What to put on a school program for photo sharing

A graduation program is read in a dim room, by people holding a drink. If you want families to share their photos, the program has to say what to do in one line, and the code has to be big enough to scan from where they are sitting.

Say what to do, not what it is

The most common mistake is naming the service and nothing else. “GuestCam” on its own means nothing to a grandparent. An instruction does the work:

• Share your photos of tonight — then the code underneath.
• Scan to add your photos to the screen — good when there is a wall running.
• Photos from tonight, all in one place — quieter, good for a formal program.

Underneath, in smaller type, answer the two questions everyone has: Scan with your phone camera — no app needed. And, for a school event, every photo is checked before it appears. That second line is what settles parents who would otherwise not bother.

Make the code big enough

Print the QR code at at least 25mm square, and closer to 40mm if it sits on a folded program people hold in their lap. A phone camera needs roughly ten times the code's width in distance to focus, so a 25mm code scans from about 25cm — fine in the hand, useless on a wall across the room. Codes on a poster near the door should be 100mm or larger.

Keep a clear white margin around it, never print it on a photo or a dark panel, and never stretch it out of square.

Put it in three places

• The program, near the front, not buried behind the speeches list.
• Table cards on each table, which get far more scans than the program does.
• A poster near the entrance, for people arriving who never pick up a program.

Send it home before the night

The students who take the best photos are at the park or at home getting ready, hours before anyone reaches the venue. Put the same link in the newsletter or the message the school sends families that week, with one line: you can start adding photos from this afternoon.

Test it before it prints

Print one copy, at actual size, and scan it with two different phones — one iPhone, one Android. Do it in a dim room. If it hesitates, make the code bigger. Reprinting a program is expensive; reprinting one test page is not.

What to avoid

• A shortened link that hides where it goes. Families are rightly wary, and schools get asked about it.
• Two different codes for the same night. One code for everything, every time.
• A code that needs an app. If a family has to install something, most will not.

GuestCam gives you one code that works on the program, the table cards and the poster, with a print-ready PDF of the signage to print yourself. It is free for school events in Australia and New Zealand, and a staff member approves every photo before it appears.