Aztec Code Generator: Create a Free
Aztec Barcode Online
Generate an Aztec code in seconds — free, no signup. Download as PNG, SVG, or PDF.
Square 2D code with a bullseye centre. Transit and event tickets.
Customize
The side of one cell. A 2D code's shape is fixed by your data, so this is the only size control here — use Print width below to fix the finished size.
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Enter data to see preview
Aztec basics
What Is an Aztec Code?
An Aztec code is a two-dimensional barcode standardised as ISO/IEC 24778. Where a QR code finds itself using three large squares in three corners, an Aztec symbol uses a single bullseye — concentric dark and light rings — at its exact centre, with data spiralling outwards around it.
That one design decision explains almost everything about the format. The symbol is always square and always has an odd number of cells across, so the bullseye can sit on a single centre cell. Because the finder is internal rather than at the edge, the standard requires no quiet zone at all — nothing outside the symbol has to be blank for a reader to locate it. And because no space is spent on corner finders or a margin, a short payload fits into a smaller printed area than the equivalent QR code. It was designed in 1995 by Andrew Longacre Jr. and Robert Hussey at Welch Allyn, released into the public domain, and adopted by the transport industry, which is where most people meet it: on rail and transit tickets and on airline boarding passes.
The trade-off is reach. Phone cameras are tuned for QR codes and most will not react to an Aztec symbol at all, so scanning one normally means a dedicated reader app or a handheld scanner. That makes Aztec a good fit when you control the scanner and a poor one when the general public does. For a full side-by-side of the whole 1D and 2D family, see our QR code vs barcode comparison.
Read this first
What This Aztec Barcode Generator Can and Cannot Do
Most people arrive here from a ticket. It is worth two minutes to know which half of that you can actually do, before you print anything.
What you can encode
- A URL — an order page, a check-in page, an asset record
- A booking reference, order number or seat identifier
- An internal asset, bin or serial number
- Any plain ASCII text, up to 512 characters in the field
- Hundreds of the above at once, from a pasted column or a CSV
What this tool will not do
- Produce a valid rail fare, transit ticket or boarding pass — and neither can any other generator
- Encode accented, CJK or emoji characters — we refuse anything above U+007F, on purpose
- Encode raw binary or compressed bytes — this is an ASCII text field, and a signed payload needs the issuer's key besides
- Read or scan an Aztec code back — QRKIT decodes QR only
- Track scans or change the data after you print it
Why you cannot make a train ticket or a boarding pass
The Aztec code on a rail ticket is a UIC 918.3 payload; the one on a mobile boarding pass is IATA BCBP. Both are compressed, cryptographically signed binary, issued by the carrier, and only the carrier holds the signing key. That is the point of them — a fare that anyone could mint would not be a fare. No online generator produces one, and any tool that lets you try is letting you print something that will be refused at the gate.
There is a second, plainer reason it cannot happen here: those payloads are raw bytes, and this generator refuses every character above U+007F on purpose. What it will happily do is encode a reference number or a URL that opens your own ticket page — which is what most event, venue and internal ticketing actually needs.
Looking for PDF417? It is in the same picker, on the same terms — free, no account, no watermark. It is the other 2D symbology on boarding passes, and the same caveat applies: we encode what you type, not a signed BCBP payload, and not a driver’s-licence AAMVA record either. The PDF417 generator covers that symbology in full. QRKIT generates fourteen formats in total; the barcode generator covers the full set.
Specs
Aztec Code Generator Specifications
Exactly what this tool accepts, refuses and produces — including the limits, because finding them out after a print run is expensive.
| Property | What QRKIT does |
|---|---|
| Standard | Aztec Code, ISO/IEC 24778. Encoded with bwip-js under its 'azteccode' encoder. |
| Character set | Standard ASCII only — U+0000 to U+007F. Anything above that is refused with a named message rather than encoded. |
| Why non-ASCII is refused | The encoder would write your text as UTF-8 bytes, and we emit no ECI designator to tell a reader that is what they are. The symbol would scan back as mojibake, so we decline instead. |
| Input length | Up to 512 characters in the input field. That is our field's cap, not the symbology's — Aztec itself holds roughly 3,000 alphanumeric characters at its largest sizes. |
| Empty input | Refused with “Enter data to encode”. Nothing is generated from a blank or whitespace-only field. |
| Case handling | Your text is encoded exactly as typed. Nothing is uppercased — a URL is case-sensitive and changing it would change where it points. |
| Symbol shape | Always square, always an odd number of cells across, with the bullseye finder on the centre cell. |
| Quiet zone | ISO/IEC 24778 requires none. QRKIT renders one cell of clear space on all four sides anyway, so the symbol never abuts artwork. |
| Minimum cell size | 0.254 mm. The tool shows a warning beside the export size the moment your chosen print width would push the cells below it. |
| Design controls | Cell size (2–16), cell colour and background colour. No error-correction picker, no logo, no gradients, no rounded cells, no frames. |
| Download formats | PNG, SVG and PDF. SVG and PDF are true vector. No EPS, DXF or TIFF. |
| Print sizing | Set a print width in millimetres, inches or pixels; choose 72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI for the raster export. SVG needs no resolution at all. |
| Batch size | 500 rows per batch, from a pasted column or a CSV. A browser-memory limit applied identically to everyone — there is no plan that raises it. |
| Account required | None, for generating or downloading. No signup, no card, no watermark. (Scoped to this barcode generator — downloading a QR code from QRKIT does need a free account.) |
| Dynamic / trackable | Not available. QRKIT's redirect and scan tracking are built into the QR code product only — the barcode generator has no dynamic option for any of its fourteen formats. Use a dynamic QR code if you need to edit the destination or count scans. |
| Reading Aztec codes | Not supported. QRKIT's scanner reads QR codes only; use a dedicated reader app to verify what you generate. |
How it works
How to Generate an Aztec Code Online
The generator at the top of this page already opens on Aztec, so there is no format to hunt for. Four steps, about two minutes.
