QR Code for Pet Tags
Your phone number, encoded inside the code — no profile page, no subscription, no company that can shut down and take your tag with it. Every code is machine-decoded in your browser before you can download it, and the fit meter tells you honestly which tag sizes it scans from. Free for owners; free for makers who sell, too.
What fits on a real tag — the honest numbers
A scanner needs roughly half a millimetre per module. On a round tag the code sits inscribed in the circle, which costs a factor of √2 — that is not our rule, it is geometry. Computed by this page's own engine when it was built:
- Dial-only on a 25 mm circle: 0.54 mm per module — fits with room to spare. This is the mode for the smallest tags.
- Contact card on a 25 mm circle: 0.39 mm per module — too dense; the floor is 0.5 mm. The same card fits a 32 mm circle.
- The same contact card on a 32 mm circle: 0.50 mm — fits comfortably.
- Or keep 25 mm and go square: 0.52 mm per module — the square insert skips the √2 penalty entirely.
The generator refuses to pretend: when a payload will not scan at your chosen size, it says so and tells you the smallest size that will — or you shorten the note and watch the modules grow back.
Why the code carries the number itself
Most QR pet tags on the market encode a link to a profile page — which means the tag's real dependency is a company's server, its billing, and its patience. When a URL shortener or profile service is retired, every physical tag pointing at it stops working on the same day, no matter how good the engraving is. A code that carries the contact info directly has no such dependency: the phone that scans it does all the work. The trade-off is density — more characters, finer modules — which is exactly why the fit meter exists and why the dial-only mode is offered for the smallest tags.
Pet tag QR FAQ
Why put the contact info inside the code instead of a link?
A link points at a server, and servers stop answering: profile services shut down, subscriptions lapse, URL shorteners get retired — and every printed tag pointing at them goes dark. A code that carries the phone number itself has nothing to expire. The finder scans, the number appears, they call. It works in twenty years exactly as it works today.
What does a finder actually see?
In contact-card mode, their camera offers to save or call a contact named after your pet — "Biscuit (lost pet)" — with your number and any note you added, like a reward line or a medical flag. In dial-only mode, scanning simply offers the call. Either way there is no app to install and no page to load.
How do I know the code will scan from a small tag?
Two gates. First, every code is machine-decoded in your browser at three image sizes before download is allowed — if the decoded bytes do not match your exact content, you cannot download it. Second, the fit meter does the physical arithmetic: a scanner needs about half a millimetre per module, and on a round tag the code sits inscribed in the circle, so the meter tells you per size what fits and what does not — before you print or engrave anything.
Is this a GPS tracker?
No. A QR tag is a recovery aid: it turns whoever finds your pet into someone who can reach you in ten seconds. It does not locate anything on its own. It also never runs out of battery, needs no app, and costs nothing a month — the trade is honest in both directions.
Is my phone number uploaded anywhere?
No. The code is encoded, drawn, and decode-verified entirely in this browser. Nothing you type is transmitted, stored, or seen by us — there is no server to send it to and no account to create. The only place your number exists is inside the code you download.
Making tags to sell? The insert sheet tool batch-prints verified codes with cut guides at exact sizes, the insert spec is the contract any encasement method must honor, and the maker guide covers the business side — commercial use is welcome.