Bulk vCard QR codes for the whole team: one list, a contact card for everyone
Turn a team spreadsheet into a contact card code for each of 12 agents, after fixing the rows that the generator rejects or reads wrong.
Alder & Finch Realty, a real estate agency with 12 agents, is ordering business cards with a QR code on the back. A phone that scans it offers to save the agent's contact. Typed one at a time, that is the same five fields 12 times, with a chance of a typo each time.
The agents are already in the office spreadsheet. Import it, and the generator makes a contact card (vCard) code for every row. First check the spreadsheet for rows that the generator rejects or reads wrong.
The team list: five columns, one row per person
On the "Contact card" tab, click "Pick a file" and choose the team list as a CSV or XLSX file. A panel asks you to "say what is in which column". Mark the columns as "Full name", "Phone", "Email", "Organization" and "Caption", set the rest to "Do not use" and click "Import". The page on importing an Excel or CSV file shows the panel.
The panel skips the header row, so leave it in the file. One import takes up to 1,500 lines. A row with an error goes into a report with its line number from the file, such as "Line #14", and the reason, while the other rows load.
Typed by hand in the "as one field" view, each contact is one line with semicolons between the parts:
Maya Ortiz;+1 555 010 0142;[email protected];Alder & Finch Realty;Maya Ortiz, salesDaniel Okafor;+1 555 010 0167;[email protected];Alder & Finch Realty;Daniel Okafor, rentals
The name goes first and needs a phone or an email. The generator tells the other parts apart by their format: a part with @ is the email, digits with parentheses, hyphens or dots are the phone, and anything else is the organization. So the phone, the email and the organization can come in any order, in a TXT file too.
The caption always goes fifth. It prints under the code on the sheet and names the per-person file, so you see whose code is whose. A 3 cm (about 1.2 in) code shows 17 characters of it. Maya Ortiz, sales fits whole, and Daniel Okafor, rentals loses its end to an ellipsis, so put the name first.
For someone without an email, leave that part empty and keep both semicolons: Maya Ortiz;+1 555 010 0142;;Alder & Finch Realty;Maya Ortiz, sales. Without the empty part the line has four parts, and the caption joins the organization.
Rows the generator will not accept, and rows it accepts wrongly
A contact card takes one phone and one email, so a second phone in the row gets "use one phone number per line", and a second email gets "use one email per line". A row with only a name and a company gets "add a phone or an email for the contact".
A number with an extension, such as +1 555 010 0167 ext. 12, gets "the phone part has extra text or a second number: keep one number and move the extension to the caption". Two numbers in one part get the same refusal. Put the main number into the phone part and the extension into a short caption, such as Okafor ext. 12.
The card stores the number as a mobile one, without spaces, parentheses, hyphens and dots. The generator does not add a country code, so (555) 010-0167 goes into the code as 5550100167. Write every number in the international format, with + and the country code.
A job title in a part of its own passes with no error and ends up in the wrong field: Maya Ortiz;+1 555 010 0142;[email protected];Senior agent;Alder & Finch Realty. The card lists Senior agent as the organization, and the company name prints under the code as the caption. Write the title and the company as one part, Senior agent, Alder & Finch Realty. The import panel has no title field, so join the two cells in the spreadsheet first.
What the card does to the code size
A QR code is a grid of small squares called modules. The more text goes into the code, the more modules it has on each side, and at the same code size each module gets smaller. Maya Ortiz's line becomes 151 characters of vCard text with the field names added, and a link to her profile page has 35.
| What is in the code | Modules, no logo | Module at 2 cm, no logo | With a logo, at 2 cm | With a logo, at 3 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name and phone | 37×37 | 0.54 mm | 0.38 mm | 0.57 mm |
| name, phone, email, organization | 45×45 | 0.44 mm | 0.31 mm | 0.46 mm |
| long name, email and organization | 53×53 | 0.38 mm | 0.25 mm | 0.37 mm |
| a link to her profile page instead | 29×29 | 0.69 mm | 0.54 mm | 0.81 mm |
A logo goes in under "Logo in the middle of the QR code:" ("PNG or JPG, up to 256 KB"). The generator then raises error correction, the spare data that keeps a partly covered code readable, from level L to H, and that data takes the extra modules.
