Building a QR Code Generator with Core Image Filters

Updated on June 28th, 2015

⏱ Reading Time: 3 mins

One of the first tutorials I contributed here at Appcoda was a guide about how to create a QR code reader in iOS. At that time of course, the code of that tutorial was written in Objective-C, as Swift wasn’t still existing. Later in time, my friend Simon wrote a new one, this time made entirely in Swift for all the fans of this new language. By the time that the first post regarding this topic was published here, QR codes had already started to be used more and more for advertising and marketing reasons, and many developers were dropped in the battle for making their own QR code readers. Today QR codes exist almost everywhere; in magazines and newspapers, in television, in printed in T-shirts, in advertising labels, in websites, etc. The list is long. On the other hand, the QR code reading applications existing in the AppStore are also endless. So, as you understand, QR codes consist of an interesting part for both advertisers and developers (and not only), as it’s something new and easily manageable.

QR Code Generator

With this tutorial I’m returning back to the discussion about QR Codes after a long time and many tutorials in between since that first QR code-related tutorial, but this time with a completely different goal. My intension is not to talk once again about QR Code readers; after all, we have already such tutorials here (see the links above). This time my goal is to show you how to make a QR code generator. And trust me, as you’ll see, it’s as easy as making a QR code reader (even easier). But first, let me tell you a few things you should know about.

Prior to iOS 7, making a QR code generator was a real trouble. Not many resources existed back then, and most developers had to avoid creating their custom code; the easiest thing to do was to pick among 2-3 different existing libraries and fit it to their applications. But thankfully, all that is now history. By introducing iOS 7 time ago, Apple also turned any task related to QR codes (reading and generating) into a piece of cake. For reading QR codes, the AVFoundation framework is now the tool every developer needs. For generating, the only thing coders have to do is to use the Core Image framework, and more specifically the Core Image filters.

To make it perfectly clear, since iOS 7 a QR code is generated as a CIImage object (CoreImage image) simply by using a special filter named CIQRCodeGenerator. All it takes is to provide the data that you want to convert into a QR code image, and iOS will manage and do the heavy work. The returning image can be handled in anyway you want, as long as you don’t damage it and make the code unreadable.

In the following few parts of this tutorial you’ll find out how to create QR codes in a really fast and easy fashion, and you’ll see some techniques for better results. By finishing this post you’ll be able to generate QR code in iOS, scalable to any size you want. As you’re about to see later, after having created a QR code you must handle it a bit so it looks clear to the desired output size. Notice that the way I will propose to do that is not the only one; it’s just what I prefer, and of course there are other ways to do what you’ll see next.

So, after having said all the above, it’s about time to finally meet some really interesting things.

Read the full tutorial on Appcoda

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