Printable Wi-Fi QR sign for guests: what goes on it and which sheet to pick

A Wi-Fi sign template from the internet is a picture: you write the network name and the password on it and print it. The guest then types the password from the paper, gets one character wrong and asks at the reception desk.

A QR code on the sign removes the typing. The guest points a phone camera at it and joins the network. The generator lays out a printable Wi-Fi sign with the code in place and saves it as a PDF.

The examples use Lakeside Inn, a small hotel with A6 signs on the bar tables, an A5 sign at the reception desk and A4 signs on the room doors. Each place needs its own sheet size, and all of them print on the A4 or US Letter paper you already have.

What is printed on the sign and what you can change

In "Step 2 · Look and size", set "Layout:" to "Sign: one code per sheet" and "Sign template:" to "Wi-Fi". Each line of your list becomes a separate sign with a large code, a Wi-Fi icon, the title "Wi-Fi for guests" and the subtitle "Point the camera, the phone will connect itself". All the signs come in one PDF. To start from a blank title and subtitle, pick "Custom sign" instead.

Edit both texts in the "Title:" and "Subtitle:" fields. The title prints on one line of up to 60 characters and is cut after that, so shorten a long hotel name. The subtitle can be up to 120 characters, and on A5 and A6 in portrait it can take two lines. Clear the "Frame" checkbox to print the sign without a frame. To add a logo, click "Pick a file" under "Logo in the middle of the QR code:" and choose a PNG or JPG of up to 256 KB.

A line of the list can end with a caption, and it prints under the subtitle. Keep it short, for example "Floor 2" or "Room 14". A single sign can go without one, but when you print several, the caption is the only way to tell them apart. The password is not printed as text, only inside the code.

What is inside the code

One line of the list is one network: the network name, a semicolon and the password. The separator is a semicolon because a network name can contain spaces. A second semicolon adds the caption: Lakeside Guest 2;lake2026;Floor 2. The generator turns this line into the standard Wi-Fi string WIFI:T:WPA;S:Lakeside Guest 2;P:lake2026;;. The built-in camera reads this string on iPhone with iOS 11 or later and on Android 9 or later.

For an open network, such as the one in the Lakeside lobby, leave the password empty: Lakeside Lobby;;Open network. The Wi-Fi string in the code then has nopass in place of WPA.

A network name can be up to 32 bytes, which is 32 Latin characters. A password has 8 to 63 characters. Use only Latin letters, digits and ASCII symbols, because WPA and WPA2 accept nothing else. The generator rejects a line that breaks any of these limits and says why. The same line works on the page where you turn a network name and a password into a QR code, for a sign or for a sheet of small codes.

Which sheet for the table, the desk and the door

The code on a sign takes as much of the sheet as it can, so the sheet size sets how far away a guest can scan it. The numbers are for the "Wi-Fi" template in portrait, and a caption or a two-line subtitle does not change them.

The distance in the table is 10 times the code side, rounded down to 0.1 m. The article on the scanning distance and the code size explains the rule and when a code has to be larger. For a Wi-Fi QR code in hotel rooms, print the door signs on A4 or Letter, whichever your printer takes. The code on Letter is 0.8 cm smaller than on A4.

Keep the sheet in portrait. A landscape sheet is too short for the icon, the title and the code together, so the code shrinks: on A6 it drops from 5.8 cm to 2.7 cm (about 1.1 in) without a caption and to 2.1 cm (about 0.8 in) with one. For your own distance, type it in meters into the calculator. It shows the code side on each sheet in both orientations, with or without a caption.

Use A4 or Letter on a glass door, even when the guest stands close. The sign is on the inside of the glass, and the guest scans it from outside, through the glare of the lamps and the reflection of the street.

Print A6 and A5 on the paper you have

You do not need a printer that takes A6 paper. Print the PDF on A4 or Letter at 100% scale, with "Actual size" on and "Fit to page" off. The printer puts the A6 page in the middle of the sheet, and you trim the white margins with scissors.

For a set of small signs, set "Pages per sheet" in the print dialog to 2 for A5 or to 4 for A6. One sheet of paper then takes 2 A5 signs or 4 A6 signs. The dialog usually shrinks each page a little to fit it, so the code comes out slightly smaller than in the table. Scan one printed sign with a phone before you print the rest.

A stack of signs for every network

Lakeside Inn has a guest network on each upper floor, one more in the meeting room and an open network in the lobby. Its list has one network per line:

• Lakeside Guest 2;lake2026;Floor 2
• Lakeside Guest 3;lake2026;Floor 3
• Lakeside Meeting;meet2026;Meeting room
• Lakeside Lobby;;Open network

When one network needs signs in several places, repeat its line and change only the caption, for example "Hall" or "Terrace". For a long list, import a TXT, CSV or XLSX file with three columns and match them to "Network name", "Password" and "Caption". The generator takes up to 1,500 lines at once. A file with 60 networks makes a PDF of 60 signs.

"Download PDF" is the file for your own printer. For a print shop, download the SVG sheets: one sheet comes as an SVG file, several as a ZIP. Only these two downloads keep the whole sign. A separate SVG or PNG for every code has only the code, without the title and the frame, for a designer who places it into the layout of a holder.

Before you print, scan the preview with an iPhone and an Android phone. Each phone should offer to join the network and then connect. For small codes on the bar tables instead of a sign on each, switch "Layout:" to "Sheet of codes", and the same lines print as a grid. Paper and cutting for that layout are in the article on printing QR code stickers at home.

Protection and the day the password changes

Glasses soon leave rings on a bare paper sign on a bar table. Use matte lamination or slide the sign into a menu holder. Outdoors, paper fades in the sun and warps in the rain, so print an outdoor sign on plastic film or laminate it.

Keep the list or the file you imported. When you change the password of a network, edit its line and print the signs again the same day. The QRsetter guides for signs and labels cover other print jobs.

FAQ

Next step

Hover over the code in the preview of your sign. The loupe, a magnifier that reads the code, shows the network name and the password separately. Check both against the router settings character for character, capitals included.

Make a Wi-Fi sign from your network name and password and download the PDF in A6, A5, A4 or Letter.