Room-saving alternative for QR-Codes? - 【StackMirror】|c++|qr-code

I am looking for a way to encode 100 byte on paper and hope to find a more room-saving way to do this than QR-Codes.

Now this may sound a little strange, as the information needs room, but e.g. something wider and less tall would be cool.

Any suggestions? (Also, C++ libraries would be nice.)

EDIT: Keep in mind I need to be able to scan it again. Thanks. :)

c++
qr-code

2012-04-04 08:31
by Franz

Print the QR code smaller - Oliver Charlesworth 2012-04-04 08:34

Laser etching can print very small, can be used for anti-counterfeiting purposes - Silas Parker 2012-04-04 09:34

10 x 10 square of pixels is the smallest you can go. (Or 20 x 5 if wider would be cool?) It really depends on the size of the pixel: too small and cameras cant see, too big and theres no point - James Allan 2012-04-04 10:54

There are loads of different types of barcode out there - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode pick any one.

2012-04-04 08:50
by Tom Whittock

Any suggestions for a smaller one? I saw that DataMatrix is a little smaller than QR-Code, but maybe there are still better ones.. - Franz 2012-04-04 09:06

Well as you mention in your question, it's aspect ratio that's the true issue for you. Other questions that determine the size would be the minimum dpi the code would be printed out at, whether it would be expected to survive photocopying or faxing etc. Code 128 is probably good enough for what you want - Tom Whittock 2012-04-04 11:34

Why not just print the data as a base64 string:

Base64

Should be plenty of freely available libraries to handle the conversion and each 100 byte piece of data would be 34 characters. You could use as small a font as you liked and it fits very nicely with your wider and less tall requirement.

2012-04-04 08:37
by Charles Keepax

Problem is I also need to scan it. Don't want to get into OCR - Franz 2012-04-04 08:38

There is a software out there that prints source-code as tiny dots at 600dpi and is then able to convert it back. Maybe you could do that. (Bit its pretty much just printing the QR code smaller)

2012-04-04 08:57
by RedX