How to make QR code name badges for an event from a spreadsheet

You have an attendee list in Excel or Google Sheets and a box of sticker name badges. You want each badge to show a name, an organization and a QR code that shares contact details when scanned. Here's how to do it with free tools, plus the printing mistakes that ruin whole sheets.

Step 1: Clean up the attendee list

Export your registration list as a UTF-8 CSV, then tidy it:

• One row per attendee, with a header row.
• A name column (required). Add org/company, email and a ticket or attendee ID if you have them.
• Remove blank rows and fix names in all caps or all lowercase. What's in the cell is what gets printed.
• Keep organization names short. Long ones wrap badly on an 85 mm-wide badge.

Step 2: Decide what the QR code should contain

This choice matters more than the design:

• vCard (contact card): text starting with BEGIN:VCARD that holds name, org and email. Most phone cameras offer "Add contact" when they scan it. Best for networking events.
• URL: a full https://… link, such as a speaker page or LinkedIn profile.
• ID: just the ticket or attendee ID. Useful for check-in, but a phone will only show the raw string.

Keep vCard payloads short (roughly under 180 characters). Longer content means a denser QR code, and dense codes are harder to scan at small sizes.

Step 3: Generate the codes and lay out the badges

The manual route in a word processor:

1. Generate one QR image per attendee with a free QR generator or a spreadsheet add-on, and name each file after the attendee ID.
2. Use your word processor's mail merge with the label template for your sticker sheet (for example the 8-up US Letter name badge layout used by Avery 5395).
3. Merge the name and org fields and insert each QR image into its label. Most mail-merge tools need a workaround or add-on for per-row images, which is where this usually gets fiddly.

For table tents, set up a half-letter layout, rotate the back face 180° so it reads the right way up once folded, and print on cardstock.

Step 4: Print a test sheet first (the step people skip)

Most badge disasters come from the print dialog, not the design:

• Set scale to Actual size / 100%. Never use "Fit to page" or "Shrink to fit". They shrink the grid a little and every row drifts off the labels.
• Match the paper size to the sheet (US Letter for 5395-style sheets).
• Print one sheet on plain paper, hold it against a label sheet up to the light, and check alignment.
• If everything is shifted by a millimeter or two, adjust the page margins or offset and test again.
• Scan a few QR codes with a real phone before you print 300 badges. Print dark on white, and test before laminating.

Step 5: Handle partial sheets

Leftover sheets from your last event with a few labels already used? Add blank rows at the top of your merge list so printing starts at the first free label, or you'll waste the rest of the sheet.

Doing it faster: Event QR Badges

Mail-merging per-row QR images is the slowest part of this whole job. Event QR Badges is a single offline HTML file built for exactly this. Drop in an attendee CSV and it maps common column names (full_name, organization, company, …). You choose the QR payload (vCard, URL or ID) and preview every badge on screen before printing.

It prints on Avery 5395-compatible 8-up Letter name badge sheets (compatible with 8395 / 25395 / WorldLabel WL-5030) or DIY fold-up table tents on plain cardstock, with the back face pre-rotated. There's a Skip first N slots option for partial sheets and X/Y nudge sliders (±3 mm, remembered on that laptop) to correct printer drift. It runs offline with no account and no upload, so your attendee list stays on the venue laptop.

Scope is deliberately narrow: US Letter, 5395-style badges and DIY tents only. No A4, thermal printers or check-in sync. Avery-compatible; not affiliated with Avery Dennison.

→ Event QR Badges

Related tools

• Mailing to customers instead of badging attendees? Shopify Customers MailMerge turns a Shopify Customers export into a clean mail-merge / label CSV, offline.
• Selling merch or tickets through Shopify? Shopify CSV Densifier fills in the blank order-level cells in an Orders export for pick and pack lists.