I recently stumbled upon a discussion in which someone was asking if QR codes could be reversed (white on black) on still scan. It’s an interesting question, because when I looked back, I could only recall seeing black QR codes on a white background.
While it is possible to reverse QR codes, not all barcode readers will support this. All readers are capable of scanning a black barcode on a white background, but when it comes to the reverse, only certain readers are capable.
The i-nigma reader does support reversed QR codes, however if you are using the code for some sort of marketing campaign, then you may want to consider that your audience will be using different readers, most of which do not support reverse QR code scanning.
If you know of other barcode readers that support reverse QR code scanning, please let us know by commenting on our blog or Twitter pages. However, until reverse QR code scanning is a common feature among barcode readers, I would suggest sticking with standard black on white in order to reach the largest audience.
Tags:
barcode reader, i-nigma barcode reader, Mobile Barcodes, QR codes, reverse qr codes, reversed qr codes, white on black qr codes
A QR Code scanner must read reflectance reversed (white-on-black) symbols as required by the international standard (ISO/IEC 18004:2006). If a barcode reader does not read reflectance reversed symbols then it is not strictly QR Code compliant and cannot claim to be a complete implementation.
It is worth remembering that it is necessary to place a region of blank space called a quiet zone around each symbol and that for white-on-black the clear zone must be black. Barcode scanners may be especially sensitive in this particular case.
All the best,
Terry
This is a very interesting point, and something I have experimented with. Whilst the results with inverting the colours were very variable, I have noticed that incorporating more than one color into the tradiditonal layout is not an issue. For an example, check out the QR code we use as a mobile access to our RSS feed on the Essential Communications blog… http://blog.essential-communications.com
Or simply have a look at the QR code itself here => http://tinyurl.com/26crlq7
I’d be intersted to see how versitile the codes are, and whether the limitations are solely based around the contrast ratios, or whether the difference engine is looking for a pattern excluding “whites”!
Hi Terry,
You are absolutely right! Thank you for sharing this!