QRTOOL-ENCODE(1)

📦
version 0.13.2 · 2 versions
, in arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💖 qrtool-encode 💖

okay bestie, this is the qrtool-encode(1) page from the General Commands Manual, and it's literally your glow-up guide for turning data into a QR code. no cap. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

qrtool-encode — encode input data in a QR code ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

qrtool encode [OPTION]... [STRING]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

This command encodes input data in a QR code at https://www.qrcode.com and outputs it as a PNG image, an SVG image, a string, or other formats. By default, the result is output to standard output. 🫶

This command will read up to the first 7,090 bytes of the input data. The amount of data that can be represented by a QR code depends on the mode, version, and error correction level. The storage capacity is maximized for version 40 and error correction level L (40-L). 👑

📊 Table 1. Maximum character storage capacity (40-L)

  • Numeric — max 7,089 characters — possible characters: 0-9
  • Alphanumeric — max 4,296 characters — possible characters: 0-9, A-Z (uppercase only), and few symbols (space, $, %, *, +, -, ., /, :)
  • Byte — max 2,953 characters — possible characters: arbitrary binary data
  • Kanji — max 1,817 characters — possible characters: any double-byte JIS X 0208 character

By default, this command encodes the input data in a QR code with a black foreground and white background, but this can be changed by specifying --foreground and/or --background. The CSS color string at https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/ can be specified as a value for these options. 🎨

🌈 Table 2. List of methods to specify a color

  • Named colors — examples: brown, lightslategray
  • Hexadecimal notations — examples: #111, #eee8, #a52a2a, #7788997f
  • RGB functions — examples: rgb(165 42 42), rgb(119 136 153 / 49.8%)
  • HSL functions — examples: hsl(248 39% 39.2%), hsl(0 0% 66.3% / 49.8%)
  • HWB function — examples: hwb(50.6 0% 0%), hwb(0 66.3% 33.7% / 49.8%)
  • Oklab function — examples: oklab(50.4% -0.0906 0.0069), oklab(61.9% -0.0120 -0.0302 / 0.5)
  • Oklch function — examples: oklch(59.41% 0.16 301.29), oklch(61.9% 0.032 248.35 / 49.8%)

In addition to a normal QR code at https://www.qrcode.com/codes/model12.html, this command can also encode the input data in a Micro QR code at https://www.qrcode.com/codes/microqr.html and a rMQR code at https://www.qrcode.com/codes/rmqr.html. iconic, honestly. 🧚

🎀 POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS 🎀

📥 STRING

Input data. If STRING is not specified, data will be read from standard input. STRING must be a valid UTF-8 string. Use --read-from or read from standard input if taking other than a valid UTF-8 string. This positional argument conflicts with --read-from. 💀

