At first I was typing coordinates, which was annoying and easy to get wrong. A click-to-place workflow felt much more natural.
I really did not want a bug to leave the mouse holding down forever. This session was mostly about making failure less stressful.
This was the slightly scary part: allowing the project to control the real cursor. I tested on a safe blank drawing area, with my hand ready to stop it.
I clicked draw and the whole window froze while the mouse worked. It wasn’t technically broken, but it felt broken. That sent me down the threading rabbit hole.
My first path order was basically random, and the cursor would bounce around like it had too much coffee. I made a simple nearest-neighbour ordering system to calm it down.
Edges are still just pixels, though. I had to figure out how to make them into actual strokes that a mouse could follow without constantly clicking every single point.
(x, y) points.PathGroup so related strokes can travel together.
I added an image preview, then noticed a problem: the original picture and the drawing area could have different shapes. A wide image was getting squished, which looked terrible.
So I was thinking that drawing every pixel would take forever. I tried edge detection instead, because an outline is often enough to recognise a picture.
(1st Image is the gray scale version of , the 2nd image)
The next question was, “Can it even open the kind of images I use?” I used Pillow because it made loading and converting images much less scary.
image_processor.py instead of mixing it into the GUI.
The next question was, “Can it even open the kind of images I use?” I used Pillow because it made loading and converting images much less scary.
image_processor.py instead of mixing it into the GUI.
I started with the least exciting but most reassuring thing: making an actual window appear. Seeing a blank app on screen made the project feel real.
main.py to start the program.
I started with the least exciting but most reassuring thing: making an actual window appear. Seeing a blank app on screen made the project feel real.
main.py to start the program.
So I was thinking: what if I could give a program a picture and have it draw it with my mouse? It sounded simple at first, but then I realised the computer needs a list of tiny movements, not just an image.
This session focuses on bug fixing , CI/CD improvement and some research about new features.
I realized for the past 2 weeks I have not implemented new features, and only fixed bugs and did improvements. I researched a little and looked into other QR libraries and looked for the stuff that the other libraries lack. I decided on some new features like Kanji Mode, there are few but I wont mention them here. (research time isnt logged cause I forgot but it was like an hour)
Did some bug fixing with the logo embedding QR code again. Its the only QR code type that fails the most. This time I guarantee it wont fail again.
Finally I realized for my test workflows I use pyzbar which is a qr code decoding library. But it does not support microqr decoding. So I had to switch to another libray called zxingcpp which does support what pyzbar has with microqr decoding support as well. I took some help from some people online regarding the tests and they help me make some test scripts. I broke down the main test script into smaller parts so Its easier for me and the readers.
Thats it for this session. Its like 95% completed for shipping and logged 50 hours as well. Just some final new features (mentioned above) and some documentation work and It v2 will be released. Thank you for reading the entire thing. I hope you’ll like it and find BetterQR useful. New features / suggestions / complaints are accepted in the replies via a DM on slack. I need some honest feedback.
This is the first devlog for TCast. So here’s what I did.
TCast should run pretty fast. It has to spawn a new shell , record the inputs, and render them again. So choosing a good language is compulsory. I went with javascript ig.
Setup the initial folders and files needed for the app to work.
I researched about other simillar apps to this.
This is the final devlog that I’ll be posting for v2.0.0 of betterqr. Hopefully you guys will give me some more ideas and features for a future version.
/src and have no uncommited changes.feat/v2.0.0 into main branch.README.md and DOCUMENTATION.md
This what I have been working for around 50 hours. Lets See what happens. Im plannning to maintain this as much as I can.
I forgot to devlog so this will be a big one lol. Im currently doing exams so I dont really have alot of time to think through new stuff. I mostly did some bug fixes , optimisation and working on the landing page.
documentation.md with the new data.readme.md with new stuff.I also researched a little bit and asked for peoples opinion on this. Selected around 20 people to test this and give their honest review. Most feedbacks were great. Some requested for features and some found bugs.
I have benchmarked more and repeatedly to get the accurate data. I used automated and manual tests. I found some people online who were down to help me benchmark it. For now the data isnt fully presentable. Will include in the next devlog or in the readme itself.
I have decided on updating our logo. I designed a logo on Canva. I’ll probably use it as the official logo. I went for the purplish theme cause why not. The logo has a futuristic vibe to it ig.
Im currently working on a landing page for betterQR. The old one is fine but I didnt update it accordingly. So Im going to make a entirely new one. I have been looking for some inspo as well.
