Question 1

How to install qrtool on Windows?

Accepted Answer

Use WinGet with 'winget install --id sorairolake.qrtool -e', or download pre-built binaries from the GitHub release page. It's also available via package managers like Nix for cross-platform setups.

Question 2

qrtool vs qrencode - which is better?

Accepted Answer

qrtool offers more modern features like color customization, Micro/rMQR support, and decoding from many image formats, while qrencode is older and more limited. For automation with diverse formats, qrtool is superior, but qrencode might suffice for basic PNG generation.

Question 3

How to generate a colored QR code with qrtool?

Accepted Answer

Use the --foreground and --background options with CSS color strings, e.g., 'qrtool encode --foreground brown --background lightslategray "text" > output.png'. This allows flexible color choices beyond defaults.

Question 4

Can qrtool decode QR codes from PDF files?

Accepted Answer

Not directly; the README shows you need to convert PDF to SVG using Inkscape first, then pipe to qrtool decode. It supports SVG decoding with the 'decode-from-svg' feature enabled, but requires external tools for PDF handling.

Question 5

How to optimize QR code image size with qrtool?

Accepted Answer

Pipe the output to external optimizers like oxipng for PNG or svgcleaner for SVG, as qrtool lacks built-in optimization. Alternatively, enable the 'optimize-output-png' feature at compile time for basic PNG compression.

Question 6

Does qrtool support batch processing multiple files?

Accepted Answer

Yes, through shell scripting or pipelines; since it reads from stdin, you can loop over files in a script. For example, use 'for file in *.png; do qrtool decode "$file"; done' to decode multiple images.

qrtool

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