[Uehreka]

The do have to be big, they do have to be squares (in terms of general shape), but ugly? Actually no! Check this out: https://qr-code-styling.com/

I've used this for a project where we wanted QR codes that fit a particular color theme. As long as you maintain a certain amount of contrast between the code and the background (and test your work, this is very much "you break it you fix it" territory) you can have rounded dots, rounded corner dots, colors (even gradients!) and an arbitrary image in the center.

Again, you need to try out this library with whatever design you're intending, and if you push some of the parameters too far you'll lose certain QR scanners, but the spec is way more flexible than most people know.

[herval]

Beauty is subjective, of course, but for me at least, these stylized QRs don't look _much_ better than regular ones. And may make it harder for recognition too, for customers used to the big ugly squares-on-squares format

[Talanes]

> And may make it harder for recognition too

Compared to a standard QR code sure, but I've seen these Spotify codes plenty of times and just thought they were decoration until this link.

[grishka]

I had no idea how far you could push a QR code. Like, you could make the corner markers round, and it still scans just fine.

[arketyp]

I wish QR codes were just 3-point simplices with barycentric triangle pixels. That ought to be enough. You could even shape the QR triangle any way (affine transform) you like, at the risk of readability of course.