Put your WiFi on a card guests can scan
A WiFi code prints well when it is sized for the scan distance, exported sharp, and kept high-contrast with a clear margin. A table tent scanned from arm's length wants to be a few centimetres across at 300 DPI, black on white, with blank space around it. Get that right and guests join without you dictating a password.
What is specific to WiFi is how the code lives after printing. It sits on a counter or table and gets touched, spilled on and wiped down, so lamination and extra error recovery earn their keep far more than for a code scanned once and thrown away.
Lamination and placement for a code that stays
A WiFi code is semi-permanent signage, not a one-off, so protect it. Laminate a table tent or counter card, or print on coated stock, because a scuffed or watermarked surface scatters the camera's view and misreads creep in over weeks of use.
Matte lamination beats gloss — a glossy finish throws glare under café lighting and phones struggle to lock on. Place the card where a seated guest can hold a phone 15–30 cm away without leaning across the table.
- Matte lamination to kill glare, not gloss.
- Coated or thick stock so it survives spills.
- Reachable at 15–30 cm from a seated guest.
- Reprint if the surface gets scratched or stained.
Size, DPI and the quiet-zone margin
Export at 300 DPI and print a table code around 3–4 cm square so a phone reads it comfortably from a seat. For a wall or window sign read from further, scale up — roughly a tenth of the reading distance is a safe guide.
Keep a quiet zone of at least four blank modules around the pattern. It is tempting to frame the code tightly with your café's logo, but crowding the border is a leading cause of a printed WiFi code that simply will not scan.
Match encryption before you commit to print
A print run is expensive to redo, so verify the encryption field before generating. Pick WPA for a normal router; a wrong setting produces a code that scans but then refuses to connect, and you will not notice until it is on fifty laminated cards.
If your password has a semicolon, colon or backslash, those are structural in the WiFi format and need escaping — safest is a printed-friendly password of plain letters and numbers that also travels cleanly.
Prepare a WiFi code for printing
- Enter SSID and password exactly. Match the network name's capitalisation; a mismatch means a code that scans but fails to join, wasting the whole print run.
- Set encryption to WPA. Confirm the encryption field matches your router before generating — a wrong value is the most common printed-WiFi mistake.
- Export sharp and sized. Download SVG for a print shop or a 300 DPI PNG, sized about 3–4 cm for a table card with a white margin.
- Laminate matte and test. Laminate to survive spills, then scan the finished card at seat distance to confirm the join prompt appears.
Technical details
- Maximum characters: 4296
- Recommended error correction: Q (quartile) — raised from default because a printed WiFi card is handled and scuffed over weeks of counter use, and the extra recovery keeps it scanning through wear.
- Uses the WIFI: payload; verify the encryption field matches the router before committing to a print run.
- Matte lamination and a four-module quiet zone matter more here than for single-use codes.
Frequently asked questions
- How big should a printed WiFi code be for a table?
- About 3–4 cm square is comfortable for a guest scanning from a seat at 300 DPI. For a wall or window sign read from further away, scale up to roughly a tenth of the reading distance so the camera can still resolve the pattern.
- Should I laminate the WiFi card?
- Yes, and use matte lamination. A WiFi code stays out on a counter or table for weeks and gets touched and spilled on, so protection matters. Matte avoids the glare that gloss throws under café lighting, which otherwise blocks scans.
- Why does my printed code scan but not connect?
- The encryption type in the code does not match your router. A wrong setting still produces a valid, scannable image, but the phone refuses to join. Set encryption to WPA for a standard router and reprint after testing on a real device.
- What margin does the code need around it?
- Leave a quiet zone of at least four blank modules on every side. Scanners find the code by its clear border, so framing it tightly with a logo or coloured box is a frequent reason a nicely designed card won't read.
- Can I put my logo next to the code?
- Beside it, yes — keep the logo outside the quiet zone. Placing artwork on top of the pattern or touching its edge risks misreads. A small logo above or below the code, with clear space between, is the safe layout for print.
- Gloss or matte finish for scanning?
- Matte. Gloss lamination and shiny paper reflect overhead lights straight into the phone camera, producing a bright glare spot that hides part of the pattern. Matte scatters that light and keeps the whole code readable from any angle.