The 500-flyer problem
You design the flyer, you proof it, you print 500 copies, you spend a Saturday morning putting them up around the neighborhood. Monday someone scans the code and lands on a 404 — the campaign page was at a different slug, or marketing changed it last week, or you typed even instead of event. With a static code that is a reprint, a recall, and a quiet wince. With a dynamic code you edit the destination on your phone and the same flyer keeps working.
Anything you print in quantity for a real-world audience — event posters, recruiting flyers, community board notices, real estate riders, conference signage, gallery wall labels, festival programs — should default to a dynamic QR code for exactly this reason. The cost of a Pro subscription is small next to the cost of a single botched print run.
Sizing for the viewing distance
Posters live further from the viewer than flyers. The simple rule: make the code at least 10% of the typical viewing distance on its longest side. A handout flyer scanned from 30 cm needs about a 3 cm code. An A2 poster across a 3 m hallway needs about a 30 cm code. A bus-shelter poster across a sidewalk needs whatever it needs — usually bigger than you think. Oversized codes never lose scans; undersized ones do.
Quiet zone, contrast, placement
Three habits cover most printed-QR failures. Leave a quiet zone — a clear white margin at least four QR modules wide around the pattern. Keep high contrast: dark code on a light background, ideally true black on white. Place the code where a phone can comfortably get to it; codes hidden behind glass, perched above eye level, or buried in a corner are codes nobody scans.
Give people a reason to scan
A bare QR code is asking for a leap of faith. A QR code next to two words that explain the payoff — “See the menu”, “RSVP”, “Watch the trailer”, “Apply for the role” — gets meaningfully more scans. Treat the call-to-action as part of the code; the code itself is just the door.
Generate a static code above for a one-off, or learn about dynamic codes for anything you would hate to reprint.