Put the code on signs and invitations

Where the code belongs

On the table, where folks are already sitting with a phone at hand. One poster by the entryway is passed by everybody who arrives carrying a coat and a bottle, and it's never seen again. A few small signs beat 1 large one, and the code on them matches.

Waiting areas are the second-best spot. A queue near the bar is the most reliable minute of the evening.

1. Pick the size for the spot. A6 on tables, A5 near the bar, A4 by the door. The code is the same on all of them.
2. Write the line beside it. State what the guest gets, not how the technology works. "Your photos from today, all in 1 album."
3. Add the address on invitations. Printed invitations get viewed on screens too. A text link handles that case.

If you print just 1 format, A5 suits a table and still reads from 2 meters.

How big the code has to be

About 5 cm wide for anything read at arm s length, and larger the further away it rests. A workable guide: the code needs to be about a tenth of the distance you expect folks to scan it from, so a sign read from 2 meters wants around 20 cm.

Larger costs nothing but paper. Too small costs you the contribution fully, since no one attempts twice.

The line beside it does the work

A bare code is a request without a reason. Guests scan once they know what they get, so lead with the outcome instead of the mechanism: their photos from today, in 1 place, for everybody. Naming the absence of an app helps too, since that's the objection folks hold silently.

Hold it to 1 line. A paragraph on a table card gets read by no one.

On invitations, add the address

A printed invitation is photographed and forwarded, and a code on a screen can't be scanned by the phone showing it. Printing the web address below in plain text handles that, and it costs 1 line of small type.

For a digital invitation, make the address an actual link. No one types a URL from a message.

Paper, light and the surface

Matt paper outperforms gloss, since a gloss card beneath a downlight reflects directly into the lens. Light card standing upright outperforms a flat sheet, which lands under a plate. And a candle alongside the code lights it worse than the room does.

Dark card with a white code works only if you exported the white version instead of flipping it yourself.

How many to print

One per table as standard, plus 1 per bar and 1 by the entryway. For a party of 80 at 10 tables that's around 13 signs, which is 4 sheets of A4 cut to size. Under-printing is the costlier mistake of the two.

Print 1 first, scan it where it will stand, then print the rest.