Dithered QR Codes
This article explores techniques for embedding images into QR codes by manipulating data modules. It explains how shrinking data pixels allows for the inclusion of low-resolution imagery while maintaining scannability through dithered patterns.
Why it matters
It demonstrates creative engineering applications for existing data standards, showing how visual aesthetics can be integrated into functional utility.
A QR code is really just a way of encoding a few bytes of data in a way that can be easily read froma photo by a smartphone or similar device. They're designed to be very robust to bad focus, bad printing, funny angles, and missing areas. Exactly how they work isn't terribly important, but for the purposes of this page, a QR code is a grid of squares that divide into two parts — the function patterns (which are the bold shapes in the above example) and the data modules (everything else). The function modules are mostly used to let the scanner find the QR code easily, so they have to be very clear and distinct.
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