Downloading Your QR Code: File Format, Resolution, and Quality
What you get when you click Download PNG — file format, native resolution, and how to keep quality intact when placing the file into a design.
Updated July 11, 2026
Clicking Download PNG saves the exact QR code you see on screen as a standalone image file, ready to drop into a document, design tool, or print job. This article covers what that file actually is, and how to keep its quality intact once it leaves PXLA QR.
Why PNG, specifically
PNG is a lossless image format — every pixel is preserved exactly as generated, with no compression artifacts. That matters more for a QR code than for most images: a scanner depends on sharp, precise edges between dark and light modules, and a lossy format like JPEG (designed for photographs, where soft compression artifacts are invisible to the eye) can blur exactly the edges a scanner needs to read cleanly. PNG's lossless compression keeps every module crisp regardless of how many times the file is copied or reopened.
Resolution: what you're actually downloading
Every PXLA QR code is generated and downloaded at 1024×1024 pixels. At a standard 300 DPI print resolution — the benchmark for "sharp" print quality — that supports clean printing up to roughly 3.4 inches square without any visible pixelation, which comfortably covers business cards, flyers, table cards, and most standard-sized signage.
Scaling up beyond 3.4 inches
For larger prints (posters, banners), most design software scales the file up cleanly, since a QR code's flat geometric shapes hide upscaling artifacts far better than a photograph would. If you're printing significantly larger than a few times the native size, print a physical test copy and check it closely before running a full batch — see our printing guide for size-by-size recommendations.
Keeping quality intact after downloading
- Always resize proportionally — locking the aspect ratio when scaling in design software prevents distortion that can misshape modules.
- Avoid re-saving through a lossy format — if you need to place the code inside another document, embed the original PNG directly rather than converting it to JPEG first.
- Don't re-download the same code repeatedly expecting different results — a PXLA QR code is deterministic; the same URL always produces the identical file, so re-downloading only matters if you've changed the URL.
- Keep the file itself as your source of truth — if you need the code again later, regenerate it from PXLA QR rather than recovering a possibly-degraded copy from an old document.
Where the downloaded file goes, and what PXLA QR knows about it
Clicking Download PNG saves the file to your device's normal downloads location, exactly like downloading any file from any website — your browser handles the save, using the standard HTML download attribute. PXLA QR has no visibility into the file after that point: no record that a download happened, no copy kept anywhere. See Does PXLA Store My QR Codes? for the full picture.
Can I download my QR code as an SVG or other vector format?
Not in V1 — PXLA QR downloads as PNG only. Vector export is a reasonable future addition; see our roadmap.
Why is the file always exactly 1024×1024 pixels?
That resolution was chosen specifically to balance print-quality sharpness (clean up to roughly 3.4 inches at 300 DPI) against fast, lightweight generation — see Is Generation Client-Side? for how quickly this happens.
The downloaded file looks slightly different from the on-screen preview — is that normal?
It shouldn't be — the preview and the downloaded file come from the exact same generated image, with the preview simply displayed smaller on screen. If they genuinely look different, try regenerating the code and downloading again.
Related articles
URL Validation
A walkthrough of generating your first QR code with PXLA QR, plus the exact URL rules the tool checks before it will generate a code.
Printing Guide
Recommended sizes for flyers, posters, and packaging, plus the quiet zone and contrast rules that determine whether a printed QR code scans reliably.
Business Card Guide
Business cards are the smallest common QR code use case. Here's how to size, place, and test a code so it scans reliably at that scale.