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Introducing Board Themes: 13 Menu Board Designs That Fit Themselves

· 4 min read

Designing a menu board used to mean a lot of decisions: fonts, sizes, spacing, columns, colors. Get one wrong and the board is hard to read from across the room. Add five beers and you start over.

Today we’re introducing board themes: 13 designs for horizontal and vertical TVs. Pick one and Live Tap Lists does the design work. It sizes your text, picks the columns, makes room for your promos and keeps every color readable. When your menu changes, the board fits itself again.

Every board below is a real Live Tap Lists menu with its real items and promos, shown in the theme. Click any board to see it full size.

The themes

Departures theme on a bar's tap list: a yellow "On Tap Right Now" heading, twelve beers in two columns with split-flap style tap-number and price tiles, and a black "10/23 Local Friday - Louisville Beer Week!" banner
DeparturesAn airport departures board: split-flap tiles for tap numbers and prices, yellow gate tags for categories. Built for big rotations on a big wall TV.
Neon Hall theme on a movie theater concession board: a glowing pink "Grandview Cinemas" title, cyan category labels for combos, popcorn, drinks and snacks, and a "Now Showing in Dolby Atmos" banner
Neon HallDeep navy with glowing pink and cyan, circle tap numbers and neon-framed promos. Loud, but every text color passes contrast.
Slate & Brass theme on a brewery's "Beer in the Cooler" board: cans and bottles on dark slate cards, each with a label thumbnail and brass-gold to-go prices for 4-packs, 6-packs and bottles
Slate & BrassBlue-gray rows, oversized brass numerals and brass prices. Condensed type fits long beer names on large tap walls.
Chalk theme on a brewery tap list: beer label artwork beside hand-lettered beer names, styles, ABV and IBU on a dark chalkboard, with a dashed "Welcome to The Back Road!" banner
ChalkA cleaner chalkboard: hand-drawn item names, dashed chalk lines under categories and chalk-outlined promos.
Bistro theme on a café menu: an avocado toast photo beside serif hot coffee, cold drinks, bakery and light bites on warm cream, with dotted leaders to the prices and a framed "Free Pastry Before 9AM" banner
BistroWarm paper, serif names, dotted leaders to the price and a double-rule promo frame. For restaurants, brunch spots and wine bars.
Market theme on a taproom board: a "Welcome to the Front Porch Taproom!" header, Gravity Box beers on white cards with glass icons and green price chips, a black-and-white live music promo for Rayna Marie on Sat. 10/17, a "Food Friendly. Dog Friendly. Family Friendly." banner and the Gravity Box logo
MarketA white panel for each category on soft green, with prices in tinted pills. For cafés, fast casual and bright counters.
Diner theme on a brewery food menu: checkerboard trim, red slab-serif headings for Appetizer, Entree and Wine · Seltzer, bold item names with red prices, and a "Music Trivia - Every 2nd and 4th Thursday" banner
DinerA 50s diner menu: checkerboard trim, the header on a red diner sign and red slab category names.
Taquería theme on a brewery food menu: papel picado bunting across the top, colored tag headings, condensed uppercase items with red prices, and a "Music Bingo – Every 1st & 3rd Thursday" banner
TaqueríaPapel picado across the top, category names on colored pennant tags and a serape stripe along the bottom.
Night Kitchen theme on a burger grill's menu: burgers, sides, sandwiches and drinks on navy cards with coral category labels, and an orange "Fresh Never Frozen Beef Daily" banner
Night KitchenA navy panel for each category and a coral period after the header message. Modern and calm on bright TVs.

On vertical TVs

Every theme has a vertical layout. Set the Screen orientation to Turned right or Turned left and the theme lays the menu out for a tall screen, with the promo slot at the top or the bottom. Tall Pour and Menu Card are tagged Made for vertical: they’re designed for a single TV hung beside the taps or at the register.

Taproom theme on a portrait taproom board: a "BEER" heading over a "Beer on Tap" list of nine beers, each with its brewery logo, style, ABV and location, plus 8oz and 16oz prices in tall condensed type on charcoal
Taproom DefaultCharcoal with an amber accent, an underline under the header and hairlines between rows. Works with any brand color.
Tall Pour theme on a portrait brewery board: a gold "Draft Beer Menu" header, beers grouped under Hoppy, Light & Crispy, Malty and Dark & Roasty with 20oz and 16oz prices, and a "Happy Hour 3 - 6pm (Tue - Thu)" banner
Tall Pour Made for verticalHeader on a solid accent band, big tap numerals, promo slot at the bottom at eye level.
Tap Rail theme on a portrait brewery board: seventeen beers on white rows with green edge bars for Hoppy and gold for Light & Crispy, each showing style, ABV, brewery and a 16oz price
Tap RailA colored rail for each category, category names in their color, so a tall list stays easy to scan.
Menu Card theme on a portrait café menu: an avocado toast photo at the top, then a framed cream card with serif coffee, cold drinks, bakery and light bites with dotted price leaders, and a "Double Loyalty Points Today" line
Menu Card Made for verticalA double-line card border, ✦ ornaments and dotted leaders. Reads like a printed menu on an easel.

What every theme does for you

  • Text that fits itself. Auto layout finds the largest text that fits your items and picks the columns that read best. Long item names get fitted on their own instead of shrinking the whole board. You can still choose Columns (Auto, or 1 to 4), Text size (Largest that fits, or Smaller) and Keep categories together.
  • Room for your promos. Every theme was designed and tested with promos showing, and frames them in its own style. Pick your Promo space and the theme sizes the menu around it, so a promo never pushes item names off the screen. More on Zone Promos.
  • Your brand color, kept readable. Pick a Brand color from the theme’s swatches or choose your own. We check it against the background and adjust it if text would be hard to read, and tell you when we do. Change the fonts under Brand fonts.

The board editor’s Look options (theme picker with Bistro selected, plus Layout settings for columns, text size and keeping categories together) beside a live preview of a café menu board

Want full control? Customize

Pick the Custom layout tile in the theme picker to set every font, size and spacing yourself. Your board switches to a custom layout that keeps the theme’s fonts, sizes and colors, so it looks the same, and you can change anything from there. Text no longer resizes by itself on a custom layout, and the theme design is saved to Board history first.

Your existing boards stay as they are

If you already have boards, nothing changes. They keep their design exactly as it is. When you’re ready, open a board and pick a theme: the preview shows your real menu in that theme, and nothing reaches your TV until you click Save. Your current design is saved to Board history (your last five designs) so you can restore it any time, and your own saved themes are still under Show classic themes.

Not sure where to start? The new Design Assistant scores your board for readability, suggests fixes, and can switch it to a matching theme that keeps your photo, colors and promos.

Get started

Every new board now starts with a theme, so it reads well from the first time you put it on a TV. Follow the getting started guide, read our menu board design guide for the thinking behind the themes, or see everything digital menu boards can do. Not a customer yet? Start a free trial or book a demo.

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