If I print a masterpiece, do you know of a way to include features that a phone can read to generate a hyperlink? This could be used to either order more of the gems, or provide an explanation of what the object is, and why it was printed. I’d prefer to make it an integral part of the model, as opposed to pasting on a paper label with a QR code.
great thought. maybe you need to invent it 
Well… I chose the obvious way which, unfortunately, failed…
Printing it in white and dipping the top in black paint doesn’t seem to work…
Try the reverse, Deboss the qr code, apply paint and wipe the surface. The debbossed part should remain painted and the surface clean.
That print looks pretty glossy. Perhaps the reflectiveness is interfering with the QR code reader? My experience with those sort of codes is that they are pretty resilient to distortion, rounded corners, and missing sections, so long as the contrast between the colors is sufficient.
Another thought I just had, is that perhaps the white recessed area is too shadowed to be read properly. Try printing in reverse - the black portion should be recessed, while the white area is raised.
-edit- Oh… haha… I see that is what @Tikey just suggested. So +1 for his idea.
Will try that later today. Creating the model in “reverse” is trickier than you would think. I need to edit the parts manually as it has some issues when importing it as an EPS… I let you know.
You can also get a good contrast by relying only on the thickness of translucent resin (white or grey). It’s the same concept as the lithopane (http://formlabs.com/company/blog/2014/07/22/make-your-own-3d-printed-lithoform/) and allows you to have a completely flat top surface which can still by read by a scanner if you have enough backlighting for it.
@Tikey and @Paul_Schommer, Debossing the print didn’t work. It seemed the scanner had trouble with shadows indeed and that was still the issue when debossing the print.
@JasonLivingston, considering the above I doubt that the lithophane will give the scanner enough contrast as well. Apart from that, it wouldn’t fit @Paul_Hollingshead’s purpose because he would like to add these QR-codes to his models for scanning. Some of them might not be lithophanes.
So I did another few tests and ended up reverse-reverse modeling the print and now it works 
Though, the question still remains; Is it functional putting it on your designs?
I think that scale will probably be an issue as you don’t want it go be any bigger than 1cm (max). This print begin 2x2cm.
How deep was the deboss? It should be minimal, just enough for the paint to stick when cleaning.
Sadly I don’t have my Form with me otherwise I’d do some testing.
I wonder if some of the other types of 2D codes would be able to contain the amount of information you need while requiring less detail, and therefore could be printed smaller? The regular QR codes are usually overkill - they can contain like 4,000 characters or something insane.
The deboss was minimal; 0.3mm to ensure that shadow did not interfere with the scanning. However, it didn’t recognise the code in whatever lighting I put it. this would indeed seem strange when embossing does work (on the same scale). The reasoning behind this is still a mystery for me a.t.m.
Perhaps it’s because the black paint I used (while it was matt, still seemed glossy. therefore the problem might have been a white print with black paint. The print that worked was a black print with white paint. White being less reflective (it seems).
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I wonder if some of the other types of 2D codes would be able to contain the amount of information you need while requiring less detail, and therefore could be printed smaller? The regular QR codes are usually overkill - they can contain like 4,000 characters or something insane.
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Very true. However, unfortunately, most QR scanners do not recognise anything else than QR. So, while Micro QR is an option, it most probably wont work as the scanner doesn’t read that format…
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Ahhh. Good call Alex. Had not thought about that.
A good replacement would probably be Snaptag, however this comes at a cost :(… Any other QR equivalents. As QR is (and never will be) popular as no phones (iOS, android, Windows) come with a standard QR scanner…
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