How to Create a QR Code in Canva and Export It So It Still Scans

How to Create a QR Code in Canva

Open any Canva design, select Apps in the side panel, search for QR code, enter the URL, and select Save. The whole procedure takes about two minutes. Canva moves its interface labels from time to time, so the steps below describe what to look for as well as what the button is currently called.

1. Sign In and Open a Design. Sign in at canva.com and open the flyer, menu, business card or poster the QR code belongs on. To make a QR code on its own, create a custom-size design of 1000 x 1000 px instead.
2. Open Apps in the Side Panel. Select Apps at the bottom of the left-hand side panel. On the Canva mobile app, tap the plus button first and scroll the bottom bar to Apps.
3. Search for QR Code and Open the App. Type QR code into the Apps search box and choose the app published by Canva. Several third-party QR apps appear in the same results; those have their own sign-ups and limits.
4. Paste the URL. Enter the full web address, including https://. Use the shortest address that works, because a shorter URL produces a QR code with fewer, larger modules that scans more easily at small sizes.
5. Select Save and Position the Code. The panel confirms that the QR code is ready and the code appears on the canvas. Drag a corner handle to resize it so the code stays square.
6. Choose the Pattern, Corners, Logo and Colours. The app panel has a Pattern menu, a row of Corners styles and a Logo row; options marked with a crown need a paid plan. The two colours are set from the colour swatches in the toolbar above the canvas. Keep the code dark on a light background, then scan it from the screen with a phone.

To change the destination later, select the QR code on the canvas, edit the URL in the app panel and select Save again. Whether copies that are already printed follow the change depends on whether the code is static or dynamic, which the section on static and dynamic codes below explains how to check.

What the Canva QR Code App Can and Cannot Do

Canva's QR code app covers the common case well: a square QR code for a URL, with a choice of module patterns, corner styles and colours, placed in a layout in one step. The app does not offer custom shapes, vector export of the code alone, a contrast check, or control over error correction. Those limits follow from the app being one element inside a design tool rather than a dedicated generator.

Check the Logo row before exporting, because a Canva QR code can carry Canva's own logo in its centre unless another option is chosen. Set the Logo row to none for a plain code. A logo chosen inside the app is allowed for when the code is drawn, which is safer than the alternative: dragging a separate image over the finished code covers modules the scanner needs.

Error correction is the redundancy built into a QR code that allows it to remain scannable when part of the symbol is covered. Canva's app gives no control over the error correction level, so a logo placed over the code by hand spends a reserve of unknown size. Keep a hand-placed logo under about a tenth of the code's area and test the result on two phones.

Are Canva QR Codes Static or Dynamic, and Do They Expire?

Canva has made both kinds. Canva's QR code app produced static codes for years, and Canva's help centre now also documents dynamic QR codes that can be re-pointed later, with scan insights marked as a paid feature in the editor. Which kind a given code is can be checked in under a minute, and it is worth checking before anything is printed.

A static QR code is a code whose destination is stored in the pattern itself, so the destination cannot be changed after the code is made. A static QR code does not expire: nothing sits between the scan and the page, so there is no scan limit and nothing to switch off. A dynamic QR code stores a short link owned by the provider instead, and keeps working for as long as that provider keeps the link alive.

1. Download the Canva design, or take a clean export of the QR code.
2. Decode the file with a tool that shows the stored text, such as the QR code scanner, rather than opening the link.
3. If the decoded text is exactly the URL that was typed in, the code is static. If the decoded text is a different, shorter address that forwards to the URL, the code is dynamic and depends on that forwarding service.

The trade-off runs both ways. A static QR code cannot be edited after printing, so if the destination page moves, the printed code still points at the old address. A dynamic QR code can be edited, but its plan terms decide how long it lives; which Canva plan includes what is the kind of detail that changes, so check the current plan page.

There is a way to keep a printed static QR code editable without any subscription. Point the QR code at an address on a domain you control, such as example.com/menu, and set that address up as a 302 redirect to the real page. The printed code never changes and the redirect can be edited at any time. Static vs dynamic QR codes covers when each type is the right choice.

