How to Set Up a QR Code Menu That Actually Works

QR menus arrived in 2020 out of necessity and stayed out of economics. A printed menu costs money to reprint every time a price moves; a QR code costs nothing to update.

Most of them are also badly done — the code is too small, it leads to a PDF that requires pinching to read, or it stops working because a subscription lapsed. Here is how to set one up that keeps working.

Point it at a web page, not a PDF

This is the single decision that separates a menu customers use from one they give up on.

A PDF opens in a viewer, at a fixed page width, requiring pinch and drag on a phone held in one hand while the other holds a coffee. A web page reflows to the screen.

It does not need to be sophisticated. A single page with headings for each section and prices as plain text will outperform a beautifully typeset PDF every time, because it is readable without effort.

If a PDF is genuinely all you have, at least host it on your own domain so you can replace the file without changing the code.

Use your own URL

Encode a link on a domain you control — yourcafe.com/menu — rather than a link generated by a QR service.

The reason is durability. A “dynamic” QR code from a paid service does not contain your URL; it contains a link on their domain that redirects to yours. Stop paying, or let them go out of business, and every printed code in your café becomes a dead link.

With your own URL you get the same flexibility — change what is at /menu whenever you like — and the code keeps working as long as your domain does. Use a static QR code generator and there is nothing to renew.

Size and placement

The rule of thumb: the code needs to be about one tenth of the scanning distance across.

• Table tent or card — scanned from 20–30cm, so 3cm minimum. 4cm is more forgiving.
• A4 poster on a wall — scanned from about 1m, so 10cm.
• Window or A-board — 2m away, so 20cm.

Print on matte, never gloss. Gloss laminate reflects ceiling lights directly back into the camera, and the angle a seated customer holds their phone at is exactly the angle that catches it. This single choice causes more failed scans than size does.

Leave the white margin — the “quiet zone” — intact. It is part of the specification, not decoration, and a decorative border pressed up against the code will break it.

Label it

A bare square tells nobody anything. Add a line of text: Scan for menu. Customers scan far more readily when they know what will happen.

Print the URL underneath as well. It costs nothing, and it rescues the customer whose camera will not cooperate, whose phone is too old, or who would simply rather type.

Test it properly

Test the printed code, not the one on screen. Ink spread and paper texture both affect readability, and a code that scans perfectly on a monitor can fail on cheap card.

1. An older Android phone, not just a current iPhone.
2. At the actual table, under the actual lighting, at the distance a customer sits.
3. In the evening as well as during the day — many venues change lighting entirely after dark.
4. With one hand, the way someone genuinely holds a phone.

The WiFi code beside it

If you offer customer WiFi, a second code saves your staff repeating the password all day. Our WiFi QR code generator produces one in the browser without sending the password anywhere.

Generate it for your guest network, not the network your till is on. A printed WiFi code is a password on public display — it contains the credentials in plain text, and anyone who photographs it has them. A guest network keeps customers off the same network as your card terminal, your booking system and your back office.

Nearly every router made in the last decade supports one. If yours does not, that is a stronger argument for replacing the router than for skipping the code.

What tends to go wrong

• The code was never re-tested after reprinting. A different printer or paper stock can break a design that worked.
• The menu page is not mobile-friendly. Everyone scanning is on a phone. If it needs zooming, it has failed.
• The subscription lapsed. Only possible with dynamic codes from a paid service — another reason to use your own URL.
• Laminated in gloss. Common, and fixable with matte.
• No printed alternative. Some customers will not or cannot scan. Keep a few paper menus.