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A print shop running a batch of unique QR codes needs five things settled before the run: which production method applies, the design spec, the data file, the code images (sometimes), and a way to match one to the other. Then a proof. This page is the map; each item has its own page with the detail.

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1. Which production method applies

Ask the shop: does their equipment image each piece individually and merge live from a data file, or do they need one flattened file with everything laid out, cut apart afterward? The first is variable data printing. The second is a gang sheet, and it means someone has to build the composite file before anything is produced. Settle this first, because it decides whether you owe them a data file or a finished sheet. See Choosing Your Print Production Method.

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2. The design spec

Give them a reference image of the finished piece plus the details a picture cannot carry: final dimensions, bleed, and — specific to a QR code — the minimum size and the clear space around it. Mark the quiet zone boundary explicitly, not just where the code sits. A shop rebuilding your artwork needs to know where that boundary is. See QR Code Print Spec: Quiet Zone and Minimum Size.

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3. The data file

Export a print list from QRtub: open the Links you want, choose Print List, select your columns, and download the CSV. Include the Full URL column at minimum, plus any Item fields you want printed alongside the code. One row in that file is one physical piece. That is the whole convention, and every print toolchain expects it.

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4. The code images — sometimes

If the shop’s software renders QR codes directly from the Full URL text, you do not need image files at all; the CSV alone is the handoff. If they place supplied images instead, download the codes as a ZIP from the same Links view. QRtub exports PNG only — 1024 × 1024 pixels, black on white, with no vector option and no size or color control. Where vector genuinely matters, hand over the Full URL column and let the shop generate the codes themselves.

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5. Matching, then a proof

Each downloaded file is named qr-code-<slug>.png, and neither URL column in the CSV is a byte-for-byte match for that filename — whoever matches has to strip a prefix. See Matching QR Codes to Data Rows. Then ask for a proof of a handful of real records, not a blank template, and scan the codes rather than looking at them. A code pointing at the wrong item looks identical to a correct one. See Getting and Scanning a Proof. Expect the shop to rebuild your artwork in their own software along the way. That is normal practice, not a warning sign — see What to Expect When a Shop Redraws Your File.