Inspired by the US Airways in-flight magazine and their fun use of iconic images in QR codes -- and after a chat with my friends at TSDG -- I decided to try embedding an image (my face, of course) into a QR code.

How to create a QR code with an image in the center of it:

1. Creating a QR code is super easy -- http://bit.ly automatically generates one when you shorten a URL. I recommend bit.ly because the original QR code and analytics are all in one place.

2. Take your QR code and open it in your favorite design or imaging program. It takes a bit of trail and error to figure out which of the black squares (really technical term) you can cover and which are necessary for the QR reader to work.

>> The slideshow below is how my QR code looked from start to finish. Slide 1 is the original code; slide 2 shows the code with a 50% transparency, slide 3 shows the available area to place an image and slide 4 is the final product.

(download)

Click here to download:

qr-codes-adding-images-lflqquhIJmaIugeAlxrz.zip (105 KB)

3. Add your image or icon to the available space and you're done.

Why add images to QR codes?

>> Recurring content. Have a standing QR code for coverage of a sports team or major event? Adding an image or graphic device to the QR code will help in the branding of your coverage or product.

>> Give the user a sense of the content they are about to view. Using QR codes in your product for different multimedia resources? How about creating simple iconic devices -- video, audio, photo galleries, etc. When using QR codes, you'll probably explain the content the user is about to view, but by adding an iconic image, it will give the user a quicker read.

As of now, adding images to QR codes is a time-intensive process. With that said, I think it's still worth the effort for major projects, new products or standing features. Try it out and let me know your results.

Have you seen any interesting uses of QR codes? Share 'em in the comments below.

NPR's "All Tech Considered" blog on my recently launched project, GodLovesPoetry.com:

On another level, though, GodLovesPoetry is a classic example of a political satire mashup: taking a particular political message and inverting it, physically distorting the message to create a counter-message. The act of redacting the documents subjugates and subsumes Westboro's texts literally by blacking them out, leaving seemingly innocuous bits of words and phrases that go completely against the church's rhetorical intentions. Format-wise, it's not that different from the political mashups you might see plastered on telephone polls around Washington DC by protesters on any given day.

Full story: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/09/17/129934773/blog-mashup-turns-messages-of-hate-into-poetry-preaching-tolerance-and-love

Overheard in the Newsroom fans love their font humor. My favorite comment to yesterday's 'What in the Helvetica' submission:

Check out all the comments to the post in the screengrab below and join the coversation at facebook.com/OHnewsroom.

Here's a fun interview I recently did with Melissa Patterson of the Palm Beach Post tech blog Tech Tonic.

My favorite question:

Q: What is your site’s role in the journalism community? A source of old-school pride? A microscope on journalists’ pettiest fixations? Comic relief?

 To make the HR department nervous.