applied once, and you can change as the information displayed when it is scanned as the link (domain, web) which display the information.

Static Codes

Unlike dynamic codes, static QR codes either store the information directly in a text form or lead to web pages without redirecting through secondary links. This means that the information or link cannot be changed or edited (you’ll have to create a new static code every time). Static codes are ideal for people who want codes that contain their permanent information (e.g., information about their date of birth and blood type).

What is better: dynamic or static codes?

Static codes consist of directly useful information. This means that you will not be able to track and manage information in these codes. These codes can be very inconvenient because if necessary you cannot change the displayed information without reprint of all previously printed materials.

Dynamic codes consist of links to specialized web servers that store information about what information to display now or on what web link it is necessary to redirect. This means that you can track that dynamic code (collect statistical information), and a destination web link can be changed or edited without interfering with the structure of the code. This makes dynamic codes universal in the sense that you will not have to reprint previously printed materials. All you need to do is to change the destination link, with static codes that option is not available. The fact that you can control the information displayed by dynamic codes even after they are printed, speaks in favor of the choice of dynamic codes in comparison to static if it will be difficult to replace them after application (e.g., large number of copies printed, physically impossible to get access to the code).

As it may be, the static codes are more widely available in the free segment because they do not impose any technological requirements while dynamic codes make high demands to the servers through which they are processed. Therefore, the websites that offer free QR codes usually offer only static QR codes for free and dynamic QR codes for a fee.