QR Factory

Learn how to create unlimited QR codes using the multiple codes feature of QR Factory.

The first step is to make sure that QR Factory for macOS is downloaded and open. It doesn't matter if it's the website or App Store versions, they are virtually identical. It even works if the website version is running in the free trial mode, although there will be a small watermark in the middle of each code until the app is registered with a license key.

The next step is to setup and fill in the columns and rows that make up each QR code in either Excel or Numbers. To do this, there are a few options:

1. Use a pre-filed example file with the columns pre-created so all that's needed is to create a new row for each row and add the appropriate information.
2. Start with a new file and add the columns manually.
3. For creating vCard (Person) QR codes, it's possible to use the key values as the columns instead.

Download one of the example files or either Excel or Numbers:

• Example for Numbers
• Example for Excel

Open it up and add or modify the column names according to the QR code's contents and presentation. Most of the columns that are needed for most cases are already included the examples, however if there is one that is needed, just create a new column (in Excel or Numbers) and label it for the option that's required. For instance, if the QR code

For instance, the example file will have a column labeled "FileType" and depending on what's at column for a particular row determines which file type the code will be.

For each code that needs to be created, add one row and fill in the details for each column. Once that's done, move onto exporting the CSV file.

For this option, create a brand new empty spreadsheet in either Excel or Numbers. In fact, it can be any spreadsheet app, as long as it's capable of exporting a CSV file (we'll get to that in the next version).

Next, add a column for each content and appearance option that is needed. Fill in the column name with appropriate Title value. For each content and appearance option, the title to use is shown with it. For example, for the file name option, the title for that column would be 'Filename".

Note: Make sure that the required columns are added, or the QR codes will not be generated properly.

Once all the columns have been added along with a row for each code with the values filled in, it's time to export it all to a CSV file.

For creating vCard (Person) codes, it's possible to skip all the normal content columns and uses the appearance columns along with the vCard keys as columns. This allows a faster way to export contacts into CSV files.

To see how this works, we've provided a sample file already in CSV format:

Example vCard columns

Since it's already in the CSV format, it can immediately be used by QR Factory.

At a minimum there are two columns that are required, Type and Content. The first tells QR Factory which type of code to create for a particular row, and second is required so it knows what to encode into the QR code. The Type value can be Text, URL, Email, GPS, Phone, Person, WiFi, Calendar, SocialTwitter, SocialFacebook or SEPA. For each type, the content format is displayed under it. Some contents require a key-value system, and some are just plain text.

For some types, such as Email, the QR code will contain a combination of key values, such as "subject=Please sign documents". Since there's only one Content column, to fit it all in properly, all the key-value sets are combined by putting them all together and separating them by a semicolon. Here's an example of how an Email code content column/row could look like:

email=support@tunabelly.com;subject=Hello;body=Type your email here;cc=example@example.org;bcc=hidden@example.org

Note: Since it's a semicolon that separates each key-value pair, they cannot be used for any of the values or it will mess up the parsing.

The last step is before it's ready to be used in QR Factory is to export the spreadsheet into a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. This means that each value is separated by a comma, which is a standard file format that is easily readable. Here's an example of what it will look like:

Example exported CSV file

If the spreadsheet app is Excel, click the File menu and choose Save As… then change the File Format popup menu to CSV. Save the file and note where it's located.

If the spreadsheet app is Numbers, click the File menu and choose Export To -> CSV. Save the file and note where it's located.

Note: If a comma in required for one of the values (ex: "Company Name, Inc."), add a backslash before the comma. For this example, it would become "Company Name\,Inc.". This is called escaping the comma.

To use the CSV file now in QR Factory, either click the File menu and choose Create Multiple QR codes…

Or click the Create Multiple QR Codes… button in the bottom left of the window.

In the dialog that appears, choose the CSV file, where to save the QR codes, and optionally where folder the icon images are (if they are used). The folder for the icon images is needed because QR Factory may not have access to the images if it doesn't have access to their folder.

Wait until it's finished and then all the QR codes will be available in the folder chosen in Step 2.

If there are no files in the folder and no error message displayed, please double check that the required columns are present and the format for the other columns is correct.

Here are a few tips to try if there are any errors or the QR codes are not generated as expected:

• If a comma in required for one of the values (ex: "Company Name, Inc."), add a backslash before the comma. For this example, it would become "Company Name\,Inc.". This is called escaping the comma.
• If a column uses the key-value system, make sure the key-value pairs are separated by a semicolon.
• For the filename column, add the filetype extension to the name. For example, instead of "file1", use "file1.png" if it's in the PNG format.
• The QR codes can be saved in RGB, CMYK or Grayscale color spaces using the ColorSpace column. Please note the only format that supports all three color spaces is TIFF.
• The colors for the PixelColorStart, PixelColorEnd and BackgroundColor columns can now be specified with "rgb(r,g,b)" or "cmyk(c,m,y,k)"

These columns describe which type of QR code to create and what the content should be. If there's a Key then that particular column/row combination uses the key-value system, otherwise if it's blank then it's just normal text with no formatting.

These columns describe how the QR code will appear. This include items such as the file name, the output size, colours, reliability level, and more.