Businesscard with QR-Code

What happens when you hand someone a business card? Either they type everything manually, or the card gets forgotten. This class generates a print-ready business card with a QR code that embeds a full vcard, so contact data can be imported directly with a scanner app.

Compared to templates that place many cards on A4, this project focuses on professional printing workflows: one card per PDF page, exact dimensions, and crop marks.

Features

• full contact payload in QR code (vCard 4.0)
• privacy control per field via optional [hide] (in QR only, not printed)
• configurable layout: alignment, icon placement, text/QR order, spacing, card dimensions
• professional print output with crop marks and exact paper/content size
• visual customization: logos, QR-center logo, background image/color, text color, QR color
• social/contact integrations (jabber, matrix, gitea, github, git, facebook, twitter, youtube, wikipedia, nextcloud federation id)
• PGP key URL and fingerprint support
• multi-page PDFs (e.g. front/back variants) with \newcard

Quick Start

\documentclass{businesscard-qrcode}

\type{home}
\givennames{An}
\familynames{Example}
\street{Einbahnstrasse\ 84}
\city{Irgendwo}
\zip{1001}
\country{Switzerland}
\homepage{example.com}
\email{name@example.com}

\begin{document}
  \drawcard
\end{document}

Compile with:

xelatex -interaction=nonstopmode your-card.tex

Installation

Copy businesscard-qrcode/businesscard-qrcode.cls to your LaTeX class path. Simplest way on Linux:

mkdir -p ~/texmf/tex/latex/businesscard-qrcode
cp businesscard-qrcode/businesscard-qrcode.cls ~/texmf/tex/latex/businesscard-qrcode/
ln -s ~/texmf/tex/latex ~/texmf/tex/xelatex

Compilation Notes

• Use xelatex (UTF-8 support, e.g. umlauts, CJK).
• Do not load inputenc with this class.
• vCard line endings default to CRLF (crlf option) for better iOS import compatibility.

Building with latexmk / IDEs

Editors such as VS Code LaTeX Workshop usually call latexmk from the workspace root. This repository ships project-local .latexmkrc files (root and examples/) that extend TEXINPUTS so TeX prefers the local class file from this checkout.

If you invoke xelatex manually without latexmk, set:

TEXINPUTS=/path/to/businesscard-qrcode:

(or run from the repository root).

Document Structure

\documentclass[<layout-options>]{businesscard-qrcode}

<data-definitions>

\begin{document}
  \drawcard
\end{document}

Escaping Spaces in Data

Spaces inside macro arguments must be escaped as \ , otherwise TeX may collapse them before QR/vCard generation.

\company{Example\ Company\ Ltd.}
\city{New\ York}
\phone{+41\ 44\ 123\ 45\ 67}

Layout Options

You can set layout options in four ways:

1. \documentclass[...] (global defaults)
2. \cardsetup{key=value,...} (runtime/global from that point)
3. \drawcard[key=value,...] (runtime, convenient per page/card)
4. command-style setters \set...{...} (one setter per option)

Note: direct commands like \paperwidth{...} or \color{...} would clash with core LaTeX commands/lengths, therefore the command API uses \set...{...} names.

\documentclass[textwidth=0.7,qrwidth=0.25,www,nofill,iconright,rightalign,hint,icon,textfirst]{businesscard-qrcode}

% runtime/global
\cardsetup{textfirst,noicon,qrwidth=0.35}

% per card/page
\drawcard[noqr,noheader,layout=centered]

% command-style
\setqrwidth{0.35}
\seticon{false}
\setlayout{centered}

Paper and Geometry

• paperwidth=: physical paper width, default 89mm
• paperheight=: physical paper height, default 59mm
• contentwidth=: inner content width, default 85mm
• contentheight=: inner content height, default 55mm
• padding=: inner padding, default 2mm
• cutdist=: crop-mark distance, default 2
• cutlen=: crop-mark length, default 1

Typography and Layout

• fontsize=: one of 8pt,9pt,10pt,11pt,12pt,14pt,17pt,20pt, default 8pt
• textwidth=: relative text block width, default 0.50
• qrwidth=: relative QR block width, default 0.40
• qrfirst / textfirst: QR left/right order, default qrfirst
• header / noheader: show/hide top name block + separator line, default header
• qr / noqr: show/hide QR block, default qr
• layout=: standard (default) or centered
• rightalign / leftalign: text alignment, default rightalign
• iconleft / iconright: icon side, default iconleft
• fill / nofill: fill space between icon and text, default fill

Address, Links, and Formatting

• address / noaddress: include address in print + vCard, default address
• hint / nohint: show small protocol hints, default hint
• icon / noicon: show icons, default icon
• https / www: hint URL style, default https
• lang=: wikipedia language prefix, default de
• countryformat=: auto (default), inline, or below
• crlf / nocrlf: vCard newline style, default crlf

Colors and QR Tuning

• color=: global text color, default black
• qrcolor=: QR module color, default black
• qreclevel=: L, M, Q, H, default H
• qrlogoscale=: QR-center logo size fraction, default 0.25
• qrlogoborder=: QR-center logo padding fraction, default 0.02
• qrbgopacity=: QR white background opacity, default 1.0

Logo and Background

• logoheight=: default logo height near name (with unit). Auto-default: 4em if company exists, else 2em
• bgscale=: background image scale, default 1.0
• bgopacity=: background image opacity, default 1.0

Data Definitions

Define data via commands like:

\email{name@example.com}

All data commands support optional [hide] (or [hide=true]): value remains in QR/vCard but is hidden in printed text.

