# Digital signage template designer: make your own template > A digital signage template designer that runs in your browser — design a template layer by layer or let AI draft it, publish it to the gallery, and remix anyone else's in one click. Source: https://channelos.tv/blog/make-your-own-digital-signage-template Published: 2026-07-02 Updated: 2026-07-24 Category: Templates Author: The ChannelOS team **ChannelOS is a browser-based digital signage template designer: you design a template as a normal show — text, images, video, tables, live widgets, your brand colours, or an AI first draft — then publish it to the gallery or share a link. Anyone who opens that link remixes it in one click, as a fresh independent copy in their own workspace, and edits it freely.** --- 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: the **digital signage template designer** in ChannelOS, how to make your own template with it, and how to 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. ## The template designer, in a browser tab The designer *is* the [slide editor](/app) — the same one you build any show in. Nothing to install, no desktop app, no Android box in the loop. - **Free-moving layers.** Text, images, video, tables, shapes and live widgets (clock, QR code, ticker, weather, menu) placed anywhere on the canvas — drag, resize, rotate, group, snap. - **Both orientations.** A 16:9 landscape canvas for a wall-mounted TV, 9:16 portrait for a lobby or window screen. - **Your brand, enforced.** Point it at a brand kit and colours, fonts and logo come with it, so a template stays on-brand instead of drifting slide by slide. - **AI first draft.** Describe the show in one sentence — or hand it a PDF, image or URL — and the designer opens with a complete multi-slide draft you edit, not an empty canvas. - **Keyboard-first.** ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z undo-redo, ⌘D duplicate, ⌘K for the AI dock; the full chord table is one click away in the editor. **Why it matters:** most "template designers" in signage are a slot-filling form — swap the headline, swap the photo, done. This one is a real layout tool, which is why the thing you publish can be a template *and* a working show at the same time. ## 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](/app) — 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. ## What the gallery looks like The [template gallery](/templates) 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. ## Remix: one click from a link 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](/blog/free-digital-signage-templates) post walks through starting from the gallery, and the [restaurant menu board guide](/blog/digital-menu-board-restaurant-tv) shows one worked example end to end. ## Sharing privately, without the gallery 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](/app), build a show, and publish your first template. Then go [browse the gallery](/templates) and remix one while you're there. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is there a digital signage template designer I can use in the browser? Yes — ChannelOS's slide editor is the template designer, and it runs in a browser tab with nothing to install. You place text, images, video, tables and live widgets as free-moving layers on a 16:9 or 9:16 canvas, snap them to your brand colours and fonts, and publish the result as a template. AI can draft the whole first version from one sentence, so you start by editing rather than from a blank canvas. ### 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.