A small Windows desktop app (WPF) that turns URLs into QR codes — with PNG and SVG output, vector center glyphs pulled from any font, a color picker with contrast checking, a schema-driven URL builder, batch export, and a dark UI. The preview regenerates as you work.
Note: this is a side project maintained in spare time. Bug reports and ideas are welcome via Issues, but responses may be slow and there's no support guarantee.
Grab the latest QrCodeGenerator.exe from the
Releases page and run it —
no install needed.
The build is self-contained (the .NET runtime and WPF are bundled into the exe), so it runs
on a clean machine with no .NET installed. Every release is provenance-attested and ships
with a SHA-256 checksum (QrCodeGenerator.exe.sha256).
On first launch Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unsigned app — choose More info → Run anyway. That's expected for an unsigned binary.
- 64-bit Windows
- No .NET installation required (the runtime is bundled into the exe)
Output
- PNG and SVG export — the SVG stays razor-sharp at any size; PNG resolution is set by a pixels-per-module value.
- Live preview that regenerates automatically as you change fields — leave a field (or pick from a dialog) and the code updates. Invalid input just keeps the last good preview instead of interrupting you.
- Preview background toggle (white ⇄ dark) so you can eyeball how the code reads on a light or dark surface.
Center graphic
- Drop a graphic in the middle of the code: a raster image (PNG/JPG) or, better, a vector glyph pulled straight from a font (TTF/OTF/TTC) so it scales cleanly.
- Choose font & glyph in one dialog — pick a font, then browse its glyphs in a grid (paged, with code-point search) and click to build the character string. No need to know which key maps to which symbol.
- System fonts… lists your installed fonts by name and resolves the file for you — handy
because Windows'
C:\Windows\Fontsfolder can't be browsed with a normal file dialog. Browse… still opens any font file anywhere on disk. - Independent glyph color and glyph background colors. The background can be set to any color or turned off entirely (none = transparent), so the glyph can sit directly on the code instead of on a pad.
Color picker
- A reusable picker on every color field: a curated palette, plus hex and R/G/B inputs kept in sync, with a live preview.
- Contrast hint — for the dark/light pair and the glyph background it shows a WCAG contrast ratio and a plain-language rating, so you get an early warning before you make an unscannable code.
URL building & batch
- Schema-driven URL builder — define your parameters in
url-schema.jsonand fill them in a tidy two-column form. A single default renders a textbox; a list of defaults renders a dropdown. BuildsDOMAIN/PREFIX?name=value&…into the URL box. - Batch → ZIP — paste a list of URLs and get a ZIP of QR
.svgfiles. All Single-tab settings (colors, error correction, and the center graphic) are applied to every code, and a read-only summary on the Batch tab shows exactly what will be used. Filenames are derived from each URL with the protocol and subdomain stripped and every nona–z/0–9character replaced by an underscore. - Add to batch — send a URL crafted on the Single tab straight to the batch list, with de-duplication so a double-click can't queue it twice.
- Adjustable error-correction level (L/M/Q/H) and fully custom colors throughout.
Requires the .NET 8 SDK on Windows.
dotnet run # build and launch
dotnet build -c Release # release buildTo produce the self-contained single-file exe locally:
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true ^
-p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true ^
-p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=trueReleases are built automatically by the GitHub Actions workflow in
.github/workflows/main.yml when a release is published.
{
"domain": "https://example.com",
"prefix": "landing",
"parameters": [
{ "name": "utm_source", "label": "Source", "default": "qr" },
{ "name": "utm_medium", "label": "Medium", "default": ["print", "email", "social", "web"] },
{ "name": "utm_campaign", "label": "Campaign", "default": "spring_sale" },
{ "name": "ref", "label": "Referrer", "default": "", "omitIfEmpty": true }
]
}| Field | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
domain |
yes | Base domain, including scheme. |
prefix |
no | Path after the domain; slashes are normalized. |
parameters[].name |
yes | The query key. |
parameters[].label |
no | Friendly label for the input; falls back to name. |
parameters[].default |
no | A single value → textbox; a list of values → dropdown (first pre-selected). |
parameters[].omitIfEmpty |
no | Defaults to true; a blank value is left out of the URL. |
parameters[].wide |
no | Force this field to span the full width of the two-column form. |
Parameters lay out two per row by default. A field spans the full width automatically when
its value (or longest dropdown option) is long, or when you set "wide": true.
The example schema ships next to the exe and auto-loads on startup; use Load schema… to point at a different file.
WPF's glyph APIs read TTF, OTF and TTC. They do not read WOFF/WOFF2 — convert those to TTF/OTF first.
To pick a font, use System fonts… (installed fonts, by name) or Browse… (any font
file). The Windows C:\Windows\Fonts folder is a shell view that a normal file dialog
can't list, so System fonts… is the reliable way to reach installed fonts.
When you add a center graphic, prefer High (H) error correction and keep the graphic modest in size — then scan it with your phone before relying on it.
"QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED. This project is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Denso Wave. The trademark applies only to the term "QR Code"; the underlying technology is open and free to use.
MIT — see LICENSE.txt. QR generation uses QRCoder (MIT).
Almost this entire app — features, workflow, this README — was created from a handful of short, plain-English prompts to Claude. The full list of prompts for version 1.0.0 is in input.md, kept as-is to show how little input it took.
Everything after 1.0.0 — the dark theme, the font/glyph and color pickers, the glyph background, the auto-updating preview, and a lot of layout tightening — came from a more iterative loop: run it, screenshot what felt off, and describe the fix in a sentence or two. The polish in 1.0.2 is as much "vibe-driven" UX tweaking as it is planned features, which is exactly how this kind of tool tends to come together.