# Quiet zone

> The quiet zone is the blank margin around a QR code. The specification requires at least four modules of clear space on every side, and codes fail more often from a missing quiet zone than from almost any other design error.

Source: https://useqr.app/glossary/quiet-zone · Last reviewed 2026-08-21 · UseQR is free forever, MIT licensed, no signup.

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## Four modules, not four millimetres

The requirement scales with the code. Four *modules* on a code with 0.5 mm modules is a
2 mm margin; on a large poster code with 3 mm modules it is a 12 mm margin. Designers who
set a fixed pixel padding get this wrong in one direction or the other.

Micro QR codes need only two modules.

## What counts as violating it

- Text or a logo placed inside the margin.
- The code butting against a coloured panel or a photograph.
- A border or frame drawn tight to the pattern.
- The code sitting at the very edge of a label, where the trim cuts into it.

A frame is fine — but the frame must sit *outside* the four-module margin, not on it.
This is why UseQR keeps the quiet zone as an explicit parameter rather than treating it
as decoration.