Many thanks everyone for all the suggestions! We've now found an option that will suit our use case.

Deborah

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Tamara Marnell
Sent: Saturday, 29 April 2023 5:58 am
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] QR code generator

[You don't often get email from [log in to unmask] Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ]

Caution: This email originated from outside our organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.


I've used the Zint barcode generator, which can produce a lot of different symbologies including QR codes: https://zint.org.uk/manual/chapter/1

There's a Windows GUI for generating images manually, and also a CLI you can use in scripts. I put it on the server of our regional archival aggregator (Archives West <https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/>) to generate QR codes for each finding aid.

-Tamara

On Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 4:39 AM Joe Hourclé <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> > On Apr 27, 2023, at 11:23 PM, Fitchett, Deborah <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > Kia ora,
> >
> > A library user’s looking for a way to generate a QR code for a
> > specific
> webpage. They’ll want it to work on a fairly permanent basis and I’d
> want to avoid any statistics/trackers being embedded – so it shouldn’t
> be dependent on a middle-party like bit.ly to resolve it.
> >
> > Does anyone know of somewhere they can do this?
>
> There are a lot of things that can do this (I even made one yesterday
> on my phone… it was an iPhone ‘shortcut’… I don’t know if it’s a
> built-in or something from one of the apps that I have installed)
>
> But one bit of advice: choose a short URL to start.  As it’s basically
> just an encoding standard, the longer the URL, the more complex the
> image becomes.  If you can control the website, you can mint a URL
> that’s short to start with, or set up a redirect or rewrite if you’re
> using a content management system.
>
> And then test your QR code… there are plenty of readers out there that
> will tell you what the URL (or other text) is instead of just sending
> you blindly to a webpage.  That will let you know if the code links
> straight to the site you wanted, or if it tries going through some
> tracking website first.
>
> -Joe
>
> Sent from a mobile device with a crappy on screen keyboard and
> obnoxious "autocorrect"



--

Tamara Marnell
Program Manager, Systems
Orbis Cascade Alliance (orbiscascade.org <https://www.orbiscascade.org/>)
Pronouns: she/her/hers

________________________________

"The contents of this e-mail (including any attachments) may be confidential and/or subject to copyright. Any unauthorised use, distribution, or copying of the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please advise the sender by return e-mail or telephone and then delete this e-mail together with all attachments from your system."