Laser Engraved QR Codes: The Complete Guide to Permanent QR Codes (2026)

A laser engraved QR code is about as permanent as information storage gets. Burn it into stainless steel, and that code will outlast the building it is bolted to. Unlike printed QR codes that fade in sunlight or peel off in rain, an engraved code is physically embedded in the material itself. No ink to wear away, no adhesive to fail.

Laser engraving QR codes has become standard practice in manufacturing, asset management, and high-end product branding. The process is straightforward once you understand the constraints -- minimum sizing, error correction requirements, material contrast, and how to get a clean SVG file into your laser software. This guide covers all of it.

Why Laser Engrave QR Codes

Printed labels peel. Stickers curl at the edges. Inkjet fades. For applications where a QR code must survive years of exposure to weather, chemicals, UV radiation, or physical abrasion, engraving is the only reliable option.

A laser engraved QR code is permanently etched into the surface of the material. There is nothing to delaminate, smear, or wash off. This makes engraving the default choice for:

• Industrial environments -- factory floors, outdoor equipment, machinery exposed to oil and solvents
• Regulatory compliance -- asset tags that must remain readable for the lifetime of the equipment
• Outdoor installations -- memorial plaques, park signage, trail markers
• Premium product branding -- high-end packaging, luxury goods, craft products where a printed sticker would cheapen the look

Beyond durability, there is an aesthetic dimension. A QR code cleanly engraved into brushed aluminum or dark walnut looks intentional and professional. It becomes part of the object rather than something stuck on top of it.

Materials That Work (and Which Give Best Contrast)

Not every material produces a scannable result. The scanner needs contrast between the QR modules and the background. Here is how common materials perform.

Anodized aluminum -- excellent

This is the gold standard for laser engraved QR codes. The laser vaporizes the colored anodized layer, exposing the bright silver aluminum underneath. The result is a high-contrast, sharp-edged code that scans reliably every time. Black, blue, and red anodized finishes all work well. A 30-40W fiber laser at 800-1200mm/s with 60-80% power handles most anodized aluminum tags cleanly.

Stainless steel -- good (with technique)

Bare stainless steel is reflective, which can create scanning problems. The trick is to use a lower speed and higher power to create a dark oxide mark rather than a bright engrave. A fiber laser at 200-400mm/s and 70-90% power will produce a dark annealing mark on stainless that contrasts well against the surrounding polished surface. Alternatively, engrave deep and fill with paint (covered below in contrast tips).

Wood -- very good

CO2 lasers produce excellent results on wood. The laser burns the surface dark brown or black against the lighter natural wood. Hardwoods like maple, cherry, and birch give the crispest edges. Softwoods like pine work but may produce slightly uneven burn depth due to grain density variation. Typical settings for a 40W CO2 laser: 300-500mm/s speed, 40-60% power, 254 DPI or higher.

Acrylic -- good

Cast acrylic engraves to a frosted white finish, which means dark acrylic (black, navy, dark green) gives the best contrast -- white frosted modules on a dark background. Clear acrylic can work if you backlight it or fill the engraved area with paint. Extruded acrylic melts rather than engraves crisply, so always use cast.

Glass -- moderate

Glass shatters under concentrated heat, so laser engraving on glass uses a defocused beam or a specialized low-power, high-frequency setting to create controlled micro-fractures. The frosted result provides moderate contrast against clear glass. Best used for decorative or novelty applications rather than mission-critical scanning. A CO2 laser at low power (10-20%), high speed, and with a damp paper towel on the surface to dissipate heat works reasonably well.

Leather -- good

Natural vegetable-tanned leather darkens beautifully under a CO2 laser. The contrast is good, the texture adds character, and the result is popular for personalized gifts, luggage tags, and premium product labels. Avoid chrome-tanned leather -- it releases toxic chromium compounds when heated. Settings vary widely by leather thickness and type, but 20-40% power at 200-400mm/s on a 40W CO2 laser is a reasonable starting point.

Stone -- moderate to good

Polished granite and slate engrave to a lighter shade, producing decent contrast. The rougher the starting surface, the harder it is to get clean module edges. Slate is popular for memorial QR codes because of its natural dark color and the high contrast of the lighter engraved area. Requires higher power and slower speed than most other materials.

Why SVG Format Matters for Laser Engraving

Laser software does not work like Photoshop. Programs like LightBurn, LaserGRBL, and RDWorks expect vector paths, not pixel grids. When you import a PNG or JPEG QR code, the software has to trace the image and convert pixels to vectors -- a process that introduces imprecision, rounded corners, and sometimes merged modules.

