QR Code Generator Library (no web service)

Question

I am looking for a QR Code generator library. It should be possible to use it in a .NET application.

• Free or paid (Open or closed source)
• Active maintenance of the library (there are some inactive projects)
• Supports to create the different types (URL, Text etc.)

I basically want to build my own QR code batch creation process.

Output preferably as vector (EPS or SVG) file. TIF or PNG would be OK too.

If there is something available to use in PHP I would be interessted too.

I am NOT looking for any web service.

Update: Here you find a description of the different possible Barcode content types: https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents

Answer 1

Not .NET or PHP but there is a very nifty qrcode library for python. It also installs a command line interface, e.g.:

qr http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/16794/qr-code-generator-library-no-web-service > question.png

results in:

It is worth mentioning that svg format output is supported via the factory=svg flag. It is also worth mentioning that python & qrcode are both very small - for Windows 64 machines and Python 3.10 this runs at:

• Python installer: 28 MB
• qrcode & dependencies < 4 MB

Answer 2

I have used http://zxingnet.codeplex.com/ with success in one of my spare-time projects. It's easy to use but also has some nice options on the QR-Code output.

It supports both generating and decoding of QR-Codes.

From their description:

The following barcodes are supported by the decoder: UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, Code 39, Code 93, Code 128, ITF, Codabar, MSI, RSS-14 (all variants), QR Code, Data Matrix, Aztec and PDF-417. The encoder supports the following formats: UPC-A, EAN-8, EAN-13, Code 39, Code 128, ITF, Codabar, Plessey, MSI, QR Code, PDF-417, Aztec, Data Matrix

Assemblies are available for the following platforms:

.Net 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0
Silverlight 4 and 5
Windows Phone 7.0, 7.1 and 8.0
Windows CE
Windows RT Class Library and Runtime Components (winmd)
Portable Class Library
Unity3D (.Net 2.0 built without System.Drawing reference)
Xamarin.Android (formerly Mono for Android)

Answer 3

Matthias, if you are looking for .NET QR barcode generation I recommend looking at LEADTOOLS Barcode SDK. These are commercial imaging libraries for reading and writing barcode symbologies. LEADTOOLS supports a wide range of 1D and 2D barcode symbologies, including QR. Please note: I work for the company that develops this library

Using the evaluation demo, I create a QR code with a value of this StackExchange post.

Code required for this is as follows:

         BarcodeEngine barcodeEngine = new BarcodeEngine();
         QRBarcodeData data = BarcodeData.CreateDefaultBarcodeData(BarcodeSymbology.QR) as QRBarcodeData;
         data.Bounds = new LogicalRectangle(bounds.X, bounds.Y, 0, 0, LogicalUnit.Pixel);
         data.Value = "http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/16794/qr-code-generator-library-no-web-service";
         QRBarcodeWriteOptions writeOptions = engine.Writer.GetDefaultOptions(data.Symbology) as QRBarcodeWriteOptions;
         writeOptions.XModule = 30;
         barcodeEngine.Writer.WriteBarcode(image, data, null);

As for output support, LEADTOOLS is able to write EPS, SVG, TIFF, PNG and roughly 150 more file formats and compressions

Answer 4

Actually for PHP there are several solutions to generate QR-code in pure PHP, thus without any Web service.

In particular, I liked these two PHP packages suggested in the page above: PHP QR Code Generator and QR SAT.