Perl Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

QR Code with Non-English Text (UTF-8 and ECI)

See more QR Code Examples

Demonstrates text outside ASCII. QrCode always stores text as UTF-8 bytes, which is what phones expect. A QR code can also say so explicitly with an ECI header: setting encoding.eci to 26 declares the bytes to be UTF-8, for readers that would otherwise assume another character set. The header costs a little space, and a few older readers do not understand it, so it is off by default. Perl

use chilkat();

$success = 0;

#  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
#  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

#  The text is "Gruesse aus Muenchen" written with u-umlaut and sharp s.  It is given here with
#  JSON escapes only so that this source is plain ASCII.  Decode turns the escapes into characters.
$sbText = chilkat::CkStringBuilder->new();
$sbText->Append("Gr\u00fc\u00dfe aus M\u00fcnchen");
$sbText->Decode("json","utf-8");

$json = chilkat::CkJsonObject->new();
$json->UpdateSb("payload.text",$sbText);
$json->UpdateString("output.path","qa_output/qr_utf8.png");
$json->UpdateBool("output.overwrite",1);
$json->UpdateString("output.return","none");

$fmt = chilkat::CkFormats->new();
$jsonOut = chilkat::CkJsonObject->new();
$success = $fmt->QrCode("generate",$json,$jsonOut);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $fmt->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

#  17 characters, three of which take two bytes in UTF-8.
print "characters: " . $sbText->get_Length() . "\r\n";
print "bytes encoded: " . $jsonOut->IntOf("symbols[0].payloadBytes") . "\r\n";
print "ECI header: " . $jsonOut->HasMember("symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci") . "\r\n";

#  Without an ECI header (qa_output/qr_utf8.png):

#  

#  The same text with an ECI header declaring UTF-8.
$json->UpdateInt("encoding.eci",26);
$json->UpdateString("output.path","qa_output/qr_utf8_eci.png");
$success = $fmt->QrCode("generate",$json,$jsonOut);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $fmt->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

print "with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: " . $jsonOut->HasMember("symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci") . ", value " . $jsonOut->IntOf("symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci") . "\r\n";

#  With the ECI header (qa_output/qr_utf8_eci.png).  Both scan as the same text:

#  

#  Sample output:

#  characters: 17
#  bytes encoded: 20
#  ECI header: False
#  with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: True, value 26