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Menu boards

Menus that fit themselves to the TV, from Pixigns or a Google Sheet, with sold out.

A menu board shows your items and prices, laid out to fit your TVs. You keep the menu in Pixigns or in a Google Sheet. When you change a price or mark something sold out, the TVs show it within a minute, without publishing.

There are two parts:

A menu, in the Menus section: your sections, items, prices, descriptions, labels and photos.
A menu slide, in your library: how one menu looks on the TVs. Its design, colors, fonts and which sections it shows. You add it to a playlist like any other file. One menu can have several slides, like a lunch board and a drinks board.

Menus come with the Basic and Premium plans. On Free, Pixigns says Menus come with the Basic plan. An owner can choose one in Settings, under Billing.

Go to Menus and press New Menu.
Give it a Name, like Lunch or Drinks.
Under Where the menu comes from, choose Type It Here, Google Sheet or Use AI (see below).
Press Save Menu. You'll see Lunch is saved. Screens showing it update within a minute. (with your menu's name). A new menu then goes straight on to its first menu slide.

Owners and editors make and change menus. A menu holds up to 200 items.

Type it in

Your items are grouped in sections, like Starters, Mains and Drinks. For each section you can add:

Section name, up to 60 characters.
Note under the heading (optional), like Served with fries. Up to 160 characters.

For each item:

Field	What it's for	Up to
Item	The dish or product's name. The only field you must fill in.	80 characters
Price	A bare amount, like `12.50`, shows in your business's currency. Or type it exactly as it should read, like $9 / $12 or Market price.	20 characters
Note by the price	A few words under the price: calories, or per person.	40 characters
Description	A line about it, or what's included, one per line, like the parts of a combo. A paragraph wraps to three lines on the TVs; one written in lines can take six.	320 characters
Labels	Short tags, like New, Spicy or Vegetarian.	3 labels of 16 characters
Photo	Upload a photo… or pick one From the library. Used by the photo designs.
Sold out	Switch it on when you run out. See Sold out.

From a Google Sheet

Keep your menu in a Google Sheet and Pixigns reads it every few minutes, so whoever updates the sheet updates the TVs. Set the sheet up like this:

The first row names the columns: Section, Item, Price, Description, Labels, Calories (or Notes) and Photo. Only Item is needed, and the columns can be in any order.
Each row after that is one item.
Separate several labels with commas.
In Photo, put a link to the item's picture, starting with https://. Pixigns downloads it into your library (up to 10 MB, and it must be a picture).

Then share it and give Pixigns the link:

In Google Sheets, choose File → Share → Publish to the web, pick the menu's sheet and CSV, and publish. (A sheet shared so anyone with the link can view it works too.)
In Pixigns, choose Google Sheet and paste the link in Link to the sheet.
Press Save Menu. Pixigns says Its sheet is read within a minute, then every 5 minutes.

Open the menu in Menus to see when the sheet was last checked and how many items it found. Rows Pixigns couldn't use are listed with why, like Row 4 wasn't used because it has no item name. A photo link that doesn't work leaves the item without a photo.

You change the items in the sheet, not in Pixigns. You can still mark items sold out in Pixigns. They stay sold out when the sheet is read again, as long as the item keeps its section and name.

Add a section with AI

In a typed menu, press Add a Section with AI, say what the section should have and press Write the Section. Its items join the menu for you to check before you save. AI only keeps the prices you give it, so fill in any others. This uses one of your AI requests (Basic includes 30 a day).

From a photo of your printed menu

Choose Use AI, add a photo of your printed menu and press Read My Menu. AI copies every item and price. Check each one against your menu, fix anything that's off, then save. This uses one of your AI requests (Basic includes 30 a day).

On Basic and Premium, Upload a Menu in Menus does the same from a PDF, photo, Word, Excel or CSV file, then goes on to lay it out for your TVs. See Design your own slides.

Make a menu slide: right after saving a new menu, or from Media → Create → Menu Board.

