Glossary
QR code terms, in plain English
Every term you’ll meet while making QR codes, defined without the jargon.
A–Z
The vocabulary
16 terms, one honest definition each.
- Static QR code
- A code that stores its data directly in the pattern. Free and permanent, but it can never be changed and can’t be tracked.
- Dynamic QR code
- A code that stores a short redirect you control, so you can change the destination after printing and see every scan.
- Short code / redirect
- The tiny link a dynamic code actually encodes. It forwards to your real content, which is why you can edit the target later.
- Scan vs unique scan
- A scan is any read of the code; a unique scan counts each visitor once, so repeat scans by the same person don’t inflate the number.
- Quiet zone
- The blank margin around a QR code. Without it, scanners can struggle — keep clear space equal to about four modules on every side.
- Module
- A single black or white square in the code. The number of modules grows with how much data the code holds.
- Finder pattern
- The three large squares in the corners that help a camera locate and orient the code before decoding it.
- Error correction level
- Built-in redundancy (L, M, Q, H) that lets a code still scan when part of it is damaged or covered — higher levels tolerate more, but pack in less data.
- vCard
- A contact-card format a phone can save natively. A static vCard code adds the contact directly; vCard Plus hosts an editable, trackable card.
- GS1 Digital Link
- A standard that turns a product barcode into a web link, so one 2D code works at checkout and opens a product page on a phone.
- UTM parameters
- Tags added to a link (source, medium, campaign) so analytics tools can attribute the visit to a specific campaign or placement.
- Microsite / landing page
- The hosted mobile page behind a dynamic code — a menu, card, gallery or profile — rather than a plain link.
- Custom domain (CNAME)
- Serving your dynamic codes on your own domain by pointing a CNAME record and validating an SSL certificate, so links carry your brand.
- Quishing
- QR-code phishing: a malicious code that sends you to a fake page. Only scan codes from sources you trust, and check the URL before acting.
- Bulk generation
- Creating many codes at once from a CSV — useful for unique codes per product, table, asset or campaign.
- White-label
- Removing the provider’s branding from your microsites (and serving them on your domain) so everything looks like your own product.
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