more … ]]> I’ve been surprised by the response to my previous post on QR-codes – the 2-d barcodes that can be read by mobile phones.

I’m still skeptical, but Roger, the editor of http://2d-code.co.uk/ wrote to point me at the impressive Japanese experience with QR-codes – apparently 51% of Japanese mobile phone users use the barcode function.

Looking through his site, I liked the idea of linking the QR-code to a mobile facebook page and was inspired by this Harrods ad to create a QR-code for a Twitter sign-up SMS. Here are examples of each:

Another option is that QR-codes may be used for the VCF files used to exchange addresses between phones.  This article suggests linking to one of these files on a website – but I’m not entirely clear why you wouldn’t just put the whole address file into the QR-code as follows?

more … ]]> While reading the davidthedesigner blog for my latest typography fix, I spotted this article about QR-codes. They’re a sort of square bar-code that can be read by mobile phones. You can generate your own here and get the software here.

Are these ever likely to take off? Should we start printing them on posters or business cards? I doubt it – but here’s a test image with a hidden message which you can use to send me your views.