No redirect
An email QR code that opens a message, not a marketing page
The code stores a mailto link: your address, and optionally a subject and a first line. The phone opens its mail app. We never receive the message.
Encoded content
How to make one
- Step 1. Use an address you actually read. A role address such as hello@ or events@ is safer on a poster than a personal inbox you might leave.
- Step 2. Add a subject if it helps you sort mail. Something like 'Stall question' or 'Allergen note' is enough. The body can be a first sentence the sender will edit.
- Step 3. Read the mailto line. The preview shows the exact link, with the subject and body percent-encoded. That is what the phone will open.
- Step 4. Download PNG or SVG. Use PNG for a poster you print yourself and SVG for a file going to a designer or a print shop.
- Step 5. Send yourself a test. Scan with a phone that has mail set up. Confirm the To line, the subject, and that the body is editable.
What a mailto QR code is
The payload is a mailto link, the same kind of link a website uses when you click an email address. It names the recipient. It can also set the subject and the start of the body. It does not send the email. Scanning it opens the mail app the person already has — Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook, whatever is the default — with those fields filled in. They can edit every line, and they press send themselves. If they have no mail app configured, the phone will say so. HonestQR is not in that path. We do not receive a copy, we do not provide an inbox, and we do not store the address you typed, because the form never leaves the browser.
The line under the preview is the exact link. Spaces in the subject and body are percent-encoded, which is what mail apps expect. You do not need to type the percent signs yourself. A subject of 'Table question' becomes subject=Table%20question in the link, and the mail app shows it with the space restored. If you only want the address, leave the subject and body blank. The link is then just mailto: and the address, which is the most compatible form.
When this is the right tool
It fits a poster, a packing slip, a table card, or a one-page flyer where the next step really is an email. A baker who wants cake-order questions. A landlord posting a repair line on a notice. A press card that should open a message to the newsroom address with the subject already set to the outlet's name. A workshop handout that says 'email the reading list request' and does not want to make people copy an address off a slide. In all of those, the valuable part is the address, typed correctly, with a head start on the subject so you can filter later.
It is the wrong tool when you need a form. A mailto link cannot require a phone number, attach a photo reliably, or show a confirmation page. If the next step is 'book a table for a specific time with a deposit,' send people to a page you control. You can still make that page's URL into a QR code here — that is the URL type, and the menu guide covers the same idea. Use email when an email is honestly the next step, not when you wish you had a form and a QR code is the workaround.
The address is public, because it is in the ink
Anyone who scans the code, or who photographs it, learns the address. That is the point of printing it, and it is also the risk. Do not encode a private inbox you cannot filter. A role address is easier to hand to a successor and easier to route into a folder. Expect spam. Publishing an address anywhere has that cost; a QR code is not magically hidden because it is squares. If the address is only for people in the room, a short address on the card in plain type, without a code, is sometimes clearer. The code is for when typing it would lose the subject line or the odd spelling.
We will not sell the address, because we never receive it. The download is a file on your machine. If you later put that file on a public webpage, you have published the address yourself, the same as if you had typed it in the footer. Treat the PNG like the other artwork that contains contact details. Do not drop it into a folder that is world-readable by accident and then wonder how a bot found you. Bots are better at reading QR codes than they used to be.
Length, and what not to pre-write
A QR code has a size budget. A short subject and a sentence of body are comfortable. A full policy pasted into the body makes a dense code that fails on a small sticker. If you need to send people a long text, put the text on a page and encode the page, or let them write the email themselves with only the subject filled in. The generator will refuse a payload that does not fit, rather than quietly truncating it. You will see the error next to the form instead of a code that scans as half a sentence.
Pre-written bodies should sound like a draft the sender meant to edit. 'Hi — we are five people, Friday at 7.' is a prompt. A paragraph of marketing copy in the sender's mouth is how you get mail that people send without reading, and then you have to answer it. Leave out legal threats, tracking pixels, and anything that looks like a login. A mailto link cannot set a password or a hidden field. Do not try to invent one. Mail apps will ignore or reject links that are not a normal mailto.
Phones, desktop scanners, and the test that matters
On a phone with mail configured, the camera opens a compose window. The To line should be your address and nothing else. We do not support a cc list in this generator, on purpose: a public code with five recipients becomes five people's spam problem. The subject and body should match what you typed, with the encoding undone. The sender's own signature may be appended by their mail app. That is their app, not the code. On a laptop camera or a desktop scanner, the result is often the raw mailto link as text. A person can paste it into a browser bar, and the browser will hand it to a mail app. Mention a plain-type copy of the address next to the code so that path is not the only path.
Test with the phone a stranger would use, including one that uses a webmail app as the default. Gmail and Apple Mail are the ones to try if you can borrow them. The thing you are checking is not our website. You are checking that the file you are about to print opens the message you think it opens. Do that before you print a hundred packing slips. If the subject is wrong, fix the form and export again. There is no remote switch.
Expiry, and the thing people confuse this with
This code does not expire, because there is no service to renew. It becomes wrong when the address becomes wrong. If you shut down hello@ your domain, reprint or stop handing out the card. If you only change the person who reads that mailbox, you do not reprint. That is another reason to use a role address. A code that instead opens a 'contact us' form on a QR vendor's domain expires when they say it does. You can tell the difference by reading the code. A mailto link starts with mailto:. A vendor's form starts with https:// and their domain. The check-up will classify the second kind and name the service if we know it.
We do not offer a hosted contact form, a ticket inbox, or an auto-reply. If those are what you need, build them on a site you control and encode that site's URL. The waitlist on this page is not a support desk. It is a count of people who want codes that can be edited after printing, or who want scan statistics. An email QR code does not need either feature. Leave the box empty unless you do.
Questions
Does the email go through HonestQR?
No. The code only opens the sender's own mail app. Delivery is between their provider and yours. We do not see the message.
Can I set a cc or a hidden field?
No. The code sets the recipient, an optional subject, and an optional body. Anything else belongs in a form on a site you control.
Why does the preview show percent signs?
Spaces and punctuation are encoded in the mailto link. Mail apps decode them when they open the draft. The subject the person sees is the one you typed.
What if the person has no mail app?
Their phone will tell them. Print the address in plain type next to the code so they can type it on a computer.
Will this code expire?
It has no subscription. It goes stale only if you stop accepting mail at that address and keep distributing the code.
Can the body be a long questionnaire?
It can be a sentence or two. A long body makes a dense code and a draft nobody reads. Use a web form for a questionnaire, and encode that form's URL.