\email[hide]{secret@example.com}

Recognized Commands

Name and Identity

• \type: home or work (used in ADR/TEL/EMAIL vCard typing)
• \honoricprefix: name prefix/title
• \givennames: given names
• \additionalnames: additional/middle names
• \familynames: family names
• \honoricsuffix: name suffix
• \title: position/job title (also contributes to displayed/vCard full name)
• \role: role/function
• \company[logo=...,height=...,hide]: company text with optional inline logo configuration

Address

• \pobox
• \extaddr
• \street
• \city
• \region
• \zip
• \country

Contact

• \phone
• \email
• \jabber
• \matrixorg
• \cloud

Web and Social

• \homepage
• \world
• \link
• \wordpress
• \drupal
• \joomla
• \wikipedia
• \git
• \gitea
• \github
• \facebook
• \twitter
• \youtube
• \google

Crypto

• \pgpurl
• \pgpfingerprint

Visual Content

• \logo[height=...]{content}: logo near name (file path or TeX content)
• \qrlogo[scale=...,opacity=...]{content}: logo in QR center (file path or TeX content)
• \background[scale=...,opacity=...]{file-or-color}: background image or color
• \centercontent{...}: custom content used by layout=centered
• \companylogo[height=...]{content}: backward-compatible company logo helper

Multi-Page and State Control

• \clearfield{<name>}: remove one field (printed + QR/vCard)
• \clearcard: remove all card fields plus card-scoped visuals (\title, logo, QR logo, background)
• \clear{<name>}: alias of \clearfield{<name>} (when no other package already defines \clear)
• \newcard: alias of \newpage + \clearcard
• empty structured entries are omitted automatically: if no personal-name parts remain, N/FN are not emitted; if no address parts remain, ADR is not emitted and the address icon/text block is hidden
• \cardsetup{key=value,...}: set layout options at runtime
• \drawcard[key=value,...]: draw a card and optionally adjust layout options inline
• \setoption{key}{value}: generic runtime setter

Command-Style Setters for Layout Options

• geometry: \setpaperwidth, \setpaperheight, \setcontentwidth, \setcontentheight, \setpadding, \setcutdist, \setcutlen
• layout/typography: \setfontsize, \settextwidth, \setqrwidth, \setqreclevel, \setqrlogoscale, \setqrlogoborder, \setlogoheight, \setlayout
• booleans (true/false): \setcrlf, \setaddress, \sethint, \seticon, \setrightalign, \seticonleft, \setfill, \setqrfirst, \setheader, \setqr, \sethttps
• colors/language/format: \setlang, \setcardcolor, \setqrcolor, \setcountryformat, \setbgscale, \setbgopacity, \setqrbgopacity
• convenience toggles: \noheader, \withheader, \noqr, \withqr, \standardlayout, \centeredlayout

Document Title Interop

• \title{...} is repurposed by this class for card position/title content
• \carddocumenttitle{...} calls the original LaTeX document-title command if needed

Second Page (Front/Back)

Use one source file for front/back variants:

\begin{document}
  % Page 1
  \type{home}
  \givennames{John}
  \familynames{Doe}
  \email{name@example.com}
  \drawcard

  % Page 2
  \newcard
  \type{work}
  \company{My\ Company\ LTD}
  \title{CEO}
  \email{doe@mycompany.ltd}
  \drawcard
\end{document}

Alternative: centered back side without QR and without header:

\newcard
\centercontent{{\Large\bfseries My\ Company\ LTD}\par\vspace{0.8em}hello@mycompany.ltd\par mycompany.ltd}
\drawcard[layout=centered,noqr,noheader]

Equivalent using setter commands:

\newcard
\setlayout{centered}
\setqr{false}
\setheader{false}
\centercontent{{\Large\bfseries My\ Company\ LTD}\par\vspace{0.8em}hello@mycompany.ltd\par mycompany.ltd}
\drawcard

If you want to keep most data and only remove selected fields:

\newpage
\clear{givennames}
\clear{familynames}
\drawcard

See john-doe-hongkong.tex for a full two-page example.

Logo and Background Examples

Logo next to name

\documentclass{businesscard-qrcode}
\logo{logo.png}

Logo in QR center

\documentclass[qreclevel=H,qrlogoscale=0.25]{businesscard-qrcode}
\qrlogo[scale=0.25]{logo.png}

Important for QR-center logos:

• prefer qreclevel=H
• test scan quality with multiple apps/devices
• reduce qrlogoscale if decoding becomes unreliable

Large logo next to name

\documentclass[logoheight=6em]{businesscard-qrcode}
\logo{logo.png}

Background color

\documentclass{businesscard-qrcode}
\background{yellow!20}

Background image

\documentclass[bgscale=1.5,bgopacity=0.3,qrbgopacity=1.0]{businesscard-qrcode}
\background{photo.png}

Print the Card

The default print format is 89mm × 59mm with 2mm border/cut distance (inner card: 85mm × 55mm).

Example for 10cm × 5cm card with 2mm cut:

\documentclass[paperheight=5.4cm,paperwidth=10.4cm,
               contentheight=5cm,contentwidth=10cm,
               cutdist=2]{businesscard-qrcode}

Before printing, validate QR readability (phone app + command line, e.g. zbarimg businesscard.pdf).

Need More

If you are missing a feature or configuration option, consult project and open a ticket. Contributions are welcome (lgpl).