Digital Menu Board Sizes, Resolution and Text: The Specs That Decide If It Gets Read
Most menu boards fail on resolution, text size or cropping. Here are the pixel sizes, the text rule and a Canva setup that stays sharp.
Customers read a menu board from three metres away and decide in about eight seconds. If they cannot read the price, the design does not matter.
Direct answer: design landscape at 1920 x 1080 pixels, portrait at 1080 x 1920. Text needs 25mm of height per 3 metres of distance: about 40 pixels minimum on a 43 inch 1080p screen, 60 or more for prices.
Keep a 5 percent margin clear. Export PNG for text, JPG for photos, MP4 for video.
The Pixel Sizes
| Screen | Design at | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard TV, landscape | 1920 x 1080 | The default for almost every TV in Malaysia |
| Standard TV, portrait | 1080 x 1920 | Design portrait, do not rotate a landscape file |
| 4K panel, landscape | 3840 x 2160 | Only for close viewing. At queue distance 1080p looks the same |
| Two screens side by side | 1920 x 1080 each | Two separate boards, not one split image |
Always design at the screen's real resolution. A stretched small design gives fuzzy, cheap-looking text.
The Text Rule
About 25mm of text height per 3 metres. Measure to where the queue stands, not the counter.
| Viewing distance | Minimum text height | On a 43 inch 1080p screen |
|---|---|---|
| 2 metres | ~17mm | ~35 pixels |
| 3 metres | ~25mm | ~50 pixels |
| 5 metres | ~42mm | ~85 pixels |
Make prices bigger than item names. It is the fastest fix for most boards.
How Many Items Per Screen
Fewer than you want. Six to eight items per screen, rotating through two or three screens on a loop, gets read far more.
Split big menus by category: drinks, mains, sets. Show each slide 8 to 12 seconds; under 8 is missed, over 15 loses attention.
Margins and the Crop Problem
Some TVs overscan, cropping a few percent off each edge. A price near the edge can vanish.
On 1920 x 1080, keep text and prices about 96 pixels from the sides and 54 from the top and bottom. Backgrounds can run to the edge.
Setting Up Canva So It Is Not Blurry
Use a custom size in pixels: 1920 x 1080 or 1080 x 1920. Millimetre, print-sized documents cause blur.
Export PNG for text boards, JPG for photo boards, and decline compression.
Lock fonts, colours and layout in one template, then duplicate it per promo. A 30 minute job becomes 3 minutes. Steps: how to put a Canva design on your shop TV.
Colour and Contrast
Light text on dark reads better in bright shops and glares less. Avoid thin fonts and red text on black.
Facing a window, brightness beats design: get 300 nits or more, checked at 2pm.
A Quick Test Before You Commit
Stand where customers queue and give yourself eight seconds. If you cannot find a price, the board is too busy or the text too small.
Related reading: the full digital menu board setup guide, five things F&B owners wish they knew first, and menu boards for cafes and kopitiams.
Layar takes Canva exports directly, and boards by time of day start on the RM29 plan. You can try it on one screen free.