so yeah — valid UTF-8? you're chilling. not valid UTF-8? pipe it in or use --read-from. and do not combo this positional argument with --read-from, because they conflict. periodt. 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -o, --output FILE — write the result out to a file instead of yeeting it at stdout. 🎀
  • -r, --read-from FILE — pull the input data from a file. Heads up bestie: this option conflicts with STRING, so pick one, you can't have both. 🙈
  • -s, --size NUMBER — the module size in pixels. If you don't say anything, the module size is 8 when the output format is PNG, SVG, EPS, or PIC, and 1 otherwise. ✨
  • -l, --error-correction-level LEVEL — the error correction level. The possible values are:
    • l — Level L. 7% of codewords can be restored. 💅
    • m — Level M. 15% of codewords can be restored. This is the default value. 👑
    • q — Level Q. 25% of codewords can be restored. ⭐
    • h — Level H. 30% of codewords can be restored. 🔥
  • --level LEVEL — literally just an alias for -l, --error-correction-level. Same energy, different spelling. 🦋
  • -v, --symbol-version NUMBER [NUMBER] — the version of the symbol. If you don't specify it, the minimum version required to store the data gets automatically chosen for you (the tool is being a main character and handling it 💅). For normal QR code, NUMBER should be between 1 and 40. For Micro QR code, NUMBER should be between 1 and 4. For rMQR code, the first NUMBER should be 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, or 17. The second NUMBER should be 27, 43, 59, 77, 99, or 139. 27 can only be used with 11, or 13. If the type of QR code is other than rMQR code, the second NUMBER is ignored. 🧚
  • --symversion NUMBER [NUMBER] — alias for -v, --symbol-version. iykyk. 💜
  • -m, --margin NUMBER — the width of the margin. If this option is not specified, the margin will be 4 for normal QR code and 2 for others. 🌸
  • -t, --type FORMAT — the format of the output. The possible values are:
    • png — Portable Network Graphics. This outputs 32-bit RGBA PNG image. This is the default value. 🎀
    • svg — Scalable Vector Graphics. ✨
    • eps — Encapsulated PostScript. 🖨️
    • pic — PIC markup language. 🦋
    • ansi — to the terminal using 4-bit ANSI escape sequences. This value is available if the output-as-ansi feature is enabled at compile time. 🌈
    • ansi256 — to the terminal using 8-bit ANSI escape sequences. This value is available if the output-as-ansi feature is enabled at compile time. 💖
    • ansi-true-color — to the terminal using 24-bit ANSI escape sequences. This value is available if the output-as-ansi feature is enabled at compile time. 🔥
    • ascii — to the terminal as ASCII string. 🍓
    • ascii-invert — to the terminal as ASCII string. This value inverts foreground and background colors of ascii and outputs the inverted string. ASCIIi is an alias for this value. 🙈
    • unicode — to the terminal as UTF-8 string. terminal and UTF8 are aliases for this value. 💜
    • unicode-invert — to the terminal as UTF-8 string. This value inverts foreground and background colors of unicode and outputs the inverted string. UTF8i is an alias for this value. 🧚
  • --optimize-png [LEVEL] — set the optimization level for a PNG image. Lower levels are faster, higher levels provide better compression. If LEVEL is not specified, it is assumed that the default level 2 is specified. This option is available if the optimize-output-png feature is enabled at compile time. The possible values are:
    • 0 — Level 0. This value is the minimum optimization level. 🌱
    • 1 — Level 1. 🦋
    • 2 — Level 2. This is the default value. 👑
    • 3 — Level 3. ✨
    • 4 — Level 4. 💫
    • 5 — Level 5. 🔥
    • 6 — Level 6. This value is the maximum optimization level. 💅
    • max — This value is an alias for the maximum optimization level. 🌈
  • --zopfli [ITERATION] — use Zopfli to compress PNG image. Perform compression for the number of iterations specified by ITERATION. If ITERATION is not specified, it is assumed that 15 is specified as the number of iterations. This option requires --optimize-png. This option is available if the optimize-output-png feature is enabled at compile time. 🫶
  • --mode MODE — the mode of the output. If this option is not specified, use the optimal encoding. This option requires --symbol-version. The possible values are:
    • numeric — all digits. 🔢
    • alphanumeric — alphanumerics and few symbols. 🔤
    • byte — arbitrary binary data. 💾
    • kanji — Shift JIS text. 🈁
  • --variant TYPE — the type of QR code. The possible values are:
    • normal — normal QR code. This is the default value. 👑
    • micro — Micro QR code. 🐣
    • rmqr — rMQR code. 📐
  • --foreground COLOR — foreground color. COLOR takes a CSS color string. Colored output is only available when the output format is PNG, SVG or any ANSI escape sequences. Note that lossy conversion may be performed depending on the color space supported by the method to specify a color, the color depth supported by the output format, etc. Default is black. 🖤
  • --background COLOR — background color. COLOR takes a CSS color string. Colored output is only available when the output format is PNG, SVG or any ANSI escape sequences. Note that lossy conversion may be performed depending on the color space supported by the method to specify a color, the color depth supported by the output format, etc. Default is white. 🤍
  • --verbose — also print the metadata. It is output to stderr. 🗣️
  • -h, --help — print help message. The short flag (-h) will print a condensed help message while the long flag (--help) will print a detailed help message. 🫶
  • -V, --version — print version number. 🏷️

🚦 EXIT STATUS 🚦

  • 0 — successful program execution. slay. ✨
  • 1 — an error occurred. 😭
  • 2 — an error occurred while parsing command-line arguments. 💀

Exit statuses other than these are defined by <sysexits.h> <https://man.openbsd.org/sysexits>. 📚

📝 NOTES 📝

Source repository: <https://github.com/sorairolake/qrtool> 🌸

🎬 EXAMPLES 🎬

Encode the given string in a QR code:

$ qrtool encode "QR code" > output.png

Encode the given file and output to the specified image:

$ qrtool encode -o output.png -r go.mod

Encode in a QR code and output as a SVG image:

$ qrtool encode -t svg "QR code" > output.svg

Encode in a Micro QR code:

$ qrtool encode --variant micro "QR code" > output.png

Encode in a QR code with the specified colors:

$ qrtool encode -o output.png --foreground brown --background lightslategray "QR code"

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Report bugs to: <https://github.com/sorairolake/qrtool/issues> — the maintainers genuinely want to hear it, no cap. 🙏

Copyright © 2022 Shun Sakai and contributors

  1. This program is distributed under the terms of either the Apache License 2.0 or the MIT License.
  2. This manual page is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 🫶

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

oxipng(1), qrencode(1), qrtool(1), qrtool-completion(1), qrtool-decode(1) — go read them, they're iconic. 💅

that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from qrtool 0.13.2, dated 2025-11-08 — go make some pretty QR codes and slay 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from