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High contrast QR mosaics as artwork.

Copyright 2012 by WWW.TheFamilyCompany.Com
    Black and white bar codes in a matrix are boring or, at least they will become boring eventually. QR codes do run a risk of becoming as unnoticed as standard bar codes on products today. When is the last time you really thought about a bar code? Would you like to see them on everything everywhere you looked? Maybe not. What can be done to keep QR codes fresh and inviting? Let's take an idea from the world of art.

    Imagine a large photo mosaic, or other color mosaic. As a work of art a mosaic needs color and variation to be visually interesting. The more interesting your QR code mosaic is, the more people will click it with their camera phones.

    All different types of subject matter can be used, depending on the style of the artist. Colors can be in almost any scheme as well. Contrast is important though and should not be overlooked. Pale colors with pale colors will not work well. And oppositely contrasting colors of the same density (same darkness) will not work either. Avoid dark blue next to dark red, or dark green, or dark brown, or black. Anything dense and dark must only be used as the "black" portion of a QR mosaic. Similarly, light colors must not be dense, even if they are red, blue, green, brown, or another. Light squares in a QR code mosaic must be printed with very light colors.

    With a photo mosaic creation program it is possible to place QR code "dots" of light and dark values where they are needed. This can be done by hand for a very fine grained control of the final image. Or if you aren't looking for perfection, consider taking a generated QR code image and creating a layer for the dark dots, and a layer for the light dots. Then paste a light background into the layer for light dots. The layer can be a texture, one photo, many photos, or any other mix of (light value) art you desire. The dark dots layer would of course be filled with much denser image values.

    Another way to use QR code mosaics as art is to do the Andy Warhol effect and print each QR code mosaic with bright yet dense color for the dark squares and light colors for the light squares. Placing a few of these on an outside wall of your business will definitely catch the eye of more than a few camera phone wielding web surfers!