How To Create a Digital Menu Board

Digital menu boards are one of the easiest ways to modernize your restaurant displays. Instead of reprinting paper menus or static posters, you can update items instantly, highlight specials, and keep customers engaged with eye-catching visuals. With ScreenCloud, you don’t need design skills or complicated hardware; you can build a menu board in minutes.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do that.

Create a custom digital menu board with templates in ScreenCloud

Here is one way to create your menu board in ScreenCloud. This option is recommended if you want control over the design and layout of your menu board.

The good news is, ScreenCloud gives you ready-to-use templates, easy customization tools, and playlist features so you can design and schedule content without needing a designer.

Below, we’ll walk you through the exact steps.

Step 1: Choose a template in  the Canvas app

Canvas is available for all screencloud customers. Once installed, simply navigate to the template gallery and find a template you like. We have dozens of templates across different use cases so find one that works for you. Don’t worry if you don’t like the colors, you can always teak it later.

Step 2: Add your restaurant’s menu items

From here, you can easily tweak the menu to reflect what your restaurant offers. You could even make separate menus for different food items or promotions. 

For example, a breakfast menu vs lunch menu, or a regular menu vs bundle deals.

Step 3: Change the visuals to match your restaurant’s theme

You can make this menu more of your own by adding your restaurant’s colors or PNG images of your food so customers know what to expect. But don’t worry; you don’t need a designer to create a beautiful menu. The colors are really easy to change, or, you can leave the visual palette as is and get to the most important part of the menu

Step 4: Name your menu and save

Don’t forget to name the menu you’re creating. This is particularly important if you have multiple menus. Different names make it easier to queue these menus on your digital signage when you’re ready to display.

Once that’s done, hit save & Close, or Preview to see what your menu will look like on your restaurant's TV screen.

Step 5: Arrange your menus on your digital signage playlist

With ScreenCloud playlists, you don’t need to manually hit play whenever you need your different menus to go live. Simply set and forget. 

So create a new playlist, navigate to the “Playlists” section on the left nav bar. Then, select
“Create a New Playlist.” 

Then, click “Add Content,” navigate to “Canvas” and select all the menus you want to display.

Once you add these to the play list, you can set how long each menu will go on for. If you have a limited time discount, you can set this to rotate with your regular menu. Or you can make one slide stay longer on the screen, depending on what you want customers to focus on. 

You can hit preview here to see how your display will look. Once you’re satisfied,  hit publish, and voila, you’ve created your playlist.

Don’t forget to name the playlist something that matches its function.

Step 6 (Optional): Add extra sections to your menu

You can go straight to displaying the digital menu board on your screen (step 7). But if you want to add a ticker tape section to your menu (or a sidebar for things like Google review QR codes), you want to read this section.

First, go into “Channels.” It’s on the left nav bar, then creates a new channel. 

Unless your screen has a unique orientation or aspect ratio, choose landscape orientation. Then, add content to your channel. 

Next, click edit layout and choose your layout. For just a ticker display, you want the 1 Main Zone + Ticker option. If you wish to add some content to the sidebar, you can scroll down and select the Main+ Left & Footer display. 

Once that’s selected, you can add content. For the Main Zone, we’ll be choosing the playlist previously created. Don’t worry, all the duration settings will carry over. Then, switch over to the ticker zone and select content to fill this area. 

When you’re done, your preview should look something like this:

Step 7: Put your digital menu board on your restaurant screen

We have a full guide on displaying your restaurant tv menu board. But here’s the brief version.

First, go to Screens and select the screen you wish to display on. If you haven’t set up your screen, here’s a guide on how to get the first one up.

Next, select “set content”  and choose your channel if you followed step 6 or your playlist if you didn't. Once you hit confirm, your restaurant menu will immediately pop up on your screen, and boom, you’re done!

Use the Digital Menu Board to create a quick menu

This option is great if you're looking to put your menu board on a screen as soon as possible. IT shows you how to use our Digital Menu Board app, and all you need to do is fill in a few fields.

