Ten things worth putting AR on.
Print AR pins video, animation, text and 3D to a printed thing and plays it when someone points a phone camera at it — in the browser, with no app. The printed piece's own artwork is the marker, so this is really a list of things you already print. Ten that work, ordered by how easily you can try one, and four that do not.
One to four: it fits in a pocket.
Small prints are the easiest place to start, because the person holding one is already looking at it from twenty centimetres away with a phone in their other hand.
The character lifts off the card face and animates in front of it, and a portal can sink the background behind the frame so the card reads as a window. The card's own art is the marker, so a set you have already printed works — including one printed at home.
A photo print, a birthday card or a framed picture that plays a recorded video when it is scanned. The layers live online, so the message can be re-recorded next year and the same card plays the new one.
Thirty seconds of work floating beside the card, instead of a URL nobody types. This is the one with a standing reason to reprint: the card is a fixed cost and the reel behind it is not.
Five postcards hidden around a venue, each revealing one letter of a word. The prints are the board and the reveal is what each one says — nothing is tapped and nothing is scored. The fifth section below explains what that rules out.
The card case in full: AR trading cards · and AR art prints for work that is sold rather than given.
Five to seven: it has to work from across the room.
A wall piece is scanned from further back, by someone who did not come to scan anything. What changes is the invitation — the code beside the piece and the line next to it are doing more work than the artwork is.
The gig poster plays the single; the film poster plays the trailer; the exhibition poster shows the work moving before anyone walks in. Dates, venue and a ticket link can float beside the art, and change after the posters are up.
One QR at the entrance opens the camera once, and from then on pointing the phone at a work switches to it — no second scan, no code beside each label. The wall label only has to say: point your camera at the artwork.
The card that ships with a numbered print, playing the making-of and naming the edition. It is the one printed thing whose whole job is to be checked, and the AR layer is the part a photocopier does not take with it.
Walls in depth: AR posters · AR galleries and exhibitions.
Eight to ten: the print run already exists.
These are the cheapest to justify, because nobody has to decide to print anything new. The artwork is already going to press; the AR layer is added to a file that was being made.
The box plays the product in use, or the assembly step the diagram loses. A printed front panel is a strong tracking target — packaging is high-contrast by trade — and the content can be corrected long after the run is boxed.
A plate standing on the menu in 3D, or a short clip of the dish being made. Distinct from everything else here because the reader is deciding something, and a picture of the food is the oldest evidence in the trade.
The invitation plays a message from the couple and carries the directions. Guests keep it for months, which makes this the rare printed thing that is scanned long after it arrives — and the layer can be swapped for thank-yous afterwards.
Four things print AR is the wrong tool for.
Published because the ten above are only credible next to these. Each one is a real request we cannot serve well today, and each answer says what to use instead.
Layers play; they do not respond to a tap. A scene holds video, audio, images, shapes, text and 3D models, and none of them is a control. A hunt works because the prints carry the state — a scoreboard does not. That is a game engine.
A different technique: a face mesh, not a printed marker. Meta Spark closed to third-party creators on 14 January 2025 and nothing here replaced it. Everything on this page points at a piece of paper.
Floor placement, depth, and anchors that persist between sessions need the native ARKit and ARCore access a browser is not given. That is an app, and preferring otherwise does not change it.
A monochrome canvas, or a white business card with one small logo, carries too few features to track. Detail tracks; emptiness does not. Photograph the piece and test it before committing to a print run.
The full split between browser AR and app AR: WebAR vs app AR.
The workflow is the same for all ten.
Which is the actual point of the list: the difference between a trading card and a menu is what you layer on it, not how it is built.
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1
Upload the artwork
The print file, or a straight-on photo of the printed piece. Fill the frame, avoid glare, and let the detail do the work.
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2
Layer what it plays
Video, audio, text, shapes and 3D, placed where they appear — including beyond the edges of the print, and behind it through a portal.
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3
Print the code beside it
Publish, take the link and QR code, and put the code next to the piece. Any phone browser opens it, and republishing changes what every printed copy plays.
Getting the photograph right is most of the difficulty: how to photograph artwork for AR.
Open a template, make it yours.
Interart’s AR templates are finished, working designs — open one in the browser editor, swap in your own artwork, and it’s yours. Each one teaches a technique with a built-in guided tour.
No account needed — sign up later and your work comes with you.
Pick the one you already print.
Start from a photo of the piece — the first reveal takes minutes.
Questions, answered.
Anything printed that would be better with motion or a voice: trading cards, posters, gifts and greeting cards, a hunt across several prints, exhibition walls, business cards, packaging, menus, invitations, and certificates for a numbered edition. The piece's own artwork is the marker, so the question is usually which of the things you already print to start with.
A hunt, yes; a game with rules, no. Each printed piece can reveal its own clue, so five prints hidden around a venue make a working hunt. But layers play rather than respond — there are no buttons, no taps and no score — so anything that has to react to a player belongs in a game engine instead.
No. It runs in the browser already on the phone — iOS Safari or Android Chrome. Viewers scan a QR code beside the printed piece and point the camera at it. There is no app to install and no store review between finishing the work and someone seeing it.
Nothing to make and publish: Interart's free plan includes 3 published designs and 100 scans a month, commercial use included, no credit card. Pro is $18/month for 10,000 scans a month and unlimited designs.
Yes. The print never changes — the layers live online. Republish with a new video or new text and every printed copy and QR code already out in the world shows the updated version on the next scan.