Location QR Code Generator
Send someone to an exact point on the map.
Enter a latitude and longitude below. Scanning opens whichever maps app the phone uses, centred on that precise coordinate — no address required, and no ambiguity about which entrance you meant.
Customize
Scanning opens the phone's default maps app centered on this point.
The end time must be after the start time.
Leave the date blank to preview with a sample event. Defaults to a 1-hour event if no end time is set.
We tested this against a real scanner: codes start failing between 16% and 20% of the area, so 15% is the safe ceiling. How we measured it.
Pick a preset to fill in the dot and background colors below, or skip this and choose your own.
Light backgroundsLight dots read fine on dark backgrounds on screen, but most scanners are tuned for dark-on-light -- test before printing at volume. Scan reliability tips.
This content is too long to encode in a QR code. Shorten it before downloading or saving. Why there's a limit.
These colors are close in tone and may be hard for some scanners to read. Consider more contrast. Choosing colors that scan.
Preview
Dynamic QR codes redirect to a web address, so they're available for the URL and WhatsApp types. Other types encode their content directly and can't be repointed later.
Generated in your browser — nothing is uploaded or saved.
Finding your coordinates in about ten seconds
There is no map picker here yet, so you enter the numbers directly. The fastest ways to get them:
- Google Maps on desktop — right-click the exact spot and the coordinates are at the top of the menu; click to copy.
- Google Maps on mobile — long-press to drop a pin and read them off the place card.
- Apple Maps — drop a pin and swipe up on the place card.
Use decimal degrees (37.8199, -122.4783), not degrees-minutes-seconds. Negative latitude is south of the equator; negative longitude is west of Greenwich.
Decimal places are the whole ballgame
Precision matters far more here than it looks, because the failure is quiet — the code works, the map opens, and the pin is simply in the wrong place.
- Two decimal places is over a kilometre. That drops someone in the wrong part of a site entirely, or the wrong field.
- Four decimal places is about 11 metres — enough to distinguish one entrance from another.
- Five or six is more than anything printed on a sign will ever need.
Four is the number to aim for. And check the order: swapping latitude and longitude is the other classic error, and it usually relocates your trailhead into an ocean, which at least makes it obvious.
When a coordinate genuinely beats an address
Most of the time an address is the better choice, because it is human-readable and people can sanity-check it against what they see. A coordinate wins specifically where no usable address exists:
- Trailheads, campsites, beaches, viewpoints and other rural spots.
- A particular entrance, loading bay or gate on a large site, where the postal address lands a delivery driver at the wrong end of the building.
- Festival and event infrastructure — stages, gates, first aid tents, meeting points.
- Construction sites and new-build addresses that mapping services have not learned yet.
That last one is the sleeper use case. A new development has coordinates long before it has a postcode anyone's satnav recognises.
Built for outdoors, where the real threat isn't density
A coordinate is a small payload, so these produce unusually coarse, robust codes. That suits their natural home — a trail marker, a gate sign, a bollard, a post at the edge of a car park.
Outdoors, the thing that kills the code is not grid density but the environment: UV fading the ink, water getting under the laminate, frost, and the low contrast that arrives once the whites have yellowed. Print dark on light, laminate properly, and check it again after a winter. See testing before printing.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. It uses the standard geo URI scheme that both platforms' cameras and maps apps understand, and the phone opens whichever maps app is set as its default.
Can it start turn-by-turn directions instead of dropping a pin?
Not with this type — it drops a pin the person can then navigate from, which is one extra tap. If you want directions to begin immediately, use a link code with a maps directions URL, accepting that this ties the code to one mapping provider.
Can I put a label or place name on the pin?
Not currently — this encodes the coordinate only, so the pin appears unnamed. Print the place name next to the code, which is better practice anyway since it lets people confirm they are in the right place before they set off.
Does it need a data connection to work?
The scan itself does not — the coordinate is read straight out of the pattern. Displaying the map generally does, unless the person has offline maps for the area. For genuinely remote locations, printing the coordinates in text beside the code is a kindness.
Why is my pin slightly in the wrong place?
Almost always too few decimal places, or latitude and longitude entered the wrong way round. Check both before you print — a sign is expensive and a wrong pin is worse than no sign.