Tcl 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. Tcl

load ./chilkat.dll

set 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.
set sbText [new_CkStringBuilder]

CkStringBuilder_Append $sbText "Gr\u00fc\u00dfe aus M\u00fcnchen"
CkStringBuilder_Decode $sbText "json" "utf-8"

set json [new_CkJsonObject]

CkJsonObject_UpdateSb $json "payload.text" $sbText
CkJsonObject_UpdateString $json "output.path" "qa_output/qr_utf8.png"
CkJsonObject_UpdateBool $json "output.overwrite" 1
CkJsonObject_UpdateString $json "output.return" "none"

set fmt [new_CkFormats]

set jsonOut [new_CkJsonObject]

set success [CkFormats_QrCode $fmt "generate" $json $jsonOut]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkFormats_lastErrorText $fmt]
    delete_CkStringBuilder $sbText
    delete_CkJsonObject $json
    delete_CkFormats $fmt
    delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut
    exit
}

#  17 characters, three of which take two bytes in UTF-8.
puts "characters: [CkStringBuilder_get_Length $sbText]"
puts "bytes encoded: [CkJsonObject_IntOf $jsonOut {symbols[0].payloadBytes}]"
puts "ECI header: [CkJsonObject_HasMember $jsonOut {symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci}]"

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

#  

#  The same text with an ECI header declaring UTF-8.
CkJsonObject_UpdateInt $json "encoding.eci" 26
CkJsonObject_UpdateString $json "output.path" "qa_output/qr_utf8_eci.png"
set success [CkFormats_QrCode $fmt "generate" $json $jsonOut]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkFormats_lastErrorText $fmt]
    delete_CkStringBuilder $sbText
    delete_CkJsonObject $json
    delete_CkFormats $fmt
    delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut
    exit
}

puts "with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: [CkJsonObject_HasMember $jsonOut {symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci}], value [CkJsonObject_IntOf $jsonOut {symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci}]"

#  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

delete_CkStringBuilder $sbText
delete_CkJsonObject $json
delete_CkFormats $fmt
delete_CkJsonObject $jsonOut