You've seen QR codes with logos in the center. Maybe a Starbucks QR with their siren, or a brand's QR with their logo stamped dead center. How does that work? Doesn't putting a graphic in the middle of the code just... break it?
Short answer: yes, but QR codes are designed to survive it. Here's the mechanism.
Reed-Solomon error correction
QR codes use Reed-Solomon error correction, originally developed for CD scratch recovery. The spec defines four levels: L (7% damage), M (15%), Q (25%), and H (30%). At Level H, up to 30% of the code data can be damaged or obscured and the code still scans correctly.
When you embed a logo, you're deliberately obscuring part of the code. As long as the obscured area stays within the error correction budget, scanners reconstruct the missing data from the redundant bits elsewhere in the pattern.
Why it's trickier than it sounds
Naive logo placement destroys the finder patterns (the three squares in the corners) or the timing patterns (the alternating dots along the edges). Those are not covered by error correction — they're structural anchors. Damage them and no scanner will read the code, full stop.
Good logo embedding means:
Always use Level H error correction
Keep logo coverage under 25-28% of the total module area
Never overlap finder or timing patterns
Use a white margin ("quiet zone") around the logo to help scanners distinguish logo from code
Choosing the right QR version
Higher QR versions (larger codes, more modules) are more resilient to logo embedding because the error correction data is spread across more physical space. For logo embedding, I recommend version 5 or higher.
The easy path
If you don't want to implement this yourself, QRGenLabs handles all of this automatically — it forces Level H correction when you upload a logo, calculates safe placement, and shows a real-time preview so you can test scan quality before downloading. The SVG export is clean enough for print use at any size.
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