How to convert a QR code to STL
- Open Already have a QR code? Import it (it’s open on this page) and drop your image, or choose it from your files. A screenshot works best.
- The code is read in your browser, and its content appears in the form: the link, or the text for anything else (a payment address, a Wi-Fi login).
- Pick a look and a base, check the scan test, and set the printed width.
- Download the STL for any slicer, or the 3MF with separate colored parts for a multi-color printer.
Why rebuild instead of tracing
Tracing a picture of a QR code into 3D copies its flaws: fuzzy edges from a screenshot, perspective from a photo, JPEG noise between the modules. All of those become ridges in the model and can stop it from scanning. Reading the code and building a fresh one gives perfectly square modules at exactly the size you print, and the quiet zone is added for you.
It also means you can change the design freely: a keychain, a coaster, a sign with a caption, or an illusion that hides the same code in a picture.
Codes that can’t be read
If nothing is found, the picture is probably too blurry, cropped through the code, or taken at a steep angle. Take a new screenshot rather than a photo of a screen, crop it to the code with some white around it, and try again. Codes with a big logo in the middle sometimes need a sharper image.