Frames & print

Add a "Scan me" frame, check that a design scans before you ship it, and export a vector file at an exact physical size.

Call-to-action frames

The frame prop draws a frame with a short label around the code. It works on QRCode, QRCodeSVG, QRCodeCanvas, getQRAsSVG, getQRData and all download helpers.

import { QRCode } from "qrdx";

<QRCode
  value="https://example.com/menu"
  frame={{ style: "banner-bottom", text: "Scan for the menu", color: "#1e3a8a" }}
/>

The frame is added around the code: the output gets bigger, and the QR modules and quiet zone are never covered, so scannability is unchanged. A light gap in the code's background color separates the code from the frame.

The label uses the system font stack, so nothing is downloaded. Because the output grows, use getFrameDimensions(size, frame) when you need the final width and height:

import { getFrameDimensions } from "qrdx";

getFrameDimensions(400, { style: "banner-bottom" }); // { width: 496, height: 568 }

FRAME_STYLES, frameSchema (zod) and the QRFrame / FrameStyle types are also exported from qrdx/types for server-side validation.

In the CLI

qrdx generate "https://example.com/menu" --frame banner-bottom --frame-text "Scan for the menu" -o menu.png

--frame-color and --frame-text-color take hex colors. Passing text or colors without --frame uses banner-bottom.

Will it scan?

getScanScore estimates how reliably a design scans. It runs in the browser and loads jsQR on demand.

import { getScanScore } from "qrdx";

const { score, grade, checks } = await getScanScore({
  value: "https://example.com",
  bodyPattern: "circle",
  cornerEyePattern: "gear",
});
// score: 0–100, grade: "great" | "ok" | "risky" | "fails"
// checks: [{ id, passed, message, fix? }]

What it checks:

• Decoding at 96, 160 and 320 px. The design is rendered at each width, given camera-like blur and contrast loss, and decoded a few times at slightly different scales.
• Contrast between every code color (including gradient stops, eye and dot colors) and the background, and whether the code is dark on light.
• Logo coverage compared with what the error-correction level can recover.
• Quiet zone: the margin, plus the gap a frame adds.
• Eye shape risk: curly eyes fail strict decoders such as ZXing-based apps, and circle eyes only read in lenient ones.

getImageScanScore(fileOrImage) does the same for an existing image: it returns the decoded content plus decode, contrast, polarity, quiet-zone and resolution checks measured from the pixels. The scan checker is built on it.

Print-ready export

downloadPrintPDF writes a vector PDF at an exact physical size. Modules, eyes and frames are vector paths (a logo stays a raster image).

import { downloadPrintPDF, downloadPrintSVG, getPrintLayout } from "qrdx";

const props = { value: "https://example.com", frame: { style: "banner-bottom" } } as const;

await downloadPrintPDF(props, {
  size: 40, // width of the code itself
  unit: "mm", // or "in"
  bleed: 3, // millimetres on every side
  cropMarks: true,
  colorMode: "cmyk",
});

await downloadPrintSVG(props, { size: 1.5, unit: "in" }); // width="…in" height="…in"

const layout = getPrintLayout(props, { size: 40 });
layout.trimWidth; // finished width in mm, frame included
layout.maxScanDistance; // 400 (mm)

• size is the width of the code; a frame adds to the finished size.
• With bleed, the background (or a square frame's color) extends past the trim edge so trimming leaves no white sliver. Crop marks sit outside the bleed.
• colorMode: "cmyk" uses a simple conversion (rgbToCmyk: K = 1 − max(R, G, B), no ICC profile; pure black prints as K only). Ask your printer for a color-managed conversion when exact brand colors matter.
• Gradients are flattened to their first color stop in the PDF; the print SVG keeps them but stays RGB.
• Frame text in the PDF uses Helvetica Bold, so characters outside Latin-1 may not render. Use the SVG for other scripts.
• getQRAsPrintPDF and getQRAsPrintPDFBuffer return the file instead of downloading it, and also work in Node.

How big to print: a code scans from about ten times its width, so size ≈ scan distance ÷ 10 (2 cm wide for 20 cm). Denser codes need more; the print size calculator accounts for that.