A QR Code is a 2 D bar code created by a Japanese corporation in 1994. The name of this corporation is Denso-Wave and they wanted to create a bar code able to deliver a very quick response to the scanner. From here is coming his name: QR (quick response)

If until a few years ago the code was popular mainly in Asia, Japan, now is starting to gain popularity in States and in Europe. The popularity increase is due mainly because of the smartphones and 3G Network spreading.

One QR Code can store pretty much information than other bar codes, for example a maximum of 7089 numeric characters and 4296 alphanumeric characters. Comparing with a traditional bar code, this new one code can be scanned from any direction in 360 degrees angle.

For creating and using it you first need to generate the code by using an offline or an online QR code generator. The second one is more accessible and easy to use because you don’t need to install any software on your computer. A very good service for generating QR codes online is QrZilla

After the code has been created with the desired information inside, you need a reader in order to see what information was stored inside the generated image. The reader can be a specialized scanner connected to a computer or can be a mobile phone with a bar code scanner application installed. The second kind of application (the one installed on mobile phone) is using the phone camera to scan the code. The camera needs to have auto focus in order to fast and accurately scan the code.

You can generate a QR code and use it for:

- creating a modern looking business card by embedding the qr code on it;

- creating a mecard or a vcard and use them in your signature for web page;

- WIFI access details (peoples can scan the code with the phone and easily connect the your public wifi);

- embedding simple text inside;

- email adress, which will prevent automatic robots to index your email;

- bookmark url for directly saving your website;

- writing short product reviews and show the QR code near to the product on the website or in some magazines;