Aztec Code Generator

Aztec Code has a bulls-eye finder pattern in the centre rather than the three corner squares of QR codes. This makes Aztec codes more compact at small sizes and allows them to be read without a quiet zone (the white border required by QR codes). Aztec codes are preferred in constrained spaces like boarding passes and transit tickets, while QR codes are more universally supported by consumer devices.

Aztec codes are the IATA standard for boarding pass barcodes (BCBP — Bar Coded Boarding Pass) because they can encode the required passenger name, flight, and seat data in a compact format that prints reliably on thermal paper, survives folding and light damage due to high error correction, and can be read quickly under varied lighting conditions in busy airport environments.

2D barcodes like Aztec use Reed-Solomon error correction, which adds mathematically derived redundant data to the encoded payload. When a portion of the barcode is damaged or unreadable, the decoder uses the redundant data to reconstruct the missing symbols. Higher error correction levels add more redundancy, allowing more damage to be tolerated at the cost of a larger barcode for the same payload.

Aztec codes can encode any binary data, including plain text, URLs, structured formats like BCBP (boarding passes), vCard contact information, calendar events (vCal), geographic coordinates, and arbitrary binary payloads. The maximum capacity is around 3,832 characters for text or 3,067 bytes of binary data, depending on the error correction level chosen.