Did some little bug fixes and code cleanup
The tables does not work on the stardance devlogs, idk why look at the attached image for the formatted table
This session focuses on benchmarking BetterQR with other popular libraries like segno and qrcode.
This is a rough comparison between BetterQR, qrcode, and segno.
qrcode
segno
Micro QR
✅ M1–M4
❌
✅
Kanji Mode
✅
❌
✅
Structured Append
✅
❌
✅
Logo Embedding
✅ Built-in
❌ (Manual PIL)
❌ (Manual)
Module Shapes
✅ 8 Shapes
⚠️ Limited
❌
Gradients
✅
❌
❌
Animated GIF
✅ 10 Effects
❌
❌
Frames & Labels
✅ Built-in
❌
❌
Structured Data Helpers (WiFi, vCard, …)
✅
❌
⚠️ Via plugin
BetterQR’s primary aim is not to aggressively beat other libraries, but to provide a highly capable, reliable, and user-friendly alternative packed with creative options out of the box.
All times are in milliseconds (ms). Lower is better.
| Payload Category | Size / Type | BetterQR | Segno | Standard qrcode | BetterQR Status |
| :— | :— | :—: | :—: | :—: | :— |
| URL | Tiny / Short | 6.88 | 7.19 | 5.90 | 🟢 Beats Segno / Competitive |
| Medium | Standard | 22.44 | 21.89 | 20.03 | 🟡 Ties Segno (~2.5% diff) |
| Large | V40 / Dense | 106.63 | 98.94 | 98.96 | 🔴 Behind by ~8% |
| Very Large | Max Capacity | 209.00 | 197.00 | 204.00 | 🟡 Highly Competitive (~6% diff) |
| SVG (Large) | Vector | 86.63 | ~0.56 | — | 🟡 Meaningful fix (was 104.66) |
| SVG (Very Large)| Vector | 174.19 | ~1.50 | — | 🟡 Meaningful fix (was 211.84) |
To build clear engineering trust, here are the current structural limitations of BetterQR compared to older ecosystem veterans:
Pillow for its extensive visual layouts and shapes, unlike segno, which is zero-dependency.segno still massively outperform us on massive vector layouts.EPS writer does not support logo embedding.rMQR (Rectangular Micro QR) is currently unsupported.
The tables does not work on the stardance devlogs, idk why look at the attached image for the formatted table
This session focuses on benchmarking BetterQR with other popular libraries like segno and qrcode.
This is a rough comparison between BetterQR, qrcode, and segno.
qrcode
segno
Micro QR
✅ M1–M4
❌
✅
Kanji Mode
✅
❌
✅
Structured Append
✅
❌
✅
Logo Embedding
✅ Built-in
❌ (Manual PIL)
❌ (Manual)
Module Shapes
✅ 8 Shapes
⚠️ Limited
❌
Gradients
✅
❌
❌
Animated GIF
✅ 10 Effects
❌
❌
Frames & Labels
✅ Built-in
❌
❌
Structured Data Helpers (WiFi, vCard, …)
✅
❌
⚠️ Via plugin
BetterQR’s primary aim is not to aggressively beat other libraries, but to provide a highly capable, reliable, and user-friendly alternative packed with creative options out of the box.
All times are in milliseconds (ms). Lower is better.
| Payload Category | Size / Type | BetterQR | Segno | Standard qrcode | BetterQR Status |
| :— | :— | :—: | :—: | :—: | :— |
| URL | Tiny / Short | 6.88 | 7.19 | 5.90 | 🟢 Beats Segno / Competitive |
| Medium | Standard | 22.44 | 21.89 | 20.03 | 🟡 Ties Segno (~2.5% diff) |
| Large | V40 / Dense | 106.63 | 98.94 | 98.96 | 🔴 Behind by ~8% |
| Very Large | Max Capacity | 209.00 | 197.00 | 204.00 | 🟡 Highly Competitive (~6% diff) |
| SVG (Large) | Vector | 86.63 | ~0.56 | — | 🟡 Meaningful fix (was 104.66) |
| SVG (Very Large)| Vector | 174.19 | ~1.50 | — | 🟡 Meaningful fix (was 211.84) |
To build clear engineering trust, here are the current structural limitations of BetterQR compared to older ecosystem veterans:
Pillow for its extensive visual layouts and shapes, unlike segno, which is zero-dependency.segno still massively outperform us on massive vector layouts.EPS writer does not support logo embedding.rMQR (Rectangular Micro QR) is currently unsupported.