3D QR Code Generator

3D QR code illusions

The Illusion look builds a sculpture of cubes that shows one thing from the front and another from above. From the front it’s a picture: The Starry Night, the Mona Lisa, a synthwave sunset, a hot air balloon, an emoji, a poster with your words, or your own logo. Press QR code, or let the Reveal motion swing the camera over, and the same cubes line up into a QR code a phone can scan.

Every cube’s sides are colored like one row of the picture, and its top like one module of the code. From the front you see the frontmost cube of each picture row; from above, the highest cube in each column of the code. The generator places the cubes so both views are complete at once, with a pedestal row under the picture that carries whatever the picture can’t. Both views are drawn without perspective, so the cubes line up exactly.

• The gallery has 20 famous paintings (Van Gogh, Hokusai, Vermeer, Klimt, Monet and more, all public domain, from Wikimedia Commons), 13 drawn scenes and 12 objects, plus 60 emoji. Scenes and paintings make a solid wall of cubes; objects and emoji keep their outline.
• Detail sets how many cubes make up one square of the code: Ultra uses 3 × 3, which triples the picture’s resolution while the code still reads as whole squares from above.
• Scan it from the QR code view on screen, or save that view as a PNG. Floating cubes can’t be 3D printed, so tick Make it printable: the picture’s outline becomes solid slabs on the plate with the code on their tops, in 4, 6 or 8 filament colors for a multi-color printer.

How to make a 3D QR code

1. Type the link, text or Wi-Fi details the code should open.
2. Pick a look: an illusion, a print plaque, toy bricks, pearls, jelly cubes, crystals, a city skyline, terrain, pin art, or a code engraved into a slab. Surprise me mixes a look, colors and a scene for you.
3. Choose the colors, the base (a plate, a keychain with a loop, a coin, or floating modules), the relief, a caption such as “Scan me”, and an emoji or logo in the middle, which is rebuilt from small cubes so it prints too.
4. Check the scan test under the preview, then download, share or embed.

Drag the model to turn it and scroll or pinch to zoom. The motions only change the preview: downloads are always the model at rest. Already have a QR code (a Venmo, PayPal or UPI code, a menu)? Import it from a screenshot: it’s read in your browser and rebuilt in 3D.

Does a 3D QR code still scan?

A phone doesn’t see depth. It sees a picture, and it reads the code when the tops of the modules are clearly darker than the base around them and the three corner squares are recognizable. After every change the page renders your code straight down, and for the solid looks tilted by 40°, and reads the images with a QR decoder. From above is the one that matters. Tall looks such as Skyline hide the base between towers from the side, so scan them from right above. For printed codes, test the real object and check a photo with the QR code scanner.

3D printing a QR code

STL works in every slicer: one solid in millimetres, flat on the bed. 3MF keeps the base, the code, the corner eyes, the logo and the caption as separate colored parts, so Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer and PrusaSlicer can give each part its own filament.

• Size: keep each module at least 1.2 mm wide for a 0.4 mm nozzle. A short link at 60 mm is comfortable; long links need a wider print, and the page warns you when modules get too small.
• Two colors, one nozzle: print the base in a light filament and add a color change at the layer where the code starts. Engraved codes are the reverse: a dark slab with a light surface on top.
• Easiest looks: plaque, bricks, jelly and engraved. Pearls, crystals and pins have overhangs and small tips.
• The print guide under the downloads gives the model’s real size and the exact layer for the filament change at your layer height; the Bricks look adds a LEGO parts list.

Share or embed a 3D QR code

Share result opens this page with your exact design (on a phone it opens the share sheet). Embed this 3D code gives a snippet for WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow or your own site; Copy viewer link gives the same viewer full screen. Visitors can drag the model and press Picture / QR code (3D view / QR code for the solid looks) to jump between views, and an Open link button helps people on phones, who can’t scan their own screen. The whole design, including a pixel version of your picture or logo, lives in the link after the #, which browsers never send to a server, so nothing is stored and nothing expires.

Want the generator itself on your site? The widgets page has the embed code for the whole tool. For a flat code with frames, photos and SVG files, use the QR code generator.