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How to make a QR code for your restaurant menu, shop or event

Updated · Sutly team

A QR code lets customers open your menu, catalogue, Google review page or event details just by pointing their phone camera. Here's how to make one that looks like your brand, scans reliably and keeps working even when your page changes.

Step 1: Decide what the code should open

Common choices are a PDF or online menu, an Instagram or WhatsApp Business catalogue, a Google Maps review link, a booking form, or an event page. Copy the full address of that page.

Step 2: Put a short link in the code (recommended)

A printed QR code can never be changed. If it holds your menu's address and you later move the menu to a new site, every table card and poster is wasted. Instead:

  1. Make a Sutly short link for your page, such as sutly.onrender.com/menu.
  2. Make the QR code for that short link.
  3. When the menu changes, just update where sutly.onrender.com/menu points. The printed code keeps working, and you can count scans.

Step 3: Design the QR code

  1. Open the QR code generator. If you're logged in, pick your short link from the list.
  2. Choose your brand colour. Keep it dark on a light background, because light codes on dark backgrounds don't scan on many phones.
  3. Upload your logo. The generator automatically uses high error correction so the code still scans with a logo in the middle.
  4. Add a label like SCAN FOR MENU or SCAN TO ORDER. People scan more when they know what they'll get.
  5. Square corners are the most reliable choice for print.

Step 4: Download the right file and size

As a rule of thumb, the printed code should be at least 2 × 2 cm, and about one-tenth of the distance people scan from: a code on a wall read from 2 metres away should be about 20 cm wide.

Step 5: Test, then print

Scan the code with two different phones, in the light where it will be used. Glossy lamination can cause glare, so test a printed sample first.

See how many people scanned it

Because the code holds a Sutly short link, its stats page shows scans per day, listed as "QR code scan" so you can tell them apart from people who tapped the link online.

Try it now, free. No app to install; it works in your phone's browser.

Open the QR code generator

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