Step 1
Enter your data
Type or paste what you want encoded — a URL, a booking reference, an order number, an asset ID. Standard ASCII only, up to 512 characters. Anything the encoder would refuse is caught as you type.
Step 2
Set cell size and colours
Move the module size slider (2 to 16) to change how large one square cell is, and pick the cell and background colours. Dark on light with strong contrast is what scans; the tool warns you when contrast gets too low.
Step 3
Choose the print size
Enter a print width in mm, inches or pixels. SVG and PDF are vector and scale to anything. For PNG pick 72, 150, 300 or 600 DPI. A warning appears if the cells would drop below 0.254 mm.
Step 4
Download and test
Download the PNG, SVG or PDF — no account, no watermark. Then test the printed symbol with the reader that will actually scan it, before you commit to a run.
Nothing to install. This runs entirely in your browser, on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android or iOS. No download, no install, no permissions to grant. The Aztec encoder itself is only fetched once you pick a 2D format, so nobody making an EAN-13 pays for it.
Comparison
Aztec Code vs QR Code
Both are square matrix barcodes. They are different standards, and the difference that matters most is who is holding the scanner.
| Feature | Aztec Code | QR Code |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ISO/IEC 24778 | ISO/IEC 18004 |
| Finder pattern | One bullseye at the centre | Three squares in three corners |
| Quiet zone | None required by the standard | Required around the symbol |
| Capacity | ~3,000 alphanumeric characters | Up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters |
| Phone camera scan | Usually needs a reader app | Works with the built-in camera |
| Typical use | Rail, transit and boarding passes | Public-facing signage, packaging, cards |
| Design options here | Cell size and two colours | Colours, logo, patterns, frames |
| Editable after printing | No — no dynamic option here | Yes, with a dynamic QR code |
Aztec Code
- Standard
- ISO/IEC 24778
- Finder
- Central bullseye
- Quiet zone
- None required
- Capacity
- ~3,000 alphanumeric
- Phone camera
- Needs a reader app
- Typical use
- Rail, transit, tickets
- Editable
- No — no dynamic option
QR Code
- Standard
- ISO/IEC 18004
- Finder
- Three corner squares
- Quiet zone
- Required
- Capacity
- Up to 4,296 alphanumeric
- Phone camera
- Built-in camera works
- Typical use
- Signage, packaging
- Editable
- Yes, if dynamic
The short version. If the people scanning are the general public with whatever phone they happen to own, use a QR code — an Aztec code most phones cannot read is a dead end no matter how neat it is. If a handheld scanner or an app you control is doing the reading, and print space is tight, Aztec is the denser choice.
Bulk
Generate Aztec Codes in Bulk — Free
One code is a starting point; most real work is a list. Open “Generate many at once” under the generator, paste a column of values or upload a CSV, and download the whole batch. There is no account step and no paid tier — the batch feature is simply part of the free tool.
Paste a column or upload a CSV
One value per line, or a spreadsheet export. When your file has a header row the tool reads it and picks the column that actually holds the codes — a name,sku export encodes the SKUs, not the product names — and you can override the choice.
Every row is validated first
Each row goes through the same Aztec rules the single-code field uses. Rows that cannot be encoded are listed by row number with the reason, so a bad row is named before you download rather than becoming a broken label.
Repeats are flagged
A value that already appeared on an earlier valid row is marked as a repeat. Useful when a spreadsheet export has quietly duplicated a reference.
Three output shapes
A ZIP of PNG files, a ZIP of SVG files, or one PDF with a single code per page. Files are numbered in input order, so two rows with the same value cannot overwrite each other.
500 rows per batch
The cap is browser memory, not an account: each row is a rendered symbol held until the archive is written. It is the same number for everyone, and the tool tells you exactly how many rows were left over so you can run the rest.
Runs on your device
The whole batch is encoded in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to a server for processing, and the encoder is fetched only when a 2D format is selected.
Where they are used
Where Aztec Codes Are Used
Aztec is a specialist. It shows up wherever print space is tight, the scanner is known, and the symbol has to survive being folded, creased or displayed on a scuffed phone screen.
Rail and transit tickets
The best-known use by far. European rail tickets carry a UIC 918.3 Aztec symbol that gate readers and conductor handhelds verify. You cannot generate a valid fare — only the carrier can sign one — but you can encode your own reference or a URL that opens your own ticket page.
Venue and event admission
Where the venue owns both the ticket and the scanner, Aztec fits a booking reference into a small corner of a printed stub or a phone screen. The scanner app is yours, so the phone-camera limitation never comes up.
Logistics and asset labels
Warehouse and field-service teams use Aztec on small labels where a linear barcode would not fit and a QR code would waste margin on its quiet zone. Handheld scanners read it without a second thought.
Internal references on paperwork
Job sheets, vouchers, work orders and internal forms, where a small square code carries a reference a colleague's scanner turns into a record. Your own reference numbers are exactly what this tool is for; an official document's signed payload is not something any generator can reproduce.
Aztec Code Generator — Frequently Asked Questions
Get started
Create Your Aztec Code Free
Type your data, set the cell size, download. PNG, SVG or PDF, one at a time or 500 at once — with no account and no watermark on the file.
Need a different symbology? The barcode generator covers all fourteen QRKIT formats, including Data Matrix, GS1 DataMatrix and PDF417. For a code you can edit or track after printing, see dynamic QR codes. For GS1 product data in a QR code, see GS1 Digital Link.