How QR Codes Work

For the Dartmouth Redesign, I wanted a way to turn the DiD (a seven character alphanumeric that identifies you) into an attractive QR code. This got me wondering into how QR codes work. Turns out, there are very few easily accessible resources on it. This is what I found:

  1. A video walkthrough for a bit code
  2. The Wikipedia article
  3. An incredibly in-depth look
  4. Another bit code text walkthrough
  5. A walkthrough/guide using alphanumerics and Galois fields
  6. An explanation of operations over Galois fields, specifically GF(256).

I am going to try and explain it again here, detailing the process of encoding the information with the pattern that I intend to use in the Dartmouth ID Redesign project.

First, you must decide what version you want to do. This is basically the size of the QR code. In my first example, I'm doing to do version 1, which is the smallest. To figure out the pixel size, you multiply the version number by 4, and add 17. In this case, that gives 21.

Temp process: Fill the markers with 70% black. Surround with 70% white.