Templates · 6 min read

Make your own digital signage template — and remix anyone's in a click

How to make your own digital signage template in ChannelOS: build a slideshow once, publish it to the gallery, and let anyone remix it from a link into their own workspace.

S By The ChannelOS team
The ChannelOS slide editor, where a show becomes a template

Every digital-signage tool ships with templates. The difference is where they come from. In most tools you get a fixed gallery you can pick from and nudge a little — someone else decided what’s in it, and that’s the list. This post is about the other way: how to make your own digital signage template in ChannelOS, put it where others can find it, and remix anyone else’s in a single click.

The short version: a template isn’t a special thing you author differently. It’s just a show you decided to share.

How to make your own digital signage template

Build the slideshow first, then publish it. There is no separate “template mode” — you make a show the normal way, and any show can become a template.

  1. Create a show and design it in the slide editor — text, images, video, brand colours, the works. Or start from ChannelOS’s AI new-show creator and refine from there.
  2. When it’s good, publish it as a template. It gets a public share link and, if you want, a spot in the community gallery.
  3. That’s it. What you built is what people get.

Because ChannelOS is edit-once-airs-everywhere, the template you publish is a real, working show — not a mockup or a preview. Nothing about it is dressed up for the gallery and stripped later.

The template gallery has two sections: Official templates made by ChannelOS, and Community templates made by people using the product. Your published template lands in Community.

Each template card carries the useful signals: a preview theater (a filmstrip of every slide, click to zoom), a like count with a heart, and a remix count so you can see what people are actually copying. Sort by popular or by newest. It reads like a place you’d browse, not a dropdown you tolerate.

Why it matters: the gallery grows with the product instead of waiting on one design team. The best café menu or lobby board might come from someone who runs a café, not from us.

Remixing copies a whole template into your workspace as a fresh, independent show — new IDs, media re-uploaded, and the original left completely untouched.

Open any public template link and hit Remix. ChannelOS makes a brand-new copy in your workspace: a frozen snapshot, not a live link back to the source. The person who published it can edit or delete their original and nothing happens to your copy. Then you edit yours freely — swap the text, drop in your logo, change the photos — and put it on any screen.

That’s the loop the whole gallery runs on: build one, remix anyone’s, share yours. If you want a running start, our free digital-signage templates post walks through starting from the gallery, and the restaurant menu board guide shows one worked example end to end.

Not everything belongs in a public gallery. For those cases, export the file and hand it over directly.

A show downloads as a .show.channelos.tv file and a whole channel as a .channel.channelos.tv file. Each is a self-contained ZIP with a checksummed manifest and every image, video and brand asset frozen inside — no remote links to break. Send it however you like; whoever receives it imports it and gets a brand-new copy in their own workspace. It works offline and across workspaces, so it’s just as good for a backup as for a handoff to a client.

The tradeoff, honestly: a gallery template is discoverable and remixable by anyone with the link; an export file is private but you have to move it yourself. Pick the one that fits — the underlying copy is a fresh, independent show either way.

The part other signage tools don’t do

Here’s the wedge, stated plainly. No digital-signage platform lets the templates come from the people using it — build one, remix anyone’s in a click, share yours in a link.

Most signage tools treat templates as a curated catalog: a fixed set you choose from and lightly customize, full stop. ChannelOS treats them as a two-way gallery. That’s a different relationship with your own work — the show you sweat over can help someone else, and the show someone else sweat over can save you an afternoon.

Ready to try it? Open the app, build a show, and publish your first template. Then go browse the gallery and remix one while you’re there.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make my own digital signage template?
Build a slideshow as a normal show in ChannelOS, then publish it as a template. It joins the gallery for others to find, or you share a public link. There's no separate template format — any show you can build, you can turn into a template.
What happens when someone remixes my template?
Remix makes a fresh, independent copy in the remixer's own workspace — new IDs, media re-uploaded, no live link back to yours. It's a frozen snapshot, so they can edit it freely and your original is never touched or changed by anything they do afterward.
Can I share a template privately instead of publishing it?
Yes. A show downloads as a self-contained .show.channelos.tv file and a whole channel as a .channel.channelos.tv file — each a ZIP with a checksummed manifest and all media frozen inside. Send it to anyone; they import it as a brand-new copy. It works offline and across workspaces.
How is this different from other digital signage templates?
Most signage tools give you a fixed gallery you can only pick from and lightly customize. In ChannelOS the templates are made by people using the product — you build one, remix anyone's in a click, and share yours with a link. It's a two-way gallery, not a locked catalog.

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