Choose the Menu.
Choose a Design (see below).
Choose its Colours and fonts.
Add a Title (optional), like Lunch. Up to 80 characters.
If the menu has several sections, tick the Sections to show.
For a long menu, choose how many Slides to split it over. Each slide shows a run of the sections, kept whole, as evenly as they go.
Check the preview and the fit notes under it, then press Add to Library.
Add the menu slide to a playlist and publish.

A menu slide works as a whole slide, or in one area of a slide with zones. Across two TVs, each column stays on one TV, so nothing is split by the gap between them.

The four designs

Design	Looks like
Classic	Columns of dishes with dotted lines to the prices.
With Photos	Each dish beside its photo.
Cards	Big photos, one dish or combo a row, with what it includes.
Chalkboard	Light words on a dark board, headings centred.

Colors and fonts

Colours: one of the ready-made sets, or Custom for your own: the background as One Colour or a Gradient (and its Direction), the color of the words, and the color of the headings and prices. If the words would be hard to read, Pixigns says so and suggests a lighter or darker color.
Fonts: one for the Headings and one for the Dishes and prices: Clean, Classic, Slab or Condensed. Script is for headings only, since it's hard to read in a list.

How the menu fits

Pixigns lays the menu out to fit its space: the biggest words that fit, in as few columns as it can, with a heading never left at the bottom of a column. Nothing is ever cut off. Under the preview you'll see Everything fits, with no words cut off. or what doesn't fit:

“Item” is too long to fit… Shorten its name or description.
There are too many items to fit… Show fewer sections on this slide, split the menu over more slides, or shorten descriptions.

Pixigns checks the fit for every size of TV your screens use, one TV, two TVs or portrait.

What needs publishing, and what doesn't

Without publishing: prices, items, descriptions, photos and sold out. The TVs show them within a minute.
When you publish: a menu slide's design, colors, fonts, title and sections.

Screens keep the last menus they received, so they show your menu with its photos when the internet is down. A slide whose menu a screen hasn't received yet is skipped until it has.

Sold out

When you run out of something, mark it sold out. On the TVs, its price changes to Sold out within a minute.

In Menus: open the menu and switch on Sold out by the item. You'll see Pancakes is sold out on the TVs within a minute. (with the item's name). Switch it off when it's back.
On a phone: use the Sold Out screen, below.

The Sold Out screen

The Sold Out screen is a simple page for a phone at the counter. Open it with Sold Out Screen in Menus, or go to yourbusiness.pixigns.com/sold-out.

If you have several menus, pick one from the tabs at the top.
Tap an item to mark it Sold out. Tap it again when it's Available.

If a change doesn't go through, the item goes back to how it was and the page says why, so what you see is always what the TVs show.

Who can use it:

Staff can only mark items sold out and back. When they sign in, they go straight to this page and nothing else. It's the role to give counter and kitchen staff. See People and roles.
Owners and editors can use it too.
Viewers can see what's sold out but not change it. The page says You can see what's sold out. Ask an owner or editor to change it.

If there are no menus yet, the page says There are no menus yet. An owner or editor makes one in Menus, on a computer.

Delete a menu

In Menus, choose Delete on the menu and confirm. A menu that a menu slide in your library still shows can't be deleted. Pixigns names the slide, like Breakfast Board in your library shows this menu. Delete it first. Delete that slide in Media first.

If something goes wrong

You see	What to do
This sheet isn't shared.	In Google Sheets, choose File → Share → Publish to the web, pick the menu's sheet and CSV, and paste that link.
That isn't a link to a Google Sheet.	Copy the link from Google Sheets itself. It starts with `https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/`.
The sheet's first row must name its columns…	Add a first row with the column names, at least Item.
A row “wasn't used”	The menu lists why next to it. Fix that row in the sheet; Pixigns reads it again within 5 minutes.
A price or sold out hasn't changed on the TVs	Give it a minute. If the screen is offline, it updates once it's back online.
The menu slide isn't showing	Check that its playlist is published, and that the screen has been online since the menu slide was added.

Still stuck? Email support@pixigns.com with your business's address and the screen's name, and we'll help.