QRTOOL-DECODE(1)            General Commands Manual           QRTOOL-DECODE(1)

NAME
       qrtool-decode - detect and decode a QR code

SYNOPSIS
       qrtool decode [OPTION]... [IMAGE]

DESCRIPTION
       This command detects and decodes a QR code <https://www.qrcode.com>
       from a raster or vector image. By default, the result will be output to
       standard output.

       Supported image file formats

       o   BMP <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format> (if enabled at
           compile time)

       o   DDS <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectDraw_Surface> (if enabled
           at compile time)

       o   Farbfeld <https://tools.suckless.org/farbfeld/> (if enabled at
           compile time)

       o   GIF <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF> (if enabled at compile
           time)

       o   Radiance RGBE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGBE_image_format> (if
           enabled at compile time)

       o   ICO <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICO_(file_format)> (if enabled
           at compile time)

       o   JPEG <https://jpeg.org/jpeg/> (if enabled at compile time)

       o   OpenEXR <https://openexr.com/> (if enabled at compile time)

       o   PNG <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG>

       o   PNM <https://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/pnm.html> (if enabled at
           compile time)

       o   QOI <https://qoiformat.org/> (if enabled at compile time)

       o   SVG <https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/> (if enabled at compile time)

       o   TGA <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truevision_TGA> (if enabled at
           compile time)

       o   TIFF <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF> (if enabled at compile
           time)

       o   WebP <https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/> (if enabled at
           compile time)

       o   XBM <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_BitMap> (if enabled at compile
           time)

       Use -t option to specify the image format. If this option is not
       specified, the image format is determined based on the extension or the
       magic number.

           Caution

           This command only supports decoding a
           normal QR code <https://www.qrcode.com/codes/model12.html>, and
           does not support decoding a Micro QR code
           <https://www.qrcode.com/codes/microqr.html> and a rMQR code
           <https://www.qrcode.com/codes/rmqr.html>.

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS
       IMAGE
           Input image file. If IMAGE is not specified, or if "-" is
           specified, the image will be read from standard input. Supported
           raster image formats are based on the formats supported by the
           image <https://crates.io/crates/image> crate. The format of IMAGE
           is determined based on the extension or the magic number if
           possible. If the format cannot be determined, use --type. Note that
           the SVG image is rasterized before scanning.

OPTIONS
       -t, --type FORMAT
           The format of the input. If FORMAT is not specified, the format is
           determined based on the extension or the magic number.

           The possible values are:

               bmp
                   Windows Bitmap. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-bmp feature is enabled at compile time.

               dds
                   DirectDraw Surface. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-dds feature is enabled at compile time.

               farbfeld
                   Farbfeld. This value is available if the decode-from-ff
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

               gif
                   Graphics Interchange Format. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-gif feature is enabled at compile time.

               hdr
                   Radiance RGBE. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-hdr feature is enabled at compile time.

               ico
                   ICO file format. This value also includes the CUR file
                   format. This value is available if the decode-from-ico
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

               jpeg
                   JPEG. This value is available if the decode-from-jpeg
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

               openexr
                   OpenEXR. This value is available if the decode-from-exr
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

               png
                   Portable Network Graphics.

               pnm
                   Portable Anymap Format. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-pnm feature is enabled at compile time.

               qoi
                   Quite OK Image Format. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-qoi feature is enabled at compile time.

               svg
                   Scalable Vector Graphics. This value also includes the
                   gzip-compressed SVG image. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-svg feature is enabled at compile time.

               tga
                   Truevision TGA. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-tga feature is enabled at compile time.

               tiff
                   Tag Image File Format. This value is available if the
                   decode-from-tiff feature is enabled at compile time.

               webp
                   WebP. This value is available if the decode-from-webp
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

               xbm
                   X BitMap. This value is available if the decode-from-xbm
                   feature is enabled at compile time.

       --verbose
           Also print the metadata. It is output to stderr. This option
           conflicts with --metadata.

       --metadata
           Print only the metadata. It is output to stderr. This option
           conflicts with --verbose.

       -h, --help
           Print help message. The short flag (-h) will print a condensed help
           message while the long flag (--help) will print a detailed help
           message.

       -V, --version
           Print version number.

EXIT STATUS
       0
           Successful program execution.

       1
           An error occurred.

       2
           An error occurred while parsing command-line arguments.

       Exit statuses other than these are defined by <sysexits.h>
       <https://man.openbsd.org/sysexits>.

NOTES
       Source repository:
            <https://github.com/sorairolake/qrtool>

EXAMPLES
       Detect and decode a QR code from the given image:
           $ qrtool decode input.png

       Decode a QR code from the given WebP image:
           $ qrtool decode -t webp input.webp

       Also print the metadata when decoding a QR code:
           $ qrtool decode --verbose input.qoi

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to:
            <https://github.com/sorairolake/qrtool/issues>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2022 Shun Sakai and contributors

        1. This program is distributed under the terms of either the Apache
           License 2.0 or the MIT License.

        2. This manual page is distributed under the terms of the Creative
           Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       qrtool(1), qrtool-completion(1), qrtool-encode(1), zbarimg(1)

qrtool 0.13.2                     2025-11-28                  QRTOOL-DECODE(1)