QR code renderer in a TrueType font

Name: QR code renderer in a TrueType font
Availability: InStock
Author: foodevl

by foodevl·Jun 28, 2026·2 points·1 comment

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AI Analysis

●●●BangerWizardryBig BrainRabbit Hole

QR codes rendered through font shaping instead of image generation—wild constraint craft.

Strengths

•OpenType rules generate QR codes during text rendering, no preprocessing needed
•QR codes remain copy-pasteable as text and mix inline with regular characters
•TTF hinting implementation is genuinely insane constraint engineering

Weaknesses

•Browser line-wrapping can split QR codes across lines without careful CSS
•Limited to ~53 characters per QR block depending on font variant

Post Description

In the "Libre Barcode Project" discussion yesterday, 1bpp asked: "Is anyone willing to sacrifice their sanity for the sake of implementing a QR renderer as TTF hinting code?"

Yes. I had some tokens to burn and was curious... turns out, it's possible. This was put together by a mix of Gemini, GPT, and Claude (depending on which usage limits kept running out).