What the guides are for
Every tool on this site applies rules that are written into its engine. The QR maker always draws the quiet zone and raises the error-correction level the moment a logo is placed; the barcode maker verifies or computes a check digit before a bar is drawn. The guides make those rules legible: what each tool does, why it is built that way, where it stops, how to read its output, and the common misreadings.
Every figure in a guide is one of three things. An engine constant is imported from the module that applies it, so the guide cannot drift from the tool. A worked example is computed when the site is built, from a fixed input that is labelled fictional, so the string or error you read is the one the engine returns. A platform or standards figure is read from a single registry that records its official source and the date it was read. The registry currently holds 38 figures: 24 confirmed against official documentation, 7where the official wording now differs from the site’s earlier wording (the guide shows the official wording), and 7with no official source, which keep the site’s August 2026 wording and date.
Read the as-of line first. A guide’s verified line is the latest date among the figures it cites, and a guide built only on engine rules is dated by when those rules were read. Verify against the platform’s own documentation before a critical print run or launch. The guides say what a format fits and what a code encodes; none claims that a size, format or code performs better: a format either fits a placement or it does not.
Placement and format
Six references for the decisions every promotion raises: what size to export, how to keep text readable, how large a QR code must print, what belongs in a complete campaign package.
- Social media image sizes that actually fit (2026)
Verified October 2026
The reference table for square, portrait and story formats, each figure read from the registry with its date; the safe-zone bands that platform UI covers on a vertical story; and why a design starts at the width the feed keeps.
- Promo design basics: hierarchy, contrast, and one idea
Verified October 2026
How a promo earns a glance: one idea, a clear reading order, and text contrast computed on named colour pairs against the Studio's advisory threshold. Then the smallest size a graphic will render at, and why a colour you pick is honoured exactly.
- QR codes on promo materials: size, contrast, and placement
Verified October 2026
Sizing, colouring and placing QR codes on print and story graphics: the quiet zone the renderer always draws, what each error-correction level tolerates, the print-size readout computed from the export presets, and which colour pairs the contrast check flags.
- YouTube thumbnail specs and legibility
Verified October 2026
The thumbnail requirements as the official help page states them, each with its verification date, set against the canvas the thumbnail tool renders. Then what the specs do not cover: legibility at the smallest render, a clear bottom-right corner, one subject per frame.
- Event promotion checklist: from announcement to day-of
Verified October 2026
A timeline from announcement to day-of: which format fits each phase, the details every asset must carry, and the calendar file and link the Studio builds, rendered on a fictional event.
- Anatomy of a complete promo package
Verified October 2026
A file-by-file walk through the Studio's ZIP: every graphic, QR file, calendar link, caption set and manifest entry, what each is for and where it gets used, run on one fictional campaign.
How the tools work
Six guides that each follow one engine from input to output. Every constant is imported from the engine; every example is computed at build from a fixed, fictional input and labelled as such.
- How the QR maker encodes ten payload types
Verified October 2026
The payload builders behind the QR maker, from URL and Wi-Fi to contact, location and calendar event: the format each emits, the standard it follows, its escaping rules and its field errors, shown on fictional inputs.
- Logo and photo QR codes and the decode margin
Verified October 2026
Why a centre logo forces the highest error-correction level, how much of the symbol a logo may cover and the decode test that set the cap, what a photo-woven code keeps pure, and how contrast and print size spend the same margin.
- Verified barcodes for promo materials
Verified October 2026
The 6 symbologies the barcode maker renders, how it tells a value that already carries a check digit from one that needs it computed, and the cross-check that runs before a bar is drawn.
- Favicon packages explained
Verified October 2026
What the favicon package contains: the icon sizes rendered, how the ICO is assembled from PNG entries, what the web manifest declares, how padding is clamped, and why maskable icons get their own files.
- Local image conversion explained
Verified October 2026
How the converter identifies a file from its first bytes rather than its extension, which formats it decodes and which it writes, the pixel ceiling it enforces, and what each note it returns means. The source images are not uploaded.
- On-device background removal
Verified October 2026
The segmentation tiers the Background Remover runs in your browser, what each downloads on first use (sizes measured from the real files at build), which inputs it accepts, and where each tier stops.
Where to go next
The tools apply these rules as you work; each tool page explains its engine below the tool. The Studio assembles a complete promo package. The methodology documents every rule the tools apply in one place, stated from the engine that applies it.
Everything here runs in your browser: the tools compute on your device and the Studio’s package is assembled on the device.