The Five-Minute Scannability Test I Run Before Every Print Run
Five boring checks, done every single time, that have saved more money than any other habit: print one, scan with a cheap phone, test the real lighting, confirm the fallback, then approve.
Before any code goes to a real print run, I run the same five-minute test, and it has saved me from more expensive mistakes than any other habit. It is not clever. It is just done every single time, which is the part most people skip.
First, print one. Not a screen mockup, an actual print on the actual material, at the actual size. Codes that look crisp on a monitor can fall apart on matte cardstock or curl on receipt paper, and you only learn that on paper.
Second, scan it with a cheap phone, not your newest one. Your flagship camera will forgive a low-contrast or slightly-too-small code that an older phone in a customer's pocket will refuse. Test for the worst camera likely to try it, not the best.
Third, scan it under the lighting and from the distance real people will use. Walk to where the customer stands. Check it under the shop lights at the time of day it will be seen, including the late-afternoon glare nobody remembers until a decal stops working at four o'clock.
Fourth, confirm the destination is right and that it still works if your main page is down, because a code that dead-ends is worse than no code at all. Fifth, only then approve the run. Five minutes against a few hundred dollars of reprints and a week of dead scans is the easiest trade you will make all month.