class, which allows you to encode text and manually draw the resulting matrix onto a PictureBox

That's it — this gives a minimal, robust way to read QR codes in VB6 by delegating decoding to zbarimg and handling I/O from VB6.

Do you prefer a or are you open to using third-party libraries ?

Private Sub GenerateCloudQR(ByVal TargetText As String) Dim Http As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60 Dim URL As String Dim EncodedText As String Dim FileNum As Integer Dim ImageBytes() As Byte ' Simple URL Encoding for space characters EncodedText = Replace(TargetText, " ", "%20") ' Construct API URL (Size: 200x200) URL = "https://googleapis.com" & EncodedText ' Send Request Http.Open "GET", URL, False Http.send If Http.Status = 200 Then ImageBytes = Http.responseBody ' Write binary data to temporary file FileNum = FreeFile Open App.Path & "\temp_qr.png" For Binary Access Write As #FileNum Put #FileNum, , ImageBytes Close #FileNum ' Display image (Requires GDI+ for PNG, or standard BMP conversion) Set picQRCode.Picture = LoadPicture(App.Path & "\temp_qr.png") End If End Sub Use code with caution. Method 3: Using a WebBrowser Control & JavaScript

End Sub

For large-scale or professional projects that demand advanced functionality, high performance, and official support, a commercial SDK is the most robust solution. These are typically distributed as DLLs or other libraries that you call from your VB6 code.