Creating a Linxy Mark

Decide two things first

1. The final display size

Not the size of your source file — the actual measurement on the finished piece. A Mark is built for one physical size, and scaling the result down afterwards destroys it. If the same image will appear at two very different sizes, you need two Marks.

2. Whether the artwork can carry a Mark well

The pattern hides inside detail and tonal variation. Artwork with plenty of both hides it comfortably and reads reliably. Artwork that is mostly flat color gives it nowhere to go.

Creating the Mark

Marks are made in the Create a TouchPoint wizard, the same one used for every kind of touchpoint. It opens with a choice of two paths: Simplified, which uses sensible defaults for anything you do not choose, and Full control, which exposes every decision. You can switch paths at any point without losing what you have entered. The steps below are the Simplified path.

1. Choose Linxy Mark.
   On Select TouchPoint Type, pick Linxy Mark. You are creating an item, not just an image — the item is what holds your destination, rules, and history from here on.
2. Choose what it does, and fill in the details.
   On TouchPoint Purpose, pick what a scan should open — a website address, a video, a file you upload, a phone call, and many more — then fill in its details. This is where it points today. You can change it at any time afterwards without touching the artwork, so do not wait for final content to exist. The one thing it cannot be is the Mark’s own short link: a Mark has to open content that lives somewhere else.
3. Name it.
   Name this TouchPoint. The name is for you, not the public — see naming below.
4. Choose the artwork.
   JPG, PNG or GIF. Supply it at or above the final display size, never below. Upscaling a small file to meet the size does not add detail and produces weak Marks. If your image is larger than the printed size, Linxy resizes it down before embedding, which is the safe direction.
5. Set the size and reproduction.
   Say what it is going on, then the Printed width (inches), the Viewing distance (inches) and the Substrate. This is the step that decides whether the Mark reads. The wizard shows what it will produce, how far away it should read, and a confidence gauge. On the Simplified path you cannot continue at a size it considers too small to read reliably; Full control lets you override that deliberately, and set the embedding values yourself.
6. Decide who can open it.
   Public, Password, Linxy App required or Biometric. You can change this later.
7. Review and create.
   Check the summary on Review & Create and choose Create touchpoint. From the finish screen, Open in Linxy Mark takes you to the record, where you download the artwork. Use the downloaded file exactly as supplied. Place it at 100% in layouts — no scaling, no re-export through "save for web", no letting a print driver resample it.
8. Add rules and protection if needed.
   Geofences, timing rules, passwords, expiry. None of these require regenerating the image.

You can also start a Mark from the Linxy App, where the wizard creates the link first and then asks for the artwork. See Creating a Linxy Mark from your phone.

Proofing before you commit

The cost of skipping this step is a print run you cannot use, so it is worth being systematic rather than optimistic.

• Print a physical proof at final size, on the actual stock, from the actual print process
• Scan it at normal reading distance, not pressed against the phone
• Test in the lighting the piece will live in — retail spotlights and restaurant candlelight are both harder than an office
• Test on a second phone, ideally the other platform and an older device
• Only then approve the run

Naming and organizing

This feels unimportant with five Marks and becomes urgent at fifty.

• Name for the physical placement, not the destination — "Spring poster, store windows" outlives "Link to promo page", because the destination will change and the placement will not
• Use projects (the Full control path has a step for filing the new record under a client and project) to group a campaign, and clients where you manage work on someone else's behalf
• Use templates when many items share the same rules, so a policy change is one edit rather than fifty
• Record where each Mark was physically deployed — in two years this is the only way to know what a scan in the wild is coming from

Things people commonly get wrong