How to turn a TV into a menu board
Five steps, with examples from our shop.
How-to
Canva menu on a TV: how to play your design.
You made a menu you like. Now you need it on a screen. Here is how to export it and the ways to play it all day.
Make the picture in Canva, or any design tool
Many shop owners already make their menu in Canva. It is easy to use, and the finished design often looks great. A menu board is a good thing to make there. This page is for owners who have a design and want to know how to play it on a TV.
One tip before you start: make the design for a TV, not for paper. A TV is wide. Set your page to landscape, keep the letters big, and keep it to a few blocks. Our rule of thumb is a board that can be read in 3 to 5 seconds. A paper menu has small print; a TV needs big letters that can be read from the line. Read our six plain design rules before you start.
Export for a TV
A full-HD TV is 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels tall. If you set your design to those numbers, it fills the screen without stretching or black bars. In Canva and most design tools you can pick a custom size when you start a new design. Type 1920 by 1080.
When it is done, look in the download menu for the file type. A still board can be a PNG or JPG picture. A board with motion can be an MP4 video. Pick the picture for a menu that stays still, and the video for a menu with moving parts. Then look at the file on a TV or a big monitor, not only on your phone. Check that the letters are not cut at the edges, since some TVs crop slightly around the border.
Ways to play it: USB, cast or a service
A USB stick
Save the picture or video on a USB stick, plug it into the TV, and open it with the TV's own player. It costs almost nothing. The weak point is the daily work: someone has to plug it in, press play, and turn the TV on and off.
Cast from a phone or laptop
You can send your screen from a phone or laptop to the TV. It is good for a test. It is a poor fit for a daily menu, because the phone has to stay on, stay near, and stay connected.
A menu board service
A service runs a player on the TV that gets your files from the internet and plays them all day. It follows your hours and updates for you. That takes the daily work off your team.
Where scheduling and updates get hard
The picture is the easy part. The hard part is everything after it. Think of a Saturday. A price changes at noon. Your design is in your Canva account, but the TV is playing a file from last week. Someone must export, copy, carry and replay it.
Then there are hours. A TV on a stick does not know your shop opens at 1 p.m. Someone must turn it on and off. And if the stick unplugs, the board is gone. Many owners start with USB and move to a service after a few weeks of this. If your menu rarely changes, USB is fine. If it changes every week, the daily work adds up fast.
Have a design ready? Send it to us and we set up your first screen with you. Try it free for 14 days, no card.
How Wow Menu Boards plays your design
Here is what is live today. You send us your finished design, for example a picture or video exported from Canva. Our team puts it on your board and on your screens. When something changes, you send us the new file or the change by text or the contact form, and we update it. We build boards with you from your menu and real photos, too, so you do not have to design anything yourself.
The player app runs on Fire TV. The menu is saved on the TV, so it keeps playing if the internet drops. The screen turns on and off at your hours, and updates arrive by themselves. What is not live: an upload button in your own dashboard, and a direct link to Canva. Those are Coming soon, and we will not call them live before they work. Our Basic plan is $12 per screen, per month. See pricing for all plans, or the steps in how to turn a TV into a menu board.
Keep reading
Menu board design tips
Six plain rules for a board people can read fast.
Digital menu board media player
What the player does and what to buy.
How to update a digital menu board
Keep prices right without the stress.
Run your shop's menu like we run ours.
We open free trials a few shops at a time, and we set up your first screen with you.
14 days free, no cardNo contract. Cancel anytime.