How to decode a QR-code image in (preferably pure) Python?

You can try the following steps and code using qrtools:

• Create a qrcode file, if not already existing

  • I used pyqrcode for doing this, which can be installed using pip install pyqrcode

  • And then use the code:

    >>> import pyqrcode
    >>> qr = pyqrcode.create("HORN O.K. PLEASE.")
    >>> qr.png("horn.png", scale=6)
    

• Decode an existing qrcode file using qrtools

  • Install qrtools using sudo apt-get install python-qrtools

  • Now use the following code within your python prompt

    >>> import qrtools
    >>> qr = qrtools.QR()
    >>> qr.decode("horn.png")
    >>> print qr.data
    u'HORN O.K. PLEASE.'
    

Here is the complete code in a single run:

In [2]: import pyqrcode
In [3]: qr = pyqrcode.create("HORN O.K. PLEASE.")
In [4]: qr.png("horn.png", scale=6)
In [5]: import qrtools
In [6]: qr = qrtools.QR()
In [7]: qr.decode("horn.png")
Out[7]: True
In [8]: print qr.data
HORN O.K. PLEASE.

Caveats

• You might need to install PyPNG using pip install pypng for using pyqrcode

• In case you have PIL installed, you might get IOError: decoder zip not available. In that case, try uninstalling and reinstalling PIL using:

  pip uninstall PIL
  pip install PIL
  

• If that doesn’t work, try using Pillow instead

  pip uninstall PIL
  pip install pillow