In short
A Linxy Mark is an ordinary picture with an invisible pattern woven into it. The pattern holds an identity number — not a web address. When you scan it, the App reads that number, asks the Linxy platform what it should open right now, and the platform decides.
That one extra step, asking rather than following, is what makes everything else on this page possible.
On this page
The idea in one picture
Most links you have used are written down somewhere. A web address is printed in text. A visible printed code is a block of squares you can see and photograph. In both cases the destination travels with the artwork, which means two things: the design has to make room for it, and once it is printed, it is fixed.
A Linxy Mark works the other way around. The artwork is the link. There is no separate code to place, because the data lives inside the image itself as a pattern too faint for the eye to pick out but strong enough for a camera to recover.
What is actually inside a Mark
The pattern is spread across the entire image rather than sitting in one corner. That redundancy is deliberate: it means a Mark can survive a fingerprint, a crease, a coffee ring, or a scan that only catches two-thirds of the artwork, and still read.
It also explains the single most important rule for anyone creating Marks: the pattern is laid down at a specific physical size. Shrink the image afterwards and you are not shrinking a picture of a code, you are crushing the pattern cells into each other until nothing can be recovered. That rule has its own article, and it is the cause of most Marks that "mysteriously stop working."
What happens, second by second, when you scan
The whole exchange usually takes under two seconds, which is why it feels like the picture simply "opened." Here is what is going on inside that moment.
In the Linxy App, whatever the platform decides opens inside the App — video and audio in the App’s own player, web pages in the App’s own web screen — never in your phone’s browser. Some Marks have a different job: a Mark set up for an event opens the event first, with its content inside it (see Scanning an event Mark), and a Mark whose owner has not set up its content yet shows Nothing here yet.
Why the same picture can open different things
This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly: the printed item never changes, and it never needs to. A poster hung in January can open a trailer, then a ticket link in March, then a thank-you message in May. Nobody reprints anything. The owner changes one setting.
Marks are one of six doors
A Mark is the invisible option, but it is not the only way into the same destination. All six of these behave identically once they are open — they differ only in how the person gets there.
| Door | How it is used | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Linxy Mark | Scan the image in the App | Anywhere a visible code would spoil the design — packaging, art, editorial, signage |
| Linxy IQ | Scan a visible code | Places where any phone camera must work, while still carrying a Mark layer underneath |
| NFC tag | Tap the phone to the tag | Fixed, repeated interactions — a table, a door, a display, a card |
| Dynamic Link | Tap a normal web link | Email, digital placements, anywhere a click is natural |
| SoundMark | The App listens | Broadcast audio, in-venue sound, video soundtracks |
One physical object often carries several at once. A framed print might hold a Mark in the artwork, an NFC tag behind the frame, and a Dynamic Link for the online version — three doors, one destination, managed in one place.
What the owner can and cannot see
People reasonably want to know what scanning tells the other party. The honest answer is: useful patterns, not your identity.
| The owner does see | The owner does not see |
|---|---|
| That a scan happened, and when | Your name, unless you chose to tell them |
| Rough location — usually country or region | Your phone number or email address |
| Device type and browser | Your contacts, photos, or other apps |
| Whether this was a first or repeat scan | Anything you do after you leave the content |
If you accept a Connection, that changes deliberately and visibly: you are opening a channel, and the App tells you so before anything is created. Even then the owner reaches you through the channel rather than through your contact details, and you can close it.
Where Marks work well, and where they struggle
Being straightforward about the limits saves everyone a support ticket.
Works well
- Printed matter at a sensible size, held at normal reading distance
- Matte and satin stock, and most packaging surfaces
- Images with texture and tonal variation — photographs are ideal
- Artwork that is partly obscured, creased, or slightly damaged
Struggles
- Very small reproductions, or artwork scaled down after the Mark was made
- Heavy glare — glossy varnish under a spotlight is the usual culprit
- Large flat areas of a single solid color, which give the pattern nowhere to hide
- Photographs of a Mark displayed on someone else's screen
- Very steep viewing angles