May 4, 2026
Scan if you dare
Hand Drawn QR Codes
A hand-made square code turned into a mini internet obsession over effort, hacks, and chaos
TLDR: A hobbyist hand-drew a working QR code on grid paper, then learned a clever all-caps trick let the full website fit after all. In the comments, people were split between impressed, exhausted, and hilariously defeated by how much effort those little phone-scanning squares actually take.
A person in Minneapolis bought cute grid paper, decided that apparently normal hobbies are overrated, and painstakingly hand-drew a scannable QR code — those black-and-white boxes you point your phone at. The twist? The original web address was too long to fit, which sent the whole thing into delightfully nerdy chaos. A reader swooped in with a plot twist worthy of a comments-section crown: using ALL CAPS can make the code smaller, because the format treats capital letters more efficiently. Suddenly the humble square code had its own makeover arc.
The community reaction was a mix of admiration, war flashbacks, and "absolutely not." One commenter dropped a link explaining the uppercase trick, which became the thread's big "wait, WHAT?" moment. Another person said they hand-drew one on a whiteboard and it was way more work than expected, basically confirming that this cute craft project is also a tiny endurance sport. Then came the relatable meltdown energy: one commenter admitted they had tried to understand how QR codes work multiple times and still had no clue, joking that maybe an AI chatbot could finally explain it. Peak 2026 mood.
And because the internet can never just admire a thing normally, people instantly started brainstorming side quests: turn it into a puzzle gift, make it lead to a comment page, use it for art, or fall down the rabbit hole of Grid World. So yes, the story is technically about a hand-drawn code — but the real headline is that the comments turned it into a mix of craft challenge, coding confessional, and group therapy for people bullied by tiny squares.
Key Points
- •The author attempted to hand-draw a version 1 QR code on grid paper purchased in Minneapolis.
- •Version 1 QR codes use a 21x21 module layout, creating a fitting challenge on the available paper grid.
- •The author initially used `sethmlarson.dev` because `https://sethmlarson.dev` exceeded the stated 17-byte limit, then later updated the post to note that an uppercase full URL could fit using QR alphanumeric mode.
- •A reference QR code was generated with the qrcode package from the Python Package Index using the command `echo -n "HTTPS://SETHMLARSON.DEV" | qr --error-correction=L`.
- •The finished hand-drawn code scanned successfully, though it worked best when the paper was flat or hung from a monitor rather than curling on a surface.