• Tyfud@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It’s required for contrast detection.

      Also, if it was placed on something with a black background, the borders would bleed into the background and be unrecognizable when scanning.

      This is why graphic artists don’t get to determine functional standards.

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 days ago

        The error correction isn’t enough to overcome a bad background?

        My memories of the early days of designing these things for ad clients (we’re talking 2010-11) were that like 20% “damage” was allowed before scanning became difficult. So of course my art director wanted to put cutesy shit all over them to be “unique”.

        I just didn’t want the client to ask when it didn’t work because their phones didn’t like them.

        • zerofk@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          People like your art director are the reason people like my product manager want us to write code to verify QR codes, so that our clients can tell their clients that they forgot the quiet zone and their client’s clients may have trouble reading the code.

          Damn that’s a lot of levels of clients.

        • Eiim@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          Error correction helps a scanner account for portions of the code being obscured/unreadable, whereas a bad background can make a code not even recognizable as a code in the first place. (depending on the algorithm used, how bad it is, yadda yadda)

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      4 days ago

      I helped my wife make a qr code quilt (it says “quilt”). There wasn’t quite enough border around it, and you can get it to scan, but it’s not super reliable.

    • quilan@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It is - without the quiet zone, it makes detecting the locator pattern really difficult, especially in one’s looking for the 1:1:3:1:1 ratio.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    everything is. whitespace is an important part of graphic design, especially margins. think about text that’s too close to the edge is the page or screen.

    • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      especially margins

      Since it has the background color of the QR code, it’s probably padding, not margin.

      ^someone please rescue me from frontend dev^

      • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        Here here, have some Chai. Take a break and everything.should.be.ok

        Edit: I’ve been free from web dev too long and it shows. Don’t even know my assertions anymore.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        i was speaking generally, which is why I mentioned pages as well as screens. that’s more of a web design distinction; never really heard of padding in any other context.

        but if you were to have a qr code on your website, you’re right, making it padding would make more sense since the border, real or imaginary, would be outside the quiet zone because it’s technically part of the code.

        • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          that’s more of a web design distinction

          I think that was the point of “someone rescue me from frontend dev” - if they’re doing so much frontend design work that they instinctively get pedantic about padding vs. margin, they need help.

          • pyre@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            yeah I know, but that’s still information out there and if anyone’s reading it’s nice to clarify. I both clarified and situationally agreed with them.

  • Gobbel2000@programming.dev
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    4 days ago

    It’s not just ugly, it’s against the spec. The quiet zone is meant to be 4 “dots” wide on all sides for the code to be optimally readable.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Yes, the Quiet Zone is part of the QR spec.

      But the bottom one is still a QR code, it’s just an out-of-spec QR code. Most QR readers will still process it just fine, but there’s greater room for error depending on what surrounds the code itself.

        • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          i hate coding for browsers. To that end, I do not actually know css. I just called it padding when I wrote my own qr code library, because it was easier to say than “quiet zone”.

          Just like “dots” or “pixels” are easier to say than “modules”

    • pixelscript@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      I’ve seen at least one company press kit in rules on how to display their logo refer to it as “respect distance”.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I’ve usually used “clear space” because that’s common with spaces around logos but i like respect distance. though I don’t know what people in general would think of it after social distancing being associated with a terrible period of our lives.

    • MeatPilot@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Personally I’m going to start saying “quiet zone” instead white space. I’ll probably get dumb looks anyway.