QR codes as art

I recently came across the idea of "QR Codes as Art." The idea is to use AI to integrate the QR Code into an artistic background rather than the typical plain pixelated background. There are several websites where you can do this through a paid subscription (Gooey.ai, QR Difussion,  Quick QR Art--free but with a watermark, ). Here are two QR Codes as Art websites that are free or that have a robust free trial.

Openart.ai Artistic AI QR Code Generator

Although not free, the Artistic AI QR Code Generator from Openart.ai gives you 50 credits to work with when you sign up for a (limited) free account. (Openart.ai does more than QR Code generation, and my credits have not gone down yet for making QR codes.)

To make your QR Code:

1. Add the link for your QR Code.

2. You can either select an artistic style from the list or type in a prompt for an AI generated image.

3. Click Create to generate two QR Code options.

Here is a QR Code I created using the "illustration" artistic style.

Here is a QR Code I created with the prompt: Two business people in an office at a conference table.

Huggingspace-Projects QR Code AI Art Generator

Huggingspace-Projects QR Code AI Art Generator has a less polished interface, but it is free and requires no login. The webpage has many settings you can tweak, but you basically need two steps to make your QR Code.

To make your QR Code:

1. Add the link for your QR Code.

2. Add your prompt, skip everything else on the screen (unless you want to do some exploring), and click Run to generate your QR code.  Once you have a QR code you like, you can download or screen capture it.

I had a great time playing with this QR Code generator.  I found that it did not do as well with photo-realistic people, and that I did not always get everything included in the QR Code that was in my prompts, but it may also be that I need to improve my prompting! I really like how some of the QR Codes are more integrated into images rather than just laying on top of or behind the images. Here are some of my QR Codes with their prompts:

I borrowed the prompt below from the QR Difussion webpage and it made it clear that my prompting for these AI Art QR Codes can use some improvement. As with all AI, the output is only as good as the prompt!

Clean wooden table, wooden serving platter, selection of tropical and berry fruits, strawberries, mangoes, blueberries, mango, bananas, to the side depict freshly made smoothie with fancy straw, everything in the most realistic shapes and details, highest resolution and quality, RAW photo, composition with a tropical paradise setting in the background, background ocean, sensation of taste, detailed and ultra-realistic

 

In what ways might you use QR Codes that use QR Codes as Art?