What the card opens
The courtyard of the island on the card is a working QR code. It holds one web link, and a scan opens it straight away: no app of ours, no page in between. You choose what it is when you start:
| You’re giving | Paste a link to | The card says |
|---|---|---|
| A playlist | A playlist on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music | Scan for our playlist |
| A video | A video on YouTube or another site, such as a message you recorded | Scan to watch |
| A photo album | A shared album, such as Google Photos or iCloud | Scan for the photos |
| Another link | Any web page they can open | Scan to open |
When the link is on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and a few other sites, that app’s icon goes in the middle of the code by itself, so they know what to expect before they scan. Playlists have their own page: Spotify playlist QR codes.
Whatever you link to stays where it is: your playlist on your music app, your video on its site. QR Island never holds the songs, photos or video themselves, only the link, and the card’s words when you buy the pack.
What goes on the card
- Their name, up to 60 characters. It heads the card: “For Maya”.
- A few words from you, up to 280 characters: what you’d write inside a card. Emoji and accents print as you type them.
- A date to remember, optional, up to 40 characters, printed exactly as you write it: “12 October 2026”, “Our first year”, “Summer 2026”.
Choose the card’s shape: Compact, a square 5 × 5 in (13 × 13 cm), or Portrait, 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm). Empty lines are left off. Text that is too long is flagged by its field rather than cut, so nothing is lost at the printer. Longer words get a smaller size first; on the Compact card the island then gives up a little room, never more than half its height, because the island is the code, and a bigger code scans more easily. If your words still don’t fit, the studio says so before you pay and suggests Portrait.
The words are printed on the card, not stored behind the code. A scan opens your link and nothing else, so the message on the card stays between the two of you and whoever holds it.
How they scan it
- They open the camera on their phone and point it at the island. Most phones read QR codes in the camera app with nothing to install.
- A link appears on the screen. They tap it.
- The playlist, video or album opens, in its own app if they have it, or in the browser.
Anyone who scans the card can open the link, and the service that holds it decides who can play or see it. A playlist they can’t play, or an album that asks them to request access, is the most common surprise, so in the studio press See what they see before you print: it opens your link exactly as a scan will. New to scanning? Our guide on how to scan a QR code covers every phone.
What’s free, and what the Island pack adds
Making the card is free, on any of the 25 islands, and so is the card itself: your personalised gift card as a PNG at screen size (857 × 857 Compact, or 857 × 1200 Portrait), with their name, your words and a small qrisland.com credit at the foot. So are your island picture at screen size, 1200 × 900, with a small QR Island credit in the corner, and the flat QR code as PNG or SVG.
The Island pack (US$6.99 once) gives the same card clean and print-ready: your gift card at 5 × 5 in or 5 × 7 in, the shape you chose, and a 12 × 16 in poster, both at 300 dpi, and a print sheet on US Letter or A4 with cut marks. It includes the pack’s other files too: large island pictures, a transparent cut-out and a 12-second video of the island. None of the paid files carries a QR Island credit. It is one payment, with no subscription, and each pack is for one card design: its name, words and island are kept with it, so a download next month prints exactly what you bought.
These are digital files: you print them yourself. Nothing is posted to you or to them.
Print it at home
- Print at 100%, not “fit to page”, so the card comes out at its size: 5 × 5 in or 5 × 7 in. The print sheet says so on the page.
- Use card stock if your printer takes it, or print on paper and mount it on a folded card.
- Matte paper scans more easily than glossy, which can throw a light’s reflection across the code.
- Cut on the marks for a card exactly 5 × 7 in, the size an A7 envelope holds.
- Scan the printed card with a phone that isn’t yours before you seal the envelope.
The poster is for a print shop or a frame: 12 × 16 in is a standard frame size, and its code scans from a metre or so away.
How to make it
- Copy the link to the playlist, video or album from its Share button.
- Open the gift starter and choose what you’re giving: a playlist, a video, a photo album or another link.
- Paste the link, then add their name and a few words, and a date if you like.
- Pick their island and press “See what they see” to check the link opens for someone else.
- Get your files: your personalised card, free, or the Island pack for it clean and print-ready, with a poster.
- Print the card at 100% and scan it before you give it.
