Raydar free tools

Build a digital business card you can save or scan.

Fill in your details and get a standards-correct .vcf file plus a QR code, both generated entirely in your browser. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere, ever.

The interactive tool loads with this page and runs entirely in your browser.

Why .vcf is the format every phone already understands

A vCard is a plain text file, extension .vcf, that lays out a person's contact details in a format every major phone and desktop contacts app already knows how to read: iOS Contacts, Android Contacts, Outlook, Gmail, macOS Contacts, all of them. There is no app to install and no account to sign into. Opening a .vcf file, or scanning a QR code that contains one, hands your phone's own contacts app a ready-made entry with the name, numbers, emails and everything else already in the right fields. That is the entire appeal of the format: it is boring, universal infrastructure from the 1990s that nobody has needed to replace.

This generator runs the whole thing client-side. There is no server call, no account, and no daily limit: the fields you fill in build the vCard text directly in your browser, and the QR code is drawn from that same text locally too.

What happens when you scan the QR code

iOS and Android behave differently here, and it is worth knowing before you print a QR code on a card. On iPhone, the built-in Camera app recognises a vCard QR code directly: point the camera at it and a contact preview pops up with an "Add to Contacts" button, no extra app needed. On Android the experience varies more by device and camera app. Stock Google Camera and Google Lens both handle it the same way iOS does, but some manufacturer camera apps only show the raw decoded text or open a browser instead of a contact prompt, in which case Google Lens or a dedicated QR reader app is the reliable fallback.

Why a vCard QR code gets unreliable as it grows

A QR code has a fixed maximum data capacity, and every field you add to a vCard eats into it. Add a phone, an email, a full postal address, a couple of social links and a note, and you are already carrying a few hundred bytes. A QR code encoding that much data needs a denser grid of smaller modules to fit it in, and denser modules are exactly what a phone camera struggles to resolve at a small printed size, on a curved surface, or from a slight distance. This tool tracks the byte size of your card as you build it and warns you before the QR gets into that unreliable range, rather than handing you a code that looks fine on screen and fails at the point of actually scanning it.

The practical fix, if you want a rich profile with a photo, a bio and several links, is the same reason link-in-bio pages exist at all: encode a single short, stable link in the QR code instead of the whole profile, and let that link carry the rest (see what a URL shortener actually is for the mechanics). A short link is a handful of bytes regardless of how much sits behind it.

vCard 3.0 vs 4.0, and which one to pick

vCard 3.0 (RFC 2426, from 2003) is the version the widest range of software, old and new, reads without complaint. vCard 4.0 (RFC 6350, from 2011) is the current IETF standard: it cleans up some of 3.0's messier corners and assumes UTF-8 text by default instead of needing a separate character-set declaration. In practice, most modern phones handle both fine, but a handful of older or lower-effort contact importers only expect 3.0. That is why this tool defaults to 3.0 and offers 4.0 as a toggle rather than the other way around: pick 4.0 if you know the receiving system specifically wants it, otherwise 3.0 is the safer default.

The photo tradeoff

A vCard can embed a photo directly as base64-encoded image data inside the file itself, which is genuinely convenient: the picture travels with the contact, no broken links, no hosting required. The cost is size. Base64 encoding adds roughly a third to a file's byte count on top of the image data itself, and even a small, well-compressed photo can add tens of kilobytes to a card that was previously a few hundred bytes. That is almost always enough to push a QR code straight past the reliable-scanning range described above. If you add a photo here, downsize it first (this tool compresses what you upload before embedding it), and treat the QR code and the photo as a genuine either/or: a photo makes a great .vcf file to email or AirDrop, and a lean, photo-free card makes a great QR code to print.

Where Raydar fits

This tool builds the file. If you want that vCard living on an actual page, with a matching QR code, social links and a public profile you can update any time, that is exactly what Raydar's digital business card feature does. One honest limit: Raydar does not sell or provision NFC hardware. If you have your own NFC tag or card, you point it at your Raydar page URL yourself, the same way you would point it at any other link. Building and tagging campaign links to track how people found your card is a separate job, handled by our free UTM builder, and if you ever need to see what a link you were handed is actually carrying, our link decoder does the same fully client-side job this generator does, for URLs instead of contact cards.

Questions

Is any of my contact information uploaded or stored anywhere?

No. Every field on this page is processed entirely in your browser, including the QR code rendering. Nothing is sent to Raydar or anyone else, and closing the tab clears it.

Should I use vCard 3.0 or 4.0?

3.0 by default, since it is what the widest range of contact apps, old and new, reliably parse. Switch to 4.0 only if you specifically know the system receiving the card expects it.

Why did my QR code stop working after I added a photo?

A photo is base64-encoded straight into the file, which can add tens of kilobytes even after compression. That is usually enough to push the vCard past what a QR code can encode reliably at a normal print size. This tool warns you when that happens and disables the QR rather than generating one that will fail to scan. The .vcf download still works fine, since a downloaded file has no size ceiling the way a scannable QR code does.

Will this work for saving a contact on both iPhone and Android?

Yes, the .vcf format itself is identical either way. Scanning behaviour differs slightly: iPhone's Camera app opens an Add to Contacts prompt directly, while on Android the result depends on the camera app, with Google Lens or a dedicated QR reader as the reliable fallback if the built-in camera just shows raw text.

Can I edit the vCard after I download it?

Yes. A .vcf file is plain text, so it opens in any text editor if you want to tweak it by hand. It is usually simpler to come back here, adjust the fields, and download it again.

What if a phone number or email I enter isn't accepted?

The generator checks that each phone number and email looks like a real one before including it, and tells you exactly which entry it left out and why, rather than silently producing a vCard with a broken field inside it.