Keep the module at 0.4 mm or more, as the article on the module threshold for office printers explains. The full card without a logo passes at 2 cm (about 0.8 in) with little to spare. With a logo it has 65 modules and needs 2.6 cm (about 1 in), so give it 3 cm. The long card from the table needs 3.2 cm (about 1.3 in) with a logo, so shorten its name, email or organization, or drop the logo.
The "Size of one QR code (cm):" slider has a 3 cm preset labeled "business cards, labels, badges". On a US business card, 3.5×2 in (8.9×5.1 cm), a 2 cm code takes less than half of the short side, and a 3 cm code still fits. People scan a badge worn on the chest from 30–50 cm (about 12–20 in), so its code needs one tenth of that, 3–5 cm (about 1.2–2 in).
Alder & Finch puts its logo into the codes and picks 3 cm. With captions, the 12 codes fit on one sheet of A4 (21×29.7 cm, 8.3×11.7 in) or US Letter (8.5×11 in, 21.6×27.9 cm). Check your team size in the calculator.
Move the size slider and see how the grid changes. "Open in the generator" carries these settings into the form.
Sheet, SVG or PNG: where the codes go next
For business cards that are already printed, print the codes as stickers on label paper. Set how many each agent needs in the × field next to the contact ("How many times to print this contact"). The captions then show whose cards each sticker goes on. The article on a sheet of stickers from an office printer covers the paper and the cutting.
For new cards, give the designer a file per person. In "Step 3 · Format", pick "SVG one by one". Each file is named by the line number and the caption, such as qr-0001 Maya Ortiz, sales.svg, and has only the code, without the sheet, the frame or the caption.
"PNG one by one" gives the same set as PNG files for a badge layout or a slide. For a business card layout at a print shop, send SVG, which scales without loss.
When a phone number changes
The contact is inside the code, so a printed code cannot be changed. When Daniel Okafor gets a new number, phones that scan his old cards still get the old one. Fix his line and print it alone. If you reprint the whole list, the other 11 agents get the same codes as before, because their lines and the settings did not change.
If the numbers on your team change often, put a link to each person's profile page on your own site into the code, such as https://example.com/team/maya-ortiz. That code has 29 modules rather than 45, and you edit the page without reprinting. But a phone then opens the page and does not offer to save the contact. More QR code use cases for small business are in the knowledge base.
FAQ
Can one contact have two phone numbers?
No. Put the number people should call into the phone part, and print the other one in a short caption on the sheet. The code has one number, and a phone that scans it saves only that one.
Where do I put the job title?
In the organization, before the company name. In the "by fields" view, type both into "Organization (optional)", the title first. The saved contact shows the title in its company line.
Can I add an address or a website to the card?
The card has fields only for the name, one phone, one email and the organization. A business card usually has the website printed on it as text.
Do names with accents work?
Yes. Zoë Müller-Nuñez goes into the card as written. An accented letter takes 2 bytes in the code, a plain one takes 1, and more bytes can mean more modules.
How many contacts fit on one sheet?
With captions, 20 contacts fit on a sheet at 3 cm, on A4 and Letter alike. At 2 cm with captions, 35 fit on A4 and 30 fit on Letter.
The code on a card will not scan. What do I check?
Go through the 8 fixes for a printed code that will not scan in their order.
Next step
In the "as one field" view, type a line with a job title, such as Maya Ortiz;+1 555 010 0142;[email protected];Senior agent, Alder & Finch Realty, and hover over its code in the preview. The loupe reads the code, and after "contact:" it should show the name, phone, email and organization, with the title in front of the company name. If the company name shows up under the code, the line has one part too many.
Make a contact card code for everyone on your team list from the same spreadsheet.
Build your sheet of QR codes
Paste a list of links or upload a file: we lay codes out on A4 sheets with captions and return PDF, SVG or PNG.
Open the generator