Step 1: Add your menu items

Once you install the app and navigate to the editor, you can start creating your menu. Add items one by one, writing descriptions, setting prices, and including calorie information if needed. You can also upload images of your dishes or your restaurant’s logo.

Step 2: Organize your menu

Once your items are added, arrange them into the order you’d like customers to see. You can drag items into position or break them into categories such as pizza, pasta, or drinks.

Categories make longer menus easier to navigate, and they allow you to schedule different meal times like breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Step 3: Edit the design

The appearance editor lets you choose from a light theme, dark theme, or build your own custom design. With a custom theme you can add brand colors, accent colors, and background images.

Just make sure your text remains easy to read and that your logo has a transparent background if you’re layering it over an image.

Step 4: Publish to your screens

Once you save your menu, preview to make sure you're happy with the way it looks.

The final step is adding your menu board to a Channel or Playlist so it can be displayed, similar to steps 6 and 7 above. From there, you can publish it to any screen connected to ScreenCloud. Once confirmed, your digital menu board will appear instantly for your customers to see.

How to create a digital menu board in Canva

Not every restaurant needs the same workflow. If you prefer to design your own menu layouts outside of ScreenCloud, Canva is a great option. You can create a custom design, export it as an image, and then upload it into ScreenCloud to display on your screens. 

Here’s how to do it step by step.

Step 1: Pick a template or start from scratch

Canva has hundreds of menu board templates. Choose one that matches your brand style, or start with a blank canvas if you’d like full creative control. Make sure it matches your TV’s aspect ratio.

Step 2: Customize your design

You can swap in your brand colors, fonts, and logos to make the menu yours. Next, replace placeholder text with your menu items and prices. You can also add in photos of your restaurant’s dishes.

Step 3: Download your menu board

When you’re happy that your design looks good, click the “Share” button in the top right corner, then select “Download.”

ScreenCloud supports a wide range of content formats, but JPEG and PNG are best here since they give you high quality images.

Step 4: Choose a digital menu board software

We highly recommend ScreenCloud because of how easy it is to upload any menu and display it on your screens.

Step 5: Add your menu to a playlist/channel

Once you have your menu file(s), you’ll need to add them to a playlist or channel. Refer to steps 5 and 5 in the previous section for more info on which one to use. But this time, instead of choosing content from a ScreenCloud app, navigate to “Media,” click “Upload,” and select your menu file. 

Once uploaded, set your preferred displayed time and save.

Step 6: Display your digital menu board on screen

This is similar to step 7 above. You’ll need to go to “Screens” and select the screen you wish to display on. Next, select “set content”  and choose your channel or playlist. Next, confirm and you’ll see your menu on your restaurant screen.

Benefits of digital signage menu boards

Digital menu boards do more than list food options. They grab attention with visuals, promote specials in real-time, and can even reduce perceived wait times by over 35%. Nearly a third of quick customers in quick service restaurants say digital menus influence their order, which makes them a valuable sales tool.

Here are some of the biggest benefits of displaying menu boards with digital signage software.

• Promotes specials in real time: Digital menu boards let you show new deals instantly, swap out sold-out items, or push promotions across every screen at once. They are another level of menu automation where you don't have to manually switch each time.
• Quick and easy updates: Switch between breakfast, lunch, or seasonal menus with a few clicks. Add new items or imagery without waiting on a designer or redoing printed menus.
• Automates with POS systems: Pricing, promotions, and availability can update automatically when tied to your point-of-sale marketing system.
• Upsells at the counter: Portable displays like tablets can prompt add-ons (“go large for $2”) or suggest new items.

Set up your digital menu board with ScreenCloud

Digital menu boards can make your restaurant faster, more flexible, and more profitable. Whether you build menus directly in ScreenCloud’s Canvas app or design them in Canva and upload, you’ll always have full control over what customers see. You can push updates instantly, automate changes across locations, and use visuals to drive more sales.

Setting up your digital menu board with ScreenCloud is really easy too. All you need is a TV and a media player. 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial and find out why thousands of businesses use ScreenCloud for their digital signage