Introducing a Digital Menu: Step by Step

Why businesses switch in the first place

The trigger is usually the same: a menu that changes often — seasonally, weekly, or even daily for the lunch special — and that has to be reprinted, laminated, or manually corrected with every change. Crossed-out prices, dishes covered with a sticky note, or a visibly "patched" menu look unprofessional to guests and rarely fit the rest of a well-kept business's appearance. On top of that comes the sheer time cost: recreating, printing, and laminating a menu several times a week takes hours that are then missing elsewhere in the business. A digital menu solves exactly this problem at the root: the content is maintained once, centrally, and then appears identically and cleanly on every single table, with no physical reprinting.

1. Capture existing content

Getting started is easier than many businesses initially expect. The existing menu doesn't need to be laboriously retyped by hand: a simple photo of the current paper menu is enough — the software automatically recognizes dish names, descriptions, and prices and converts them into structured, directly editable entries. Alternatively, text can also be entered directly or copied from an existing file — a Word or PDF document, say — if the menu already exists digitally. Once this first step is done, the content foundation is available for all connected displays at once, without having to be captured multiple times.

2. Choose a layout and refine the content

Next, a suitable layout is chosen — depending on the type of menu, either classically listed with all items stacked, with a large, prominently featured daily special as an eye-catcher, or as a reduced board view for a few, punchy items. Individual dishes can be given a short description, a price, a label such as "vegetarian" or "gluten-free," and if needed a red accent for promotions or recommendations. Sold-out dishes are marked as such with a single click, instead of crossing them out by hand with a pen or covering them with a sticker — a small but, in a hectic service, noticeable difference.

3. Automatic quality check before sending

Before a menu is actually sent to the displays, an automatic check runs in the background to verify the content actually fits the chosen display format: is the text still clearly legible from one to two metres — the usual distance between guest and table display? Does the text run past the visible display area and risk being cut off? Is the red accent color used purposefully and sparingly rather than overloading the design? This automated step reliably prevents a menu that's too small, illegible, or cut off from ever reaching a table and leaving a bad impression there.

4. Send to all displays at once

Once the menu is designed and automatically checked, a single click is all it takes to send it simultaneously to all affected displays — whether five tables or fifty. Each individual display independently checks in the background whether the content has actually changed compared to what was last shown, and updates itself accordingly within a few seconds. No manual action is needed at any individual table — no device has to be touched, restarted, or synced individually.

5. Keep it up to date easily in day-to-day operation

After the one-time initial setup, day-to-day effort is reduced to maintaining actual changes: setting the lunch menu in the morning, switching to the dinner menu in the early afternoon, marking a dish as sold out the moment ingredients run out mid-service. Each of these changes takes only a few seconds and instantly reaches all affected tables at once — no reprinting, no waiting for the next batch of menus from the printer, and no one physically walking from table to table to swap something out.

Typical pitfalls — and how to avoid them from the start

The most common mistake when introducing this is trying to fit too much information into too little space — out of habit from a large, printed menu with lots of detail. A good piece of software will automatically warn about this via the quality check, but that doesn't replace the deliberate decision to keep a digital menu deliberately concise and clear rather than simply copying the old paper structure one to one. A second, often overlooked point is battery maintenance during ongoing operation: even though e-paper is very energy-frugal, it's worth occasionally checking the battery status of all displays centrally in the system, rather than only reacting once a single display unexpectedly stops working mid-service.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the entire introduction take?

Usually days, not weeks. Once the menu is captured and the displays are physically set up, digital operation runs practically immediately.

Does my team need to be tech-savvy?

No. The interface is deliberately as simple as a notes app: change text, check, send — that's all it takes in day-to-day use.

Can I just take a photo of the old paper menu?

Yes, that's exactly the intended quick start — the software automatically recognizes dishes, descriptions, and prices from the photo and converts them into editable entries.

What happens if a dish changes mid-service?

The corresponding item is marked as sold out or adjusted and sent immediately to all tables — without interrupting ongoing service.