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• How Qr Codes Work Animal Crossing
• Animal Crossing Qr Code Creator

Convert images into ACNH QR codes and designs easily with this guide

Updated: 10/04/2020 - Original Post 23-03-2020

If you aren't surrounded by people in your life that are playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, then you need a new social circle. Just, a whole new one entirely, those fools are just not working out for you. Ditch the clowns, and get yourself someone who respects animals.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the hot new thing right now, and everyone is adoring the ability to create their own designs and totally customise their entire town. Lovely, right? One of the best things about it is that those of you with little talent can download shared designs online, and even scan QR codes from previous games, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Happy Home Designer.

You can't actually create QR codes in New Horizons, but we have a way to get around that. Using an online tool, this guide will teach you how to create your own custom QR codes to share with Animal Crossing: New Horizons players, and not only that, we'll show you how to convert normal images into Animal Crossing QR codes - mind, the low-resolution and colour palette of Animal Crossing designs may render your ideal images into something less-than intelligible.

With that limitation in mind, read on for everything you need to know about creating and sharing your own QR codes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons players - and if for some reason you're still on New Leaf or Happy Home Designer, yes, these will work for you too!

If you need to know how to scan QR codes into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, be sure to read our full instructions on how to do so right here!

Online creation

This guide will entirely use the AC Patterns online editor, which you can find right here. This pattern editor works just like the one you will recognise from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you can create designs in basically the same way, with a few new features. Luckily it works on both mobile and desktop, though desktop users might have a better overall experience.

To create a design using this tool, the first thing you'll want to do is open the colour editor in the top right, and then customise your colour palette at the top. You can only use a limited number of colours, so be mindful of that.

Once that is done, it's a simple case of filling in the grid with colours to create your design. You can edit the metadata of the design, like the title, author name, and home island, and the pattern type (the 'Standee' type is not compatible with New Horizons) using the 'change' button on the left - but beware, using naughty words in these fields may make your design incompatible with New Horizons.

Once you're happy with your design, you can press the 'Generate QR Code' button in the bottom right, which will give you a QR code on an image that you can then download and share.

Image conversion

Now here's where the fun begins. You can use the 'Convert' button on the right side of the screen to upload an image, which will then be converted into an Animal Crossing-friendly design. Now, this means images will lose a lot of fidelity, so you should be cautious.

The editor is also not perfect, meaning you should make manual adjustments to the exact design you want.

But when the image is smoothed-over using the filter that New Horizons puts on design, the end result can be quite striking. Or it can blur into a mess. One of the two.

It took me several tries before I found an image of Toon Link which didn't get smeared into a mess, but keep in mind that in-game you'll often be looking at these pictures at a much lower resolution, which makes them a bit more passable.

Interior of your dreams

Of course, you can place these designs absolutely anywhere. Inside your house, on your floor, as wallpaper, as paintings, as clothing, as flooring outside, anywhere. You can make your island look as if it's being run by an absolute psychopath, and that's okay.

But personally? I'm in it for the memes. To be honest, most of the designs I've imported into the game are a bit too rude to be posted here. But I've got one to share with you, just to get your imagination sparking.

I said the resolution was too low to show anything with detail, but you can absolutely crop images into several pieces, making each piece a design, and then display those in your town, on the floor as people enter, on your walls, wherever. Just make an impact, and have fun!

Want more?Check out our 35 otherAnimal Crossing: New Horizons tips, guides and walkthroughs!

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While Animal Crossing: New Horizons is great for experiencing bucolic island life at a relaxed pace, it’s easy to forget that the franchise is known for how much it leans into custom designs.

New Horizons features the series’ most robust design options yet, and there are a variety of ways you can share your glamorous looks with pals.

How to make custom patterns in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Within Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can use your Nook Phone’s Custom design editor to craft some brand new looks. After upgrading your abode from a tent to a house, you’ll be able to purchase the Custom Design Pro Editor from the Nook Stop terminal under 'Redeem Nook Miles' for a paltry 800 miles. The upgrade will grant access to a slew of additional tools.

If you’d like a more traditional designer, you can also use browser-based editors like this one. You can utilize their robust toolset to make something new entirely. If the creative spirit has yet to enthrall you, images can be uploaded to the website, which will then be converted into QR codes. Those codes can be used to download the design into New Horizons in the following way.

How to use QR Codes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

How Qr Codes Work Animal Crossing

If you want to reuse designs created in previous titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Happy Home Designer,or download ones created in browser designers, you’ll need to scan a QR code. This requires some help from the Nintendo Switch Online app, which is available for iOS and Android.

Animal Crossing Qr Code Creator

After downloading the app, you’ll need to do some light setup. Link the Nintendo Account used on your Switch with the app by logging in. Head back to you Switch and boot up New Horizons. Once you get to the title screen, press the '—' button to enter Settings. You’ll be greeted by Tom Nook. After he gives a small speech, click 'NookLink Settings.' Your Switch should now be connected to the Nintendo Switch Online app.

Back on the app, you can now scan designs into your game via QR codes by opening the app, clicking Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You should now see a new area called NookLink, complete with a QR scanner on the top right.

Once you scan a code, go back into New Horizons and open the in-game design app. Click the '+' button on your Switch to download the design. Only one design can be scanned and downloaded at a time, so make sure to download it before moving onto the next one.

Designs uploaded via QR code cannot be edited and can only be applied to items available in the basic Design Editor app. QR code designs are incompatible with the additional features added in the Nook Stop 'Pro' upgrade.

Despite the app’s title, this method doesn’t require you to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership. However, using New Horizons’ native clothing sharing service is a totally different story.

How to share custom designs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If newfangled apps elude you, New Horizons also has a method to share clothing in-game. However, this one does require that you have a Nintendo Switch Online Membership.

Upon visiting the town’s shop, Nook’s Cranny for the first time, a villager named Mabel will appear momentarily. She’ll come scout out your town a few more times following that. Eventually, after getting a lay of the land, she’ll ask to open up a shop on your island.

Once her fashion shop, Able Sisters, opens, there will be a Custom Design Kiosk located in her store’s rear section. You’ll be able to upload and download designs using codes, similar to those used to enjoy multiplayer.

After a code is uploaded, you distribute it online or amongst friends. They can enter your code at the Kiosk in their game to obtain your design.

What can custom designs do in New Horizons?

Using a custom design, you can make your own clothing and furniture. Custom designs can be used to decorate your room in unconventional ways as seen below.

Online, others have used these designs to implement cosplays of fictional characters into New Horizons. Others have used custom designs to add features they believed were missing from the game like eyebrows and freckles. Adding a custom design is just another way to make the world of New Horizons into your world.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now available for Nintendo Switch.