QR codes for events and posters
QR codes for events and posters
- Open source
- No sign-up
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- Free API + MCP
- In the MCP registry
One code, three different posters, no reprint
Think about the life of a single poster design, not a single scan. Week one it needs to sell tickets. Week six, if the show sells out, the honest thing to show a scanner is “sold out”, ideally with a link to the waiting list or the next date, not a dead ticket page. Week ten, once the run is over, the same poster is still on the same wall, and a scan should land somewhere useful: next year's date, a highlights reel, a mailing-list sign-up. A static code cannot do any of that after it is printed. A dynamic code can, and the only work involved is opening the dashboard and changing where it points.
This is a manual switch today, not a calendar
Be clear-eyed about what exists: you repoint a code yourself, at the moment you choose, and it takes effect in seconds for every printed copy at once. There is no scheduled or automatic rotation that flips the destination for you at a preset time or on a preset date. If that matters for your workflow, plan to make the change yourself when the moment arrives, the same way you would post the “sold out” announcement anywhere else.
Split by venue, not just by tour
A poster printed for a five-date tour is usually treated as one design and one code. Treat it as one design and several codes instead, one per venue or one per print run, and a question that is normally guesswork becomes answerable: which poster actually pulled. The Brighton run and the Manchester run can point at the same ticket page today and still be told apart tomorrow, because each has its own scan count. A promoter who has always suspected the Leeds posters underperform can finally see it, rather than argue about it.
| One code for the whole tour | One code per venue | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup effort | Lowest, one code to place everywhere | One extra row per venue in a bulk upload |
| Which run pulled | Unanswerable, scans are all mixed together | Answerable, each venue has its own count |
| Repointing for sold out | Repoints every venue at once, even the ones still selling | Repoints only the venue that actually sold out |
| Best for | A single one-off show | A tour, a festival with several sites, or a repeat series |
The bulk generator makes this a paste, not a chore. Paste one destination and one label per venue, keep the label as the run name so the printed files come out already named, and generate the whole set together. See the event poster code page for the plain single-code version of this if a tour is overkill for what you are running: most events are one poster, one code, and that is the right amount of complexity for a one-off.
Size for the distance, and for the dark
A poster held in the hand and a poster read from across a street are not the same design problem. The rule that actually holds is that the code needs to be roughly a tenth of the distance it will be scanned from: a flyer handed to someone needs only a small code, a lamppost poster read from a few metres away needs one many times larger. Get this wrong and the code that looked fine on screen is unreadable stapled to a telegraph pole. The full working is in the print size guide; the table below is the version specific to where an event poster actually lives.
| Where it hangs | Typical scan distance | Minimum code size | Contrast note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flyer, handed out | 0.3 m | 3 cm | Indoor light is usually fine; keep it high-contrast anyway |
| Noticeboard, indoor | 1 m | 10 cm | Avoid glossy laminate under strip lighting, it glares |
| Lamppost or hoarding, outdoor | 2 to 3 m | 20 to 30 cm | Matt stock, dark code on light background, no photo behind it |
| Stage banner or backdrop | 3 m+ | 30 cm+ | Venue lighting is often dim and coloured; maximise contrast, do not rely on a logo insert |
Outdoor and low light punish a marginal code
A code that scans fine on a bright desk under office lighting can fail on a rain-streaked lamppost at dusk. For anything going outdoors or into a dim venue, use a matt finish over gloss, keep the code plain black on white or another strongly contrasting pair rather than a brand colour that reads as mid-grey in poor light, and leave a generous clear border. If you are not sure it will hold up, print a proof and scan it in the actual conditions before the run goes to press.
What this actually costs
Static codes are free, unlimited and never expire, and that is genuinely enough for a lot of events: if the ticket link is settled and will not change, a static code on the poster is the right, permanent answer and there is no reason to pay for anything. Dynamic codes are the ones that let you repoint after printing, and the first three are free too. A promoter running a single poster for a single show, who wants the option to switch it to “sold out” without a reprint, needs exactly one dynamic code, and that is inside the free allowance. Plenty of organisers will use this and never see a paywall, and that is fine; it is not a funnel, it is the product working as intended.
Where it turns into a Pro decision is scale: a five-venue tour run as five separate codes uses the whole free allowance on one tour, and a promoter running several tours a year, or a venue that wants a distinct code per event on its own listings page, will be over three dynamic codes within a season. That is a genuine Pro (£9/month) decision at that point, not a trick to get there. Decide it deliberately, either at the planning stage when you count how many venues are on the tour, or the first time the dashboard tells you the free allowance is used up.
From spreadsheet to printed poster
Running a multi-venue poster set end to end:
- 1
List the venues and their ticket links
One row per venue: the destination it should open today, and a label you will recognise on the printed file, like "Brighton run".
- 2
Generate the set as dynamic codes
Paste the list into the bulk generator and choose dynamic, so each venue gets its own repointable code and its own scan count.
- 3
Size and export for where each poster hangs
A lamppost run and a handbill run from the same design need different code sizes; export each at the size the placement needs, not one size for everything.
- 4
Repoint the moment reality changes
A venue sells out, its code gets repointed to the waiting list or the next date, in the dashboard, without touching the other venues or reprinting anything.
- 5
Check which run pulled
After the tour, compare scan counts by venue to see which poster placement actually worked, rather than guessing for next time.
The mechanics of placement, formats and a pre-print testing checklist are already covered well in the events and posters guide and in the dynamic QR codes guide; this page is about the decision sitting above both of those, which is whether you need one code or several, and whether you need it to move after it is printed.
Make the whole set at once
The bulk tool opens seeded with the shape of this job: example rows in your vocabulary, and the filename pattern that suits it. Free, unlimited and with no account for static codes.
Open the bulk generatorJobs in this area
- QR codes for gig postersOne poster, mapped week by week: on sale, selling fast, sold out, next date. What the sold-out page should actually contain, and how a poster carrying more than one code stays legible.
- QR codes for festival wayfinding and signageA festival site is a temporary town, not a poster wall: one code per zone, running orders that change on the day, and a phone network already saturated by lunchtime.
- QR codes for conference badges and handoutsA badge and a session handout are different jobs: what a badge scan should open, what a per-session code should open, and how to code a programme before the slides exist.