There is Russ Cox's QArt coder [1] that does actually make the code match an image by manipulating the padding (it works by adding a #<padding> on the end). Tha

There is Russ Cox's QArt coder [1] that does actually make the code match an image by manipulating the padding (it works by adding a #<padding> on the end). That is a fair bit closer to 'intelligently merged with the QR code's essential data'. [1]: https://research.swtch.com/qr/draw/ https://research.swtch.com/qr/draw/