How to Create a QR Code in Lix.li

Introduction

A QR code has long stopped being just a black-and-white square from some website generator — today it's a full-fledged marketing tool: on packaging, on a café menu, on a business card, in printed ads. But most free QR code generators share the same problem: they produce a static image that's permanently tied to one address. If the link needs to change and the code has already been printed on a thousand flyers, you have to start over from scratch.

Lix.li handles QR codes differently: instead of a one-off image, it's a saved entity attached to your short link. You can change the design anytime without reprinting anything that's already out there, and every scan gets logged in your statistics with the same level of detail as an ordinary link click. In this article, we'll walk through creating and customizing a QR code in Lix.li — both through the dashboard and via the free public generator.

How a Lix.li QR code differs from a plain generator

The core idea: the link inside the code stays fixed, but the design doesn't.

Technically, the QR code doesn't encode your URL directly — it encodes a short link with a scan marker, something like lix.li/alias?qr=ID. That means:

• You can restyle the design endlessly without touching a code that's already printed — what's encoded in the image never changes.
• Every scan is logged separately — you see not just the link's total traffic, but how much of it came specifically through a given QR code, broken down by geography, device, and browser.
• A single link can have several QR codes with different designs — say, one for a poster and another for a business card — so you can compare which placement actually performs.

Design options

When creating or editing a QR code, the following settings are available:

• Module style — squares (the standard look) or dots.
• Foreground color — the color of the code's pattern itself.
• Background color — the color behind it.
• Eye color (the corner markers) — matches the foreground color by default, but can be set separately.
• Center logo — a PNG or JPEG image placed in the middle of the code. Error correction is kept deliberately high so the code stays scannable even with a logo covering part of the pattern.

All design fields are optional — leave everything untouched and you'll get a classic black-and-white code.

Plan limits

QR codes are available on every plan, but capabilities vary:

An important nuance: a code with default settings (no color or shape changes) can be created on any plan. As soon as you change even one design parameter, saving that code requires the Pro plan; adding a logo requires Premium.

How to create a QR code in the dashboard

Option 1: from the QR Codes section

1. Open QR Codes in the dashboard's left sidebar.
2. Click "Create QR code."
3. In the search field, start typing an alias, title, or URL of the link you need — matching options appear in a dropdown. Search stays fast even if you have thousands of links in your account.
4. Select the link you want the QR code to point to.

Option 2: directly from a link's page

If you're already on a specific link's page, click "Customize QR design" — the target link is pre-filled automatically, taking you straight to the design step.

Customizing the design

The creation form includes a live preview that updates instantly with every change:

• change a color — the preview recolors itself;
• change the module style — the preview redraws;
• upload a logo — it appears in the center of the preview immediately, before you even save;
• the preview encodes the actual short link, so the pattern you see matches exactly what the final code will look like.

Optionally, give it a name — this helps tell codes apart in the list if a link has more than one. Once everything's set, click "Create."

How to edit a QR code

Open "Edit" on any code in the list. You can freely restyle it — colors, module shape, logo, name — with the same live preview as during creation.

The one thing you can't change is the target link. It's locked on purpose: the code may already be printed, and changing its destination would break every existing copy. If you need to point a QR code at a different address, it's simpler to create a new code and delete the old one, if you no longer need it.

How to view scan statistics

Every QR code in the list has a "Statistics" button that opens a dedicated page showing scan trends over time, along with breakdowns by geography, device, and browser. It's the same analytics interface used for regular link clicks, just filtered to that specific QR code.

If a single link has several QR codes (say, for different placements), each one's statistics are tracked separately — which lets you compare exactly which code gets scanned more.

How to delete a QR code

Click "Delete" on the code you want to remove and confirm the action. When you do:

• the short link itself keeps working as normal;
• only the QR code entity gets removed — its saved image and logo;
• any printed materials with that code will stop resolving, so it's worth making sure the code isn't still in physical circulation before deleting it.

Downloading the finished code

Both the list page and the edit page include "Download SVG" and "Download PNG" buttons:

• SVG — a vector format with no loss of quality, best suited for printing at any size (banners, outdoor advertising).
• PNG — a raster format, convenient for digital materials, social media, and presentations.

The public QR code generator — no sign-up required

If you need a working QR code quickly without creating an account, Lix.li has a dedicated page for that — the QR code generator, accessible from the main menu.

Here's how it works:

1. Paste in the destination URL you want the code to lead to.
2. Customize the design — module style, colors, logo. The preview updates live as you make changes.
3. Click "Create QR code." The service then creates a real short link and a working QR code that encodes it, and shows you the short link itself, a link to its stats, and download buttons for SVG and PNG.

It's worth understanding the difference between the public generator and dashboard QR codes: a code created without an account is fully functional, and its scans are tracked — but the QR code itself isn't saved as a separate entity. That means there's no dedicated design-editing page or individual statistics view for it in a list — just the short link itself, with its own overall click statistics.

Anonymous use comes with limits: up to 10 short links per month, and a logo file size cap of 2 MB. Signing up for Lix.li removes these limits and unlocks the full feature set — saved QR codes with individual statistics, and the ability to change the design anytime without creating a new code.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the link a printed QR code points to? No — the address is deliberately baked into the image so that already-printed codes stay valid. You can restyle the design freely, but changing the target link requires creating a new code.

Do scans count as regular link clicks? Yes — scans go through the same redirect mechanism as regular clicks, so they show up in the link's overall statistics. On top of that, they carry a separate marker that lets you isolate QR-driven traffic specifically — and distinguish between multiple codes on the same link.

What happens to statistics if I delete a QR code? Scan data already recorded in analytics stays in place, but the QR code entity itself, along with its image and logo, is deleted, and the code disappears from your dashboard list.

Why does my logo show up in the SVG but not in the PNG (or vice versa)? The SVG version embeds the logo directly into the image code and doesn't need any extra server-side modules. PNG rendering requires a server-side image-processing module — if it's unavailable or can't process the logo, the code still renders, just without the logo.

Can a single link have multiple QR codes? Yes. Give each one its own name and design, then compare their scan counts — it's a handy way to see which specific placement (a poster, a business card, packaging) is driving more traffic.

Conclusion

A QR code in Lix.li isn't a one-off image — it's a manageable tool: the link inside it can be printed once and never reissued, while the design can change as many times as you like, and every scan becomes part of full-fledged analytics. For quickly testing an idea, the public generator with no sign-up is the way to go; for ongoing work across multiple placements and tracking their performance, the dashboard gives you saved codes with statistics for each one.