Help / Making content

Slide layouts

Whole screen, one picture per TV, trains and zones.

Choosing a layout

A slide's layout says how it uses your TVs. Open a slide in its playlist and pick one under Layout. Which layouts you see depends on how many TVs your screens have:

After you change a layout and press Apply Changes, you'll see Changes saved. Publish to show them on the TVs.

The right size for your pictures

Pictures and videos look best when they're the same shape as the space they fill:

• One TV, landscape: 1920 × 1080 pixels (16:9).
• One TV, turned on its side (portrait): 1080 × 1920.
• Across two TVs side by side: 3840 × 1080 (32:9).
• Different Per TV: 1920 × 1080 for each TV.

Each area of a slide's settings shows the size it wants, like 1920×1080. In your media library, each file's details say how it suits your TVs: Fits one TV, Fits across all TVs, or Shown whole, with borders.

Fill or Fit

When a picture or video is a different shape from the space it's in, its slide settings offer a choice:

• Fill covers the whole space and crops the edges that don't fit.
• Fit shows the whole picture and adds black bars where it doesn't reach.

Use Fit for posters and menus, where nothing should be cut off. Use Fill for photos, where a little trimming doesn't matter.

Full Screen and Across All TVs

The simplest layout: one file fills the screen. With two TVs side by side it's called Across All TVs, and one wide picture runs across both, carrying on across the gap between them.

Different Per TV

With two TVs, Different Per TV gives each TV its own picture or video: the Left TV and the Right TV. Choose a file for each. Both change to the next slide together.

To make many of these at once, upload with A different file on each TV chosen above the slides, or in the media library. Files are paired up in the order you picked them, first file on the left.

Train

A train is a row of pictures that moves from right to left across your TVs, one after another, then starts over. It suits a row of dishes or products. Choose Train, then click pictures to add them to the end, up to 50. Use the arrows to change their order, and the bin to take one out. Trains use pictures only, not videos.

Under Movement:

• Glide keeps moving, with each picture trimmed to 4:3.
• Stop at Each TV pauses 5 seconds with one whole picture on every TV (trimmed to the TV's shape), then moves on. Better for menu items people need to read.

The slide's duration sets how long the train stays on screen, not how fast it moves.

To make a train from new pictures, choose Pictures glide past (train) above the slides before you upload them. The pictures go on one train slide together; any videos you picked get slides of their own.

Zones

Zones split the screen into areas. A big main area can play your slides while a side panel shows the time and weather and a bar along the bottom scrolls today's news. Each area plays its own pictures, videos or live content in turn, then starts over.

Choose Zones, then pick the Areas:

A map under the choice shows where each area falls on your TVs. Then, for each area:

1. Press Choose From Library (or Add More) and click the things to show there, up to 20 in an area.
2. With more than one thing in an area, set each one's seconds. Each starts at 8 seconds, or a video's length. The area shows the total, like 24 seconds a round.
3. Choose Fill or Fit for each picture or video, and use the arrows to change the order.

A zones slide needs something in the main area and in at least one other area. Until then its card says Needs a picture.

Zones on two TVs

With two TVs, Areas on Your TVs offers:

• Across All TVs: one set of areas across both TVs. The main area and the bar run across them all, and the side panel is on the right-hand TV.
• Different Per TV: each TV has its own areas, set up separately. For example, the left TV with a bar and the right TV with a side panel.

One video per TV

A TV plays one video at a time smoothly, so only one area on a TV can play videos (video files or YouTube). Put pictures or live content in its other areas. With Different Per TV, each TV can have its own video area. Try to add a second video and you'll see Only one area on a TV can play videos.

When a slide meets a screen of another shape

Your slides are made for the shape of your screens. If some screens have one TV and others two, or some TVs are turned on their side, Pixigns fits each slide to each screen:

• A slide made for one TV shows on each of two TVs.
• On one TV, a Different Per TV slide shows its left picture, and a picture across two TVs is shown whole.
• A slide made for TVs the other way round (portrait or landscape) is shown whole.

For the best look, make slides for the screens that will play them. See Manage your screens to set each screen's TVs.

If something goes wrong

• Black bars, or the edges are cut off. The file is a different shape from its space. Switch between Fill and Fit, or use a file of the size shown above the picture.
• A video stutters across two TVs. Use Different Per TV with a 1920 × 1080 video for each TV.
• Preview says “Add something to the main area and beside it to preview this slide.” A zones slide needs the main area and another area filled.
• Preview says “Choose an image or video for every TV to preview this slide.” A Different Per TV slide needs a file for each TV.
• Slides with areas come with the Basic plan. Zones need Basic or Premium. An owner can choose one in Settings, under Billing.