An SVG file is already a vector. Each QR module is defined as a precise rectangle with exact coordinates. When you import an SVG into LightBurn, every module boundary is mathematically sharp. The laser follows clean vector paths with no interpolation artifacts. This is the difference between a QR code that scans perfectly and one that confuses every camera that points at it.

Our free QR code generator exports QR codes as SVG with each module as a discrete path element. The file imports directly into any laser software without conversion. No tracing, no cleanup, no vector approximation of bitmap edges.

One additional benefit: because SVG is resolution-independent, you can scale the QR code to any physical size in your laser software without degradation. A PNG at 300x300 pixels looks fine on screen but produces fuzzy edges when scaled to 50mm on a laser bed. SVG scales to 50mm or 500mm with identical edge sharpness.

Step-by-Step: From QR Generator to Finished Engrave

1. Generate the QR code. Open our URL QR code generator (or text QR code generator for plain text content). Enter your URL or text. Set error correction to High (H). Keep the data short -- more on this below.
2. Download as SVG. Click the download button and select SVG format. This gives you a clean vector file ready for laser software. Do not use PNG for laser engraving.
3. Import SVG into laser software. Open LightBurn, LaserGRBL, or your preferred laser control software. Import the SVG. The QR modules will appear as individual vector shapes. In LightBurn, they typically import as a fill layer -- verify this before proceeding.
4. Scale to your target size. Set the physical dimensions. Minimum recommended size is 20x20mm for reliable scanning, though 25-30mm or larger is safer. Lock the aspect ratio so the code stays square.
5. Configure power and speed for your material. Refer to the material-specific settings above as starting points. Every laser is different, so these are ballpark figures.
6. Run a test engrave. Use a scrap piece of the same material. Engrave the QR code, let it cool, then scan it with your phone. Check that all modules are distinct and that the scanner reads the data correctly. Adjust power and speed if needed.
7. Final engrave. Once your test scans reliably from 15-20cm away, run the final engrave on your actual workpiece.

Critical Sizing Requirements

This is where most laser-engraved QR codes fail. The code looks fine to the human eye but will not scan because the individual modules are too small for a phone camera to resolve.

Each QR code is made up of a grid of modules -- the small squares that are either dark or light. The minimum module size for reliable laser engraving is approximately 0.5mm to 1mm per side. Below 0.5mm, even a well-focused laser struggles to produce clean square edges, and phone cameras cannot distinguish adjacent modules.

A Version 3 QR code (which encodes a short URL) has a 29x29 module grid. At 0.7mm per module, the total code size comes to about 20x20mm. That is your practical minimum. At 1mm per module, the same code is 29x29mm -- more comfortable for scanning.

For industrial applications where the code will be scanned from a distance greater than arm's length, scale up proportionally. A general rule: the scanning distance should be no more than 10 times the QR code's width. A 30mm code scans comfortably at 30cm. A 50mm code works from half a meter.

If your QR code has more data (a longer URL, a vCard, or a paragraph of text), it requires a higher version with more modules in the grid. More modules in the same physical space means smaller modules. This is why keeping your encoded data short is critical for laser engraving -- it directly affects the minimum size of the finished piece.

Error Correction: Why High (H) Is Non-Negotiable

QR codes support four error correction levels: Low (L) recovers 7% of data, Medium (M) recovers 15%, Quartile (Q) recovers 25%, and High (H) recovers 30%. For laser engraving, always use High.

Engraved surfaces are not optically perfect. Wood grain causes slight variations in burn depth and color. Metal can have micro-reflections that confuse cameras. Stone has natural texture that distorts module edges. Even on anodized aluminum, dust accumulation in the engraved channels can partially obscure modules over time.

High error correction means up to 30% of the QR code can be unreadable and it will still scan correctly. That is a substantial margin for the real-world imperfections that come with engraved surfaces. Dropping to Medium or Low to reduce the code's module count (and therefore its physical size) is a false economy. A slightly smaller code that fails to scan 20% of the time is worse than a slightly larger code that scans every time.

The trade-off is that High error correction increases the module grid size by roughly 20-25% compared to Low for the same data. This means the minimum physical size of the code increases. Accept it. Static QR codes last forever -- the extra few millimeters are worth the reliability.

Contrast Tips for Reliable Scanning

A QR scanner needs a clear difference between dark modules and light modules. Here is how to maximize contrast on different materials.

Dark-on-light (most materials)

On wood, leather, and light-colored stone, the laser burns a dark mark on a lighter surface. This matches the standard QR code convention (dark modules on a light background) and works naturally without any post-processing. Make sure you are not engraving so deep that the modules develop shadows at oblique viewing angles -- keep the depth shallow for flat, uniform color.

