How to make a QR code for a map location

Two kinds of location code

Coordinates. A geo code holds a latitude and a longitude in the geo: format, a web standard (RFC 5870) for a point on the Earth:

geo:47.218371,-1.553621

You can add a label for the pin. QR Island writes it the way Android map apps expect, with the coordinates repeated before the label, because a label on its own would make the map app search for those words near the point instead of naming the pin:

geo:47.218371,-1.553621?q=47.218371,-1.553621(Car%20park%20entrance)

A map link. The share link from a map app, such as a Google Maps link, is an ordinary web address. It opens the place’s page: its name, photos, opening hours, reviews and a directions button.

Which to choose

Use a map link when the place is a business with a good listing. Visitors get the opening hours, photos and reviews, and directions in the app they already use.

Use coordinates when the spot has no listing, or the listing’s pin is in the wrong place: a field, a gate, a trailhead, a market pitch, a holiday rental’s private entrance, the delivery door round the back. Coordinates are exact to the metre, they don’t depend on anyone’s listing, and they open in whatever map app the phone uses.

The trade-off with coordinates is that iPhones open them in Apple Maps, so people who prefer another app have one more step. With a mixed audience and a business that has a listing, the map link is usually kinder.

Get exact coordinates

Coordinates are written as decimal degrees: latitude first (north is positive, south negative, from −90 to 90), then longitude (east positive, west negative, from −180 to 180). Swap them and the pin lands somewhere else entirely, often in the sea.

• Google Maps on a computer: right-click the exact spot. The coordinates appear at the top of the menu, and clicking them copies them.
• Google Maps on a phone: touch and hold the spot to drop a pin. The coordinates show in the search box or the pin’s details.
• Apple Maps: touch and hold to drop a pin, then open the pin’s details to see its latitude and longitude.
• On site: stand at the spot and drop a pin at your own location. A phone’s GPS is typically accurate to about 5 metres under open sky, and worse beside tall buildings or under trees, so check the pin on the map afterwards.

Menu names in map apps change from time to time; dropping a pin and reading its details has worked the same way for years. If an app shows degrees, minutes and seconds (such as 47°13′06″N), convert to decimal: degrees + minutes ÷ 60 + seconds ÷ 3600, with a minus sign for south or west.

How many decimal places? Each one is ten times finer:

Five places is enough to find a door. Longitude gets finer still away from the equator, so these are the worst case.

Pin the entrance, not the middle

Navigation apps route people to the point you give them, joined to the nearest road they can find. A pin in the middle of a large building or site can send drivers to a service road at the back, the wrong side of a railway, or a gate that is locked. Put the pin where you want people to arrive:

• Venues: the guest entrance or the car park entrance, not the hall.
• Holiday rentals: the gate, the parking space or the key box, especially in a terrace or a block of flats.
• Markets: your row or pitch, if the market is big enough to get lost in.
• Trailheads: the car park where the walk starts, not the summit.
• Campsites and large sites: reception.

Then say on the print what the pin is: “Pin: car park entrance on Mill Lane”. A label inside the code helps on Android, but the printed words help everyone.

Where location codes earn their place

• Invitations and event signs, for a venue that is hard to find. Our wedding guide covers venue pins on invitations.
• Holiday rentals and guesthouses: in the welcome book, “where to park”, the bins, the path to the beach. Pair it with a Wi‑Fi card for each room.
• Market flyers and pop-ups, where the address alone doesn’t find the stall.
• Clubs and outdoor groups: the meeting point for a walk or a ride. Coordinates suit places with weak signal, since the point arrives without data and offline maps can still route to it.
• Deliveries: a card for couriers showing which gate to use.

Print it and test it

Location codes are small. Bare coordinates (23 characters) make a version 3 code, 29 modules wide, that prints at 2 cm. With a short label they reach version 6 (41 × 41) and need 2.5 cm. A short map link is similar. For a sign by a road or a gate, size the code for the distance instead: about a tenth of it, so 10 cm for people standing a metre away.

1. Scan the printed proof with an iPhone and an Android phone.
2. Zoom in on the pin in each map app and check it sits on the entrance, not the roof.
3. Start directions from somewhere nearby and see which road the route arrives by.
4. For a map link, check it opens the right place, and on a phone without the map app installed.

Make it in QR Island

In the studio, choose Location and enter the latitude and longitude in decimal degrees, as your map app shows them; a decimal comma and a typographic minus sign are both accepted, and the studio rounds to six decimal places. Add an optional label for the pin. For a map link, choose Link and paste the share link instead.

Get QR code shows the flat code to print; download it as PNG or SVG, or open the free print sheet. Free codes are made in your browser and never expire. A map link is a web link, so if the place moves, say a market pitch that changes each season, an Editable code (US$19 a year) lets you point the same printed code at the new spot.