Stationery is printed in bulk, used for years and rarely revisited. That makes it the format where a badly chosen QR destination costs the most.
Make a QR code freeOne code, in the footer, pointing at something that will still be true in five years: your website, your contact page, or a vCard. Not a campaign, not an offer, not a product launch. Letterhead is reprinted rarely and used constantly, so treat the code as permanent infrastructure. If there is any chance the destination moves, encode a short link you control — the alternative is a stack of paper pointing at a dead page and a reprint you did not budget for.
A code on an invoice that leads to a payment page is genuinely useful and genuinely risky. Invoice fraud works by intercepting or imitating a real invoice and substituting payment details, and a QR code is an ideal vehicle because the destination is hidden until after the scan. If you use one, keep the destination on your own primary domain, print the payable amount and reference in text beside it, and state on the invoice that your bank details never change. Better still, point the code at a customer portal where the payment is raised against their account rather than at a bare payment link.
Envelopes work well for a single high-intent destination — a tracked landing page for a direct mail campaign, or a delivery and returns page for parcels. Compliment slips suit a review or feedback code, since they usually accompany something the customer just received. Business cards deserve a vCard or a LinkedIn code rather than a website. In each case, one code with a clear label beats a row of small ones, which on a piece of stationery reads as clutter and gets ignored.
Stationery is often on uncoated or textured stock, where ink spreads slightly and fine patterns lose definition. Keep the code at 2cm or larger, keep the URL short so the pattern stays sparse, and avoid pale corporate greys for the modules — they look refined on screen and fail on laid paper. If your letterhead is dark, put the code on a light panel rather than reversing it out.
Ten types, twelve designs, PNG, SVG, and PDF download. No account, no expiry, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
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