What is the difference between a vCard and a MeCard QR code?

vCard is the full standard used by phone address books and produces a slightly larger payload. MeCard is a compact format originally from Japanese phones, which encodes fewer fields in less space. vCard is the safer choice for a business card because support is near universal.

Can I put my photo in a vCard QR code?

Not usefully. A QR code holds roughly 3KB of binary data and even a small compressed photo exceeds that, producing a symbol far too dense to scan from paper. Reference an image by URL instead, and expect most contact importers to ignore it.

Why did my surname and first name get swapped?

The vCard N field is positional — surname first, then forename, separated by semicolons. A misplaced semicolon shifts every following value into the wrong slot. This generator assembles the field for you, so filling in the labelled boxes avoids the problem.

How small can I print a vCard code on a business card?

Keep it at 2cm or larger, and preserve the four-module quiet zone around it. Trimming that white margin to fit a layout is the most common reason a business card code scans poorly, because scanners use it to find the symbol edge.

Does scanning it add the contact automatically?

No — the phone shows the details and offers to save them, which is the behaviour you want. Nothing is written to somebody's address book without them tapping to confirm it.

vCard QR code generator

A vCard code carries your contact details in the format phones use for their address book, so scanning it offers to save you as a contact rather than opening a web page. It is the one that belongs on a business card.

Fill in the fields below and download it. Everything is encoded into the symbol, so it works with no account and no server behind it.

What should it do

Save a contact straight to the phone book.

Content

First name (required)

Last name

Company

Job title

Phone

Website

Street

City

Region

Postcode

Country

Card format

MeCard is shorter, so the code scans from further away. vCard carries more fields.

Design

Module shape

Eye frame

Eye centre

Error correction

Code colour

#111111

Background

#ffffff

Logo in the middle

vCard 3.0, and why the version matters

The payload is a small text document: BEGIN:VCARD, a VERSION line, then one line per field, then END:VCARD. This generator emits version 3.0, which is what phone address books parse most reliably. Version 4.0 is the newer standard and is handled less consistently by the software that actually matters here — the contact importer on a five-year-old Android phone.

Structured fields are ordered, not named. The N field is surname;forename;middle;prefix;suffix, and the semicolons are positional: leaving a gap in the wrong place moves your surname into the middle-name slot. Commas, semicolons and backslashes inside a value need escaping, and line breaks inside an address become a literal backslash-n.

Keep it to the fields people need

A vCard can hold dozens of fields, and every one you add makes the code denser. A name, one phone number, one email and a company name encode comfortably. Add a full postal address, three phone numbers, a job title, a website and a note and you are well past version 10, printing a grid so fine it fails on a business card.

Pick the fields somebody would actually use to reach you. If you want to offer everything, put a link in the vCard to a landing page holding the rest — the code stays sparse and the page can change without reprinting.

Photos do not belong in the code

The format technically supports an embedded PHOTO field as base64. In practice a photograph is tens of kilobytes, a QR code tops out at around 3KB of binary data, and even a heavily compressed thumbnail produces a symbol too dense to scan off paper.

If you want a picture attached to the contact, reference it by URL rather than embedding it, and accept that most importers will ignore it. A clean scannable code with the right phone number beats an unscannable one with a headshot.

On a business card, treat it as a scan target

Give it at least 2cm and real quiet zone — the blank margin around the symbol, four modules wide, is part of the code and not spare space to crop. Designers routinely trim it to make a layout work, and the result is a code that scanners struggle to lock onto.

Keep contrast high and dark-on-light. Inverted codes, light foregrounds and low-contrast brand colours all reduce the margin a camera has to work with, and a business card is usually read in bad indoor light by whichever phone is nearest.

Common questions

What is the difference between a vCard and a MeCard QR code?: vCard is the full standard used by phone address books and produces a slightly larger payload. MeCard is a compact format originally from Japanese phones, which encodes fewer fields in less space. vCard is the safer choice for a business card because support is near universal.
Can I put my photo in a vCard QR code?: Not usefully. A QR code holds roughly 3KB of binary data and even a small compressed photo exceeds that, producing a symbol far too dense to scan from paper. Reference an image by URL instead, and expect most contact importers to ignore it.
Why did my surname and first name get swapped?: The vCard N field is positional — surname first, then forename, separated by semicolons. A misplaced semicolon shifts every following value into the wrong slot. This generator assembles the field for you, so filling in the labelled boxes avoids the problem.
How small can I print a vCard code on a business card?: Keep it at 2cm or larger, and preserve the four-module quiet zone around it. Trimming that white margin to fit a layout is the most common reason a business card code scans poorly, because scanners use it to find the symbol edge.
Does scanning it add the contact automatically?: No — the phone shows the details and offers to save them, which is the behaviour you want. Nothing is written to somebody's address book without them tapping to confirm it.