Which album link to use
A photo album QR code holds the album’s share link: the same link you would send in a message, which opens the album for anyone who has it. Use a link made for sharing, not the address of the album in your own account, which only you can open.
| Album | The link to use | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Google Photos | The album’s share link (photos.app.goo.gl/…), from Share in the album | Anyone with the link can see the album. Turning off link sharing in the album’s options stops the code from opening it. |
| iCloud Shared Album | The album’s public website link, after turning on Public Website in the album’s sharing options | A link copied for a few selected photos instead (Copy iCloud Link) stops working after 30 days, so print the shared album’s link. |
| Another service | Any share link that opens without signing in | Open it in a private browser window first: what you see there is what a scan shows. |
The code opens the album as it is when someone scans it, not a copy. Add photos after you print and every scan shows them; delete the album, or stop sharing it, and the code opens an error page.
The trip postcard
Start a trip keepsake and the studio asks for what a postcard needs: a name for the memory (up to 80 characters), when it was, shown exactly as you write it (“August 2026”, “Easter week”), and what made it special, up to 280 characters. The island sits on the left of a 6 × 4 in landscape card, with your words on the right and “Scan for the photos” under them.
Making the postcard is free, and so is the postcard itself: a PNG at screen size (1200 × 800) with the trip’s name, your words and a small qrisland.com credit, next to your island picture at screen size (1200 × 900, with a small QR Island credit) and the flat QR code as PNG or SVG. The Island pack (US$6.99 once) gives the same postcard clean and print-ready at 300 dpi, a 12 × 16 in poster for a frame, and a print sheet on US Letter or A4 with two postcards and cut marks, next to the pack’s large island pictures, transparent cut-out and 12-second island video. None of the paid files carries a QR Island credit. They are digital files: you print them yourself.
Several links: a free Island page
A trip often has more than an album: the video someone edited on the flight home, the playlist from the car. Choose A free Island page with your links and the postcard’s code opens a page of your own at qrisland.com/@yourname, with the trip’s name, your words and a button for each link: “Our photo album”, “Our trip video” and “Our trip playlist”. The postcard then says “Scan to visit our memories”.
- We email you a link to publish the page. Until it is published, the postcard shows a sample code and checkout waits, so a printed code always opens your real page.
- Editing the page’s links later is free. It changes where a scan goes, not the postcards or posters you’ve already printed.
- The page keeps its small “Made with QR Island” badge, with or without the Island pack.
More on the pages themselves: Island pages.
Who can see your photos
- Anyone who scans the code can open the link. The album service decides who can see the photos, and what they can do there: download them, comment or add their own.
- Your photos stay with the album service you chose. QR Island never receives them: the code holds the link, nothing more.
- An Island page is public. Hiding it from search engines keeps it out of results, but anyone with the link or the code can still open it.
- A postcard is a key to the album. Give it to the people you’d send the link to, and think twice before pinning it up somewhere public.
Weddings, reunions and school trips
The same code works the other way round: print it on the tables at a wedding or a reunion, and guests open the album to see the day’s photos, or add their own if your album lets them. Google Photos shared albums can let people with the link add photos once they sign in; check the album’s options before the day. For invitations, RSVPs and the rest of an event, see event QR codes and our wedding QR code guide.
For size, aim for about a tenth of the distance people read from: the postcard’s code reads in the hand, and a table card read from half a metre needs a code about 5 cm wide. Scan the printed card with a phone that has never opened the album before you hand it out.
How to make it
- Copy the album’s share link and open it in a private browser window to check it opens for someone else.
- Open the trip starter and name your memory, with a date and a few words if you like.
- Choose what a scan opens: your shared album, or a free Island page with your album, a video and a playlist.
- Paste the link, pick an island from the 25 worlds, and press “See what they see”.
- Get your files: your personalised postcard, free, or the Island pack for it clean and print-ready, with a poster.
- Print the postcard at 100% and scan it before you post it or hand it out.
