Menu Board Sizing Guide
Choosing the right size for a menu board can be tricky. The main factors to consider are the available space, the amount of content, and how the menu will be used.
Space Considerations
If you already have a spot for the menu, you're halfway there. Large menus can make a bold statement, especially with our vibrant colours or timber options. If space or budget is tight, don’t worry—we can custom-make a menu to fit.
Menu Intention
Think about how your customers will interact with the menu. Is it for people ordering at the counter, sitting at a table, or viewing from across the room? This will guide the text size.
Here’s a quick reference for legibility distances:
- 11mm (7/16”) text: Visible up to 3m (10’)
- 19mm (3/4”) text: Visible up to 5m (16.6’)
- 32mm (1 1/4”) text: Visible up to 8m (26.25’)
- 51mm (2”) text: Visible up to 10m (33’)
Hierarchy of Information
Use larger text for key information to grab attention from afar, with smaller text for details closer up. This helps customers quickly understand what’s offered as they approach the counter, and gets them thinking about their decisions before its their turn.
Spacing for Legibility
Legibility depends on spacing too. We recommend multiplying the height of the text by 1.5 to allow enough space between lines for easy reading. This spacing can shrink, but it’s a good starting point.
Additional Information
Below is a more in-depth section on laying out a menu, If you need help with the layout or measurements, send us an email and we’ll assist!
All of our menus are measured by their overall dimension, however they all have a blank border with no holes, this is around 20mm wide or about 3/4”. If you take this away from the dimension of the available space or the menu size, then you have the actual area for content.
When we lay a menu out, we look at the height and width of the menu, the number of characters in a line of text, and the number of lines of content.
We take the number of characters on a line and multiply this by the width of the characters to find the maximum width of the content.
We take the number of lines of text, multiplied by the height of the text, and then multiply this by 1.5. This gives us room to separate the text to allow it to breathe, and also make it easier to read.
Rough character dimensions.
Height - Width:
- 11mm or 7/16” - 11mm or 7/16”
- 19mm or 3/4” - 15mm or 19/32”
- 32mm or 1 1/4”- 19mm or 3/4”
- 51mm or 2”- 39mm or 1 1/2”
Quick example:
Pineapple Pizza - 15 character, with spaces - 32mm character
Tomato, Mozzarella Cheese, Shaved Ham & Pineapple - 49 character, with spaces - 19mm characters
Height = 1x32mm + 1x19mm = 51 x 1.5 = 76.5mm high
Width = 49 x 19mm characters = 49 x 15 = 735mm wide - this could be broken to fit onto two lines to fit more menu items into the width.