Is there anything similar to a QR code that works offline?

Say I have a flyer that I want to discreetly distribute and there is no internet.

Is there something like a QR code that contains the data itself and not just a URL?

This way someone with no data plan could scan the icon/code with an app and the unrecognizable bits and bytes from the icon/code would show up on their screen as a .JPEG of a flyer or something.

  • liwott@nerdica.net
    7·
    2 years ago

    I didn’t know there was an actual limit to the size of a QR code, but as we see a big problem with (raster) images is that the QR code rapidly becomes much more complex than the image itself

    • southerntofu
      71·
      2 years ago

      Vector images can be a good fit though! If you can fit a URL in there, a SVG could fit in too :)

      • liwott@nerdica.net
        4·
        2 years ago

        I agreed a priori, which, as you probably guessed, is exactly why I put that parenthesis 😀 But I think in practice the starting point already is too complex. For example, I opened inkscape and saved the empty image, the result is already more than 1KB. Similarly, Lemmy’s very simple logo is already 3KB.

          • liwott@nerdica.net
            2·
            2 years ago

            Thanks for the clarification ! This indeed makes the code readable, although way more complex than the original logo. Also, not everyone has an app able to read that svg on their smartphone