Can a QR code show my product ingredients as plain text without needing the internet?

When text inside the code helps

Some places cannot promise a good connection: a warehouse, a packed exhibition hall, a desert trip, or a customer with no data plan. If the code holds a link, the customer sees nothing without internet. Text stored in the code itself appears straight away, because the camera reads it from the squares and asks no server for anything. It suits short, stable information that rarely changes: ingredients, storage advice, a batch production date, or brief operating instructions.

An example with figures from the tool

We typed this text for a cake box into the QR code generator (ingredients: flour, sugar, butter; store in a cool place):

مكونات: دقيق، سكر، زبدة. يحفظ في مكان بارد.

The content is 76 bytes and the symbol 37 modules wide. The English equivalent, 'Ingredients: flour, sugar, butter. Store in a cool place.', takes 57 bytes and a symbol 33 modules wide. Both are comfortable on a medium label. Add a full allergen list and nutrition values, though, and the code grows fast, and you may have to choose between a text code and a link.

The steps

1. Choose 'Text or URL' and type the text directly. You can press Enter for a new line, and lines are kept as they are.
2. Remove diacritics and emoji, which add bytes for little benefit.
3. Watch the byte counter and the symbol size, and trim if the code gets dense for the size of the label.
4. Scan it with your phone in airplane mode to see for yourself that the text appears offline.

Limits to know

• No formatting: no bold, colors or tables, just text.
• Display depends on the scanning app: some show the full text, some show part of it with a copy button or a search suggestion.
• The text is fixed in print. If the ingredients change, you need a new label.
• Do not rely on the code alone for information that regulations require on the pack; print that as required.