The QR code, or “Quick Response” code, is a small square matrix that stores information — more information than your regular (or linear) barcode. QR codes can store contact information or serve up URLs to mobile content using free reader software, turning your cell phone into an instant bar code scanner, and they can do much more. [To understand more of the evolution of the barcode, from linear to QR and other codes, read our three part series on this blog.]
QR codes are an everyday occurrence in other parts of the world, especially Japan. You will find them on everything– magazines, business cards, id badges, magazines, flyers, posters, newspapers, stickers, food products, web sites , billboards, CDs, vending machines, coffee cups, advertisements, movie tickets, and even gravestones.
Imagine your sitting in Starbucks reading the morning paper. You notice this strange black square at the bottom of a Barnes & Noble ad promising 50% off the next James Patterson book. All that you need is your cell phone. Take a picture of the QR code and show it to the clerk on your next visit. Instant savings! Perhaps you’ve been waiting at the bus stop for awhile and want to know when the next one will arrive. You take a snapshot of the QR code on the corner of the bus stop sign and your redirected to an updated bus schedule. Or let’s say you you’re at the airport. Just simply display your QR code on your cell phone screen. No paperwork to carry!
So the question is: will there be QR codes splashed everywhere, like Japan, in the near future? It’s quite possible. Apple is already rolling out QR ready iPhones. Google already has a plan to make QR codes an advertising revenue and is also championing an open-source J2ME reader project dubbed ZXing. Mobilstance.com boldly states “the reason all of this is so interesting is because of the perfect intersection between technology and lifestyle. Start with the iPhone user base…then add what we can assume to be first Android buyers…and you’ve got the perfect launching pad for a QR movement”
If you’re curious about the different trends happening around the world with this little black mark, check out this blog that highlights different products from around the world that are displaying QR codes.
Filed under: 2D barcodes, Bar code, GS1 | Tagged: 2D barcode, Google QR code, Google QR reader, QR Code
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Our company is looking at the ability to use QR codes along with Data Matrix in our GS1 barcoding efforts. Our Japan distributors would love to get QR code as the 2D barcode standard, but acceptance in the US is far behind Data Matrix.
If QR is poised to take the world of barcodes by storm, perhaps Loftware Label Manager should be able to generate them natively, like they can do with Data Matrix. Right now LLM version 9.1 can only create QR codes for some Zebra and TEC printers that have QR built in to the printer.
There’s a number of open-source QR code creators out there, so I find it curious that QR isn’t baked into Loftware Label Manager yet. We’d love to offer it to our Japanese clients as an option, but it’s not an option without swapping printers.
Darryl
Darryl, thanks for the comments. Frankly, QR code probably isn’t going to take the world by storm, just the Japanese and Korean portions of it, no matter how enthusiastic Scott is about the possibilities.
We’re excited by barcodes as “data containers” or “proxy for the goods” but fact is, 99.9% of our customers have shown little interest in generating QR codes (including some very, very large multinationals with major sales into Japan) and even then, only in the use with those printers you mentioned. We’ve developed QR strictly in response to specific requests to date.
I hope that will change, particularly as (when? if?) we see more QR code penetration into other Asian, European and American markets. Scott V — who wrote that very popular post — loves the QR code and how it changes your day-to-day in Japan. We will respond to developments as they occur and full QR code support is on the horizon for LLM.
The latest version of LLM is 9.5 but no matter what version, it isn’t as simple as looking at open source. Open source code QR software apps don’t make for enterprise-grade, high-production, compliant label generation, unfortunately, They are good at doing a single image that you cut and paste somewhere (I’ve done it). While I wish it were as simple as just stuffing that sort of code into our products and having a million labels a day coming out with perfect QR codes, that simply isn’t the way Loftware would do it. We really build, polish and QA our software so that it can support what, in some cases, are customers producing millions of barcoded labels a day.