How to Download a Canva QR Code for Print

Select Share, then Download, and choose PDF Print for anything that will be printed. PDF Print exports at 300 DPI and offers crop marks and bleed. PDF Standard exports at 96 DPI, which is a screen resolution: a QR code exported at 96 DPI and printed 3 cm wide has roughly a third of the pixel detail per module that the 300 DPI file has.

To export the QR code without the rest of the design, create a new custom-size design of 1000 x 1000 px, generate or paste the QR code into it, and stretch the code to fill the canvas with its margin intact. Download that design as PNG for screen use. On the free plan the PNG size slider stops at the design's own dimensions, which is why the canvas should be made large to begin with.

Never take a screenshot of a QR code in the Canva editor and use that as the file. A screenshot records the code at whatever zoom level the editor happened to be showing, and the result is usually a few hundred pixels wide with softened edges.

How Big Should a QR Code Be in a Canva Design?

A QR code in a printed Canva design should be at least 2 cm wide for scanning at arm's length, and 3 cm is the safer minimum. As a rule of thumb, a QR code needs about 1 cm of width for every 10 cm of scanning distance, so a poster read from 2 m needs a code about 20 cm wide.

Canva shows element sizes in pixels by default, which hides the printed size. For a print design, create the design in millimetres or inches - A5, 148 x 210 mm, for a flyer, for example - and read the code's width from the position panel. A QR code that looks large on screen in an A3 poster template can still be under 2 cm on paper.

• Business card: 2 to 2.5 cm wide, with a short URL so the modules stay large.
• Flyer or menu held in the hand: 3 cm wide or more.
• Table tent read from a seat: 4 to 5 cm wide.
• Poster read from 2 m: about 20 cm wide.

A quiet zone is the empty margin around a QR code that lets a scanner detect where the symbol begins and ends, and the QR code standard, ISO/IEC 18004, sets it at four modules on every side. Canva templates are where the quiet zone most often gets lost: a code dropped into a decorative frame, tucked against a photo, or placed on a patterned background has no clear margin left. The minimum QR code size for print guide gives the sizes by material and distance.

How to Add a Circular or Custom QR Code to a Canva Design

Generate the QR code in a dedicated generator, download it as SVG or PNG, and upload the file through Uploads in Canva's side panel. The uploaded QR code then behaves like any other image in the design. This is the route for a circular code, a code with a logo built in, a vector code on the free Canva plan, or a Wi-Fi or contact code.

1. Create the QR code in the generator of your choice and check that it scans on screen.
2. Download the code as SVG for print, or as PNG at the final printed size and at least 300 DPI.
3. In Canva, select Uploads in the side panel, then Upload files, and choose the file.
4. Drag the uploaded QR code onto the canvas and resize it from a corner handle only, so it stays in proportion.
5. Leave the code's own margin intact and keep other elements out of it.

KoloQR, a free QR code generator with circular and custom-shaped QR codes, fits this workflow because it exports the code by itself. KoloQR downloads SVG, PDF, EPS and PNG with no account, draws the symbol as a square, circle, triangle or hexagon, and checks the contrast of the chosen colours before download. KoloQR makes static codes only and has no layout tools, so Canva still does the flyer. The KoloQR vs Canva comparison sets the two side by side.

An uploaded SVG stays sharp at any size in Canva, including after the design is resized from a flyer to a poster. An uploaded PNG does not, so a PNG code should be exported at the largest size it will ever be printed at and only ever scaled down.

Why a Canva QR Code Does Not Scan

A Canva QR code that does not scan has usually been shrunk to fit the layout, coloured with too little contrast, or exported at screen resolution. The code Canva generates is valid; the failures come from what happens to it in the design afterwards.

Transparency is a Canva-specific trap. Setting the QR code's transparency slider below 100 to blend it into a background lowers the contrast of every module at once, and the editor gives no warning. Keep a QR code fully opaque, and check colour pairs in the QR code contrast checker before the design goes to print.

Print one copy at final size before ordering the run, and scan it with one iPhone and one Android phone at the distance people will actually stand. For a wider list of causes, see why a QR code is not scanning.