QR codes for museum placards
Interpretive placards are produced to an exacting house standard, installed carefully, and expected to stay up. What they point at — extended interpretation, audio, translations — is revised far more often than the object label itself.
What changes behind the code
- Extended interpretation and curator notes, which are revised as scholarship changes.
- Audio guides and described-visual tracks.
- Translations, which are often added long after an exhibit opens.
- The object itself, when a loan ends or a piece rotates out of display.
What a reprint costs here
Placards are produced in small runs to a fixed specification, and the cost is as much in design, approval, and installation as in printing. For a touring or rotating exhibit, reprinting per venue is usually out of the question.
What to point it at
- An extended interpretation page for that object.
- An audio guide track, which is the most common reason a visitor scans at all.
- A translated version, or a language chooser.
Printing it
Respect the gallery's lighting
Galleries are deliberately dim, and phone cameras struggle. A larger code with strong contrast scans where a small, subtle one will not — this is the setting where restraint costs you the scan.
Say what the scan gives them
A bare code in a gallery gets ignored. A few words — "listen to the curator", "read more" — is the difference between a code that is scanned and one that is decoration.
Make one for museum placards.
100 codes free, no card. Change where any of them points whenever the thing behind it changes. Style one first — the builder needs no account.
Make a QR code