PHP 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. Chilkat2 PHP

<?php

use Chilkat2\Formats;
use Chilkat2\JsonObject;
use Chilkat2\StringBuilder;

// 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 = new StringBuilder();
$sbText->Append("Gr\u{00FC}\u{00DF}e aus M\u{00FC}nchen");
$sbText->Decode('json', 'utf-8');

$json = new JsonObject();
$json->UpdateSb('payload.text', $sbText);
$json->UpdateString('output.path', 'qa_output/qr_utf8.png');
$json->UpdateBool('output.overwrite', true);
$json->UpdateString('output.return', 'none');

$fmt = new Formats();
$jsonOut = new JsonObject();
try {
    $fmt->QrCode('generate', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

// 17 characters, three of which take two bytes in UTF-8.
echo 'characters: ', $sbText->Length, "\n";
echo 'bytes encoded: ', $jsonOut->IntOf('symbols[0].payloadBytes'), "\n";
echo 'ECI header: ', ($jsonOut->HasMember('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci') ? 'true' : 'false'), "\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');
try {
    $fmt->QrCode('generate', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo 'with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: ', ($jsonOut->HasMember('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci') ? 'true' : 'false'), ', value ', $jsonOut->IntOf('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci'), "\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