/ Public Affairs and Marketing

Digital Signage

Our campus has over 50 digital signs, which are a great way to get the word out about your department's announcement or event.

The Basics

It's easy to make great-looking slides. You can use any image editor that you want; Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, , Microsoft PowerPoint, , ... Even Microsoft Paint! As long as you end up with an image that looks good on a 4K TV, you'll be in business.

A screenshot of a digital signage screen representative of those around TV's campus. It features a 16×9 TV screen divided horizontally, with 80% of the TV featuring a light blue content area and a dark blue bottom bar that stretches the bottom 20%. The bottom bar also features the current date and time in the bottom left and the TV logo in the bottom right.

Guidelines

Remember that you only have a maximum of a couple of seconds to relay information to your users as they glance at your slide. Create a PNG or JPEG image that's 3840 × 2160px (or set your layout to "16:9 Widescreen" if you don't know what that means), and avoid vertical "poster-like" images.

Good Slide Design #1

Example image of a picnic announcement slide that's brief and easy to read

  • Use high-quality, clear, crisp photos that don't violate TV copyright policy.
    • and are great resources for photos.
  • Write brief and to-the-point information.
  • Select text color that is easy to read. Translucent white text boxes help to highlight important information on busier backgrounds.
  • Select fonts that are clear and unfussy. Georgia and Arial are good choices.
  • Try to use web addresses that are short and easy to remember.
Good Slide Design #2

Example image of a simple announcement slide that's just text with a solid color