- What should go on a cafe menu board?
- Put the drinks people order without looking first: flat white, cortado, latte, filter. Four to six lines is the whole board, because a queue reads one screen in about four seconds and a list of twenty is read as none. Give the filter of the day its own line with the origin under it, since that is the line that changes daily and is the reason a regular looks up at all. Keep food to a separate slide rather than crowding the drinks. Prices belong on the right, aligned, so the eye runs down one column instead of hunting.
- How big should the text be on a coffee shop board?
- Use the sign trade rule: 25mm of capital letter height for every 3 metres of viewing distance. Measure from the screen to the back of the queue, not to the till. A counter read from 4 metres needs capitals about 33mm tall, which on a 43 inch panel is roughly 6 percent of the screen height. Set the drink names at that size and let the origin notes and milk options sit smaller. Then stand at the door and read it. If you lean in, cut words rather than shrinking type.
- Do I need a special screen for a cafe?
- No, but two things decide whether a domestic TV survives. How many hours a day it runs, and how much daylight hits it. Panels sold for commercial use carry a duty rating (commonly 16 hours a day) and higher brightness, and many consumer warranties limit or exclude commercial installation, so read the warranty before buying on price. A cafe with a west-facing window needs brightness more than it needs size. Put the screen on the same switch as the lights so it is not running overnight.
- How often should the board change?
- Two rhythms, and they are different jobs. The filter of the day and any sold-out line change daily, by whoever opens, and that has to be a thirty second job on a phone or it stops happening by week three. Prices change rarely and deliberately, and the moment they do the screen must change with the till: a board showing yesterday's price is the one thing a customer will argue about. Everything else, the hours and the name, is set once.
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