# Installation — PHP-QRCode main Manual

# Installation

## Installation with Composer

Composer is required to install this package. Please do not open an issue to complain about “monopolizing the implementation” or similar - we’ve been there before.

### composer.json

Installation via `composer.json`:

    {
    	"require": {
    		"php": "^7.4",
    		"chillerlan/php-qrcode": "dev-main"
    	}
    }

Note: replace `dev-main` with a version constraint, e.g. `^4.3` - see releases for valid versions. In case you want to keep using `dev-main`, specify the hash of a commit to avoid running into unforseen issues, like so: `dev-main#cb69751c3bc090a7fdd2f2601bbe10f28d225f10`

#### Version switch

If your application supports older PHP versions and uses the basic `QRCode` syntax `(new QRCode)->render($data)`, then you can add a version switch to your `composer.json` to allow installing a `php-qrcode` version that suits the platform it runs on:

    {
    	"require": {
    		"php": "^7.0 || ^8.0",
    		"chillerlan/php-qrcode": "^2.0 || ^3.4 || ^4.3 || ^5.0"
    	}
    }

Most of the v2.0 API remains unchanged throughout the several versions up to v5.x, however, please test and verify the expected output before you deploy such a switch.

### Terminal

To install `php-qrcode` on the terminal, use:

    composer require chillerlan/php-qrcode

If you want to install the package from a specific tag or commit, do as follows:

    composer require chillerlan/php-qrcode:4.3.4
    composer require chillerlan/php-qrcode:dev-main#f15b0afe9d4128bf734c3bf1bcffae72bf7b3e53

## Manual installation

Download the desired version of the package from main or release and extract the contents to your project folder. After that, run `composer install` in the package root directory to install the required dependencies and generate `./vendor/autoload.php`.

Profit!

### Can i use this library without using composer?

You can, but it’s absolutely not recommended, nor supported.

With that said, I’ll leave you with this info:

- download the .zip for a version of your choice and also all required dependencies listed in the `composer.json` for that version (you can find links to the respective repos on packagist)

- extract the files into your library folder

- include the files manually or with whatever autoloader you are using

Good luck!

## Supported PHP versions & extension requirements

The PHP built-in extensions GdImage and mbstring are used across all versions, ImageMagick is optional since v3.x.

version | branch/tag | PHP | supported | required extensions | optional extensions | info
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
v5 | `dev-main` | `^7.4 || ^8.0` | yes | `mbstring` | `gd` or `imagick` required for reading QR Codes, `fileinfo` is used in `QRImagick` |
v4 | `4.3.4` | `^7.4 || ^8.0` | yes | `gd`, `mbstring` | `imagick` |
v3 | `3.4.1` | `^7.2` | no | `gd`, `mbstring` | `imagick` | v3.4.1 also supports PHP8
v2 | `2.0.8` | `>=7.0.3` | no | `gd`, `mbstring` |  |
v1 | `1.0.9` | `>=5.6` | no | `gd`, `mbstring` |  | please let PHP 5 die!

PSA: PHP versions < 8.0 are EOL and therefore the respective `QRCode` versions are also no longer supported!

## ImageMagick

Please follow the installation guides for your operating system:

- ImageMagick: imagemagick.org/script/download.php

- PHP `ext-imagick`: github.com/Imagick/imagick (Windows downloads)