A contact, not a link

Most QR codes send a phone somewhere. A vCard code does something different: it hands the phone a small contact file. The camera shows a preview with your name and number and an "Add to contacts" button, and the whole exchange happens offline. Nothing is stored on our servers, nothing is tracked, and the code will still work in ten years on a phone that has never heard of myqrpal.

Keep the data small

Every extra character makes the pattern denser, and a dense pattern needs a bigger print and a steadier hand to scan. A vCard with a name, one phone number, one email and a company scans easily at 2.5 cm. Add three addresses, two fax numbers, a note and a photo and you end up with a grid so fine that a home printer smears it. Decide what you actually want a stranger to have, and leave the rest out.

Where to put it

The obvious place is the back of a paper business card, where the code replaces the wall of small print on the front. Beyond that: an email signature, the last slide of a conference talk, a name badge at a trade show, a van door, an estate agent's window card, or a sticker on a tool for the person who finds it. Anywhere someone might want to reach you but will not bother typing.

If your details change often, or if you want to know how many people scanned, make a dynamic link code that points at a contact page instead. You lose the offline trick but gain editing and analytics, and the printed square stays valid after you move jobs.