How Tos

How to create your own QR codes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Convert images into ACNH QR codes and designs easily with this guide

How to create your own QR codes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons
May 19, 2021: We have updated the Animal Crossing: New Horizons QR codes 

If you aren't surrounded by people in your life that are playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, then you need a new social circle. Just, a whole new one entirely, those fools are just not working out for you. Ditch the clowns, and get yourself someone who respects animals.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the hot new thing right now, and everyone is adoring the ability to create their own designs and totally customise their entire town. Lovely, right? One of the best things about it is that those of you with little talent can download shared designs online, and even scan QR codes from previous games, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Happy Home Designer.

You can't actually create QR codes in New Horizons, but we have a way to get around that. Using an online tool, this guide will teach you how to create your own custom QR codes to share with Animal Crossing: New Horizons players, and not only that, we'll show you how to convert normal images into Animal Crossing QR codes - mind, the low-resolution and colour palette of Animal Crossing designs may render your ideal images into something less-than intelligible.

With that limitation in mind, read on for everything you need to know about creating and sharing your own QR codes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons players - and if for some reason you're still on New Leaf or Happy Home Designer, yes, these will work for you too!

If you need to know how to scan QR codes into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, be sure to read our full instructions on how to do so right here!

Online ACNH QR codes creation

This guide will entirely use the AC Patterns online editor, which you can find right here. This pattern editor works just like the one you will recognise from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you can create designs in basically the same way, with a few new features. Luckily it works on both mobile and desktop, though desktop users might have a better overall experience.

Animal Crossing New Horizons QR codes

To create a design using this tool, the first thing you'll want to do is open the colour editor in the top right, and then customise your colour palette at the top. You can only use a limited number of colours, so be mindful of that.

Once that is done, it's a simple case of filling in the grid with colours to create your design. You can edit the metadata of the design, like the title, author name, and home island, and the pattern type (the "Standee" type is not compatible with New Horizons) using the "change" button on the left - but beware, using naughty words in these fields may make your design incompatible with New Horizons.

How to generate the ACNH QR codes?

Once you're happy with your design, you can press the "Generate QR Code" button in the bottom right, which will give you a QR code on an image that you can then download and share.

ACHN E

Image conversion

Now here's where the fun begins. You can use the "Convert" button on the right side of the screen to upload an image, which will then be converted into an Animal Crossing-friendly design. Now, this means images will lose a lot of fidelity, so you should be cautious.

animal crossing qr codes

The editor is also not perfect, meaning you should make manual adjustments to the exact design you want.

But when the image is smoothed-over using the filter that New Horizons puts on design, the end result can be quite striking. Or it can blur into a mess. One of the two.

QR codes - Animal Crossing

It took me several tries before I found an image of Toon Link which didn't get smeared into a mess, but keep in mind that in-game you'll often be looking at these pictures at a much lower resolution, which makes them a bit more passable.

how to create qr codes animal crossing

Interior of your dreams - Animal Crossing New Horizons design maker

Of course, you can place these designs absolutely anywhere. Inside your house, on your floor, as wallpaper, as paintings, clothing, as flooring outside, anywhere. You can make your island look as if it's being run by an absolute psychopath, and that's okay.

But personally? I'm in it for the memes. To be honest, most of the designs I've imported into the game are a bit too rude to be posted here. But I've got one to share with you, just to get your imagination sparking.

how to create qr codes animal crossing

I said the resolution was too low to show anything with detail, but you can absolutely crop images into several pieces, making each piece a design, and then display those in your town, on the floor as people enter, on your walls, wherever. Just make an impact, and have fun!

Dave Aubrey
Dave Aubrey
Dave is the Guides Editor at Pocket Gamer. Specialises in Nintendo, complains about them for a living.