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Quick Response Code
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Standard · International

ISO/IEC 18004

ISO/IEC 18004 is the international standard that specifies the Quick Response Code symbology, jointly maintained by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Identifier

Standard
ISO/IEC 18004
Current edition
ISO/IEC 18004:2015 (third edition)
Title
Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — QR Code bar code symbology specification
Publisher
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 31

Scope

ISO/IEC 18004 defines the requirements for the symbology, including data characters, encoding modes, symbol structure, error-correction scheme, reference decode algorithm, production-quality requirements, and user-selectable application parameters. It is the current normative reference for the Quick Response Code.

Editions

  • 2000 — first edition; established the symbology internationally on the basis of Denso Wave's published specification and JIS X 0510.
  • 2006 — second edition; introduced the Micro QR Code variant.
  • 2015 — third edition (current); incorporated iQR Code and rMQR Code, clarified production-quality requirements, and updated the reference decode algorithm.

Relationship to other standards

ISO/IEC 18004 supersedes AIM BC11 as the international normative reference. JIS X 0510 remains the Japanese national standard. GS1 QR layers GS1 application identifiers on top of the ISO/IEC 18004 symbology.

Cited references

  1. ISO/IEC 18004:2000, first edition.
  2. ISO/IEC 18004:2006, second edition.
  3. ISO/IEC 18004:2015, third edition.