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.

  • GmorkOP
    5·
    3 years ago

    Awesome! Thanks for the in depth response and examples.

    I’ll have to see if I can successfully decode your lemmy picture when I get home to my computer.

    I learned alot today! Unfortunately I also learned that there are no ‘QR codes’ that can achieve the scope of what i wanted. 😭

      • GmorkOP
        3·
        3 years ago

        Think of a one-page flyer/poster JPEG that has textual information but also some bar graphs or pie charts to convey statistical information but discreetly disguised as a QR code.

        All of the data would be contained in the QR code. This way it could work indefinitely… Rather than the QR code containing a URL and loading up a website so you don’t have to worry about the website going offline or being censored. Not to mention websites can be tracked back to the owner. There are digital footprints.

        It appears that QR codes can do very limited textual information, but nothing to the scope of what I need.

        • Jonah
          2·
          3 years ago

          From personal experience, the Cowboy Bebop opening text (around 700 characters) is the most I could fit on a QR code while still being able to print it and scan it with my phone, in case that helps.

          • GmorkOP
            2·
            3 years ago

            What do you mean the opening text? Like the credits? All the animator names and stuff?

            That is a decent amount of info. My issues so far has been the formatting of the text.

            I downloaded a new camera app that is geared towards QR scanning. Someone suggested it in this thread. Perhaps it would have better results and fewer issues with formatting.

            Thanks for the info!

    • roastpotatothief
      3·
      3 years ago

      If it doesn’t exist, then you can invent it.

      QR codes are perfect for encoding text, even though most people just use them to send URLs. It should be a very good tool for flyers.

      If you want rich text, colours and fonts and sizes, I’m sure that’s easy too. But you might need to invent a type of markup to compress the style information better. Or it might already exist.

      • GmorkOP
        2·
        3 years ago

        That’s just it though, it is very limited and has issues with even simple text. Tryp said in this thread that they had to download additional stuff in order to display the text in a QR code.

        I had similar issues when scanning a text QR Code. Being a QR code, it opened my browser… Simple text was displayed in my search bar in linear fashion. So basic formatting of text to make an ASCII bar graph, for example is not possible.

        Without basic formatting capabilities it’s almost useless for my purpose, unfortunately.

        • liwott@nerdica.net
          1·
          3 years ago

          Being a QR code, it opened my browser…

          This is very much a problem with the app you use to scan rather than with the QR code itself.

        • roastpotatothief
          1·
          3 years ago

          Do all QR code phone apps do that, or just the one? Maybe it’s a setting in the app that you can turn off. You’d think the app would be clever enough to recognise whether the message is a URL or not, and treat it appropriately.

          QR codes can often be ticket numbers or lists of information. It’s literally just text, but in a machine-readable form, instead of human-readable.