Light-on-dark (anodized aluminum, dark acrylic)

On anodized aluminum, the laser strips the dark coating to reveal bright metal. On dark acrylic, it creates a white frost. In both cases, the engraved area is lighter than the surrounding surface. This is the inverse of a standard QR code. Most scanners handle inverted QR codes without issue, but test to confirm. If your scanner struggles, some laser software can invert the pattern -- engraving the background while leaving the modules untouched.

Paint fill for bare metals

On bare stainless steel, brass, or copper, the engraved area may lack sufficient contrast against the surrounding metal. The solution: engrave slightly deeper than usual (0.1-0.2mm), apply black spray paint or Cermark/Thermark marking compound over the entire area, then wipe the surface clean. The paint remains in the engraved channels while wiping off the flat surface. The result is crisp black modules against polished metal -- excellent contrast and very durable.

Real-World Applications

Here are some of the most common uses for laser engraved QR codes.

• Industrial asset tags. Equipment tracking in factories, warehouses, and construction sites. A QR code engraved on a stainless steel plate survives where any sticker would be destroyed within weeks.
• Machinery labels. Maintenance manuals, safety instructions, and service history linked via QR codes engraved directly onto the equipment chassis.
• Memorial plaques. QR codes on headstones, memorial benches, and commemorative installations that link to tribute pages, obituaries, or photo galleries. Slate and granite are common materials.
• Jewelry and personalized gifts. QR codes engraved on pendants, keychains, wallet inserts, and wooden boxes. Popular for wedding favors, anniversary gifts, and custom keepsakes that link to a personal message or photo album.
• Product branding. Craft distilleries engraving QR codes on wooden bottle boxes. Leather goods companies burning codes into belt liners. Knife makers etching codes onto blades that link to certificates of authenticity.
• Wine and spirits. QR codes on bottle labels (leather or metal) linking to tasting notes, vineyard information, or authenticity verification.
• Promotional items. Branded corporate gifts -- pens, notebooks, coasters, phone stands -- with engraved QR codes linking to a company landing page or digital business card.

For any application where the QR code links to a URL, remember that the code itself is permanent and never expires. Make sure the destination URL will remain live for as long as the engraving exists. If you need the ability to change the destination later (because the linked page might move), consider using a dynamic QR code from ElkQR -- the engraving stays the same, but the redirect can be updated from a dashboard.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Making the code too small

The single most common failure. People try to engrave a QR code at 10x10mm because it fits the available space. The code looks sharp to the naked eye, but the individual modules are below 0.4mm and no phone can read it. Always verify that your module size is at least 0.5mm, and prefer 0.7mm or above.

Using Low or Medium error correction

On a screen, Low error correction works fine. On an engraved surface with grain variation, micro-reflections, and slight depth inconsistencies, Low error correction leads to inconsistent scanning. Use High (H). Every time.

Encoding too much data

A full URL like https://www.example.com/products/category/item-name?utm_source=engraving&utm_medium=qr generates a dense, high-version QR code with small modules. Shorten the URL. Use a URL shortener or, better yet, set up a clean redirect on your own domain: example.com/qr1. Fewer characters means fewer modules, which means each module is larger at any given physical size.

Skipping the test engrave

Engraving is permanent. If the power is too high and the modules blur together, or the speed is too fast and the engrave is too faint, you cannot undo it. Always run a test on scrap material before touching the final workpiece. Test with at least two different phones to confirm scanning reliability.

Using a raster image instead of SVG

Importing a PNG into laser software forces the software to auto-trace the image, which introduces rounding errors and can merge adjacent modules. Always use SVG. Generate your QR code with our free QR code generator, download it as SVG, and import the vector file directly.

Ignoring the quiet zone

The QR code specification requires a quiet zone -- a blank margin of at least four modules around the code. If you crop this out to save space or if surrounding design elements encroach on it, scanners may fail to detect the code boundary. Preserve the full quiet zone in your laser layout.

Generate Your QR Code for Laser Engraving

Head to our free QR code generator and create a QR code in under a minute. Set the error correction to High, keep your data short, and download as SVG. The file is ready to import directly into LightBurn, LaserGRBL, RDWorks, or any other laser software that accepts vector files.

For URL-based codes, use our URL QR code generator. For plain text, serial numbers, or internal reference codes, the text QR code generator handles it. Both produce clean SVG output optimized for laser engraving.

If you need scan analytics or the ability to update the linked URL after the code is engraved, ElkQR's dynamic QR codes pair well with permanent engravings -- the physical code never changes, but the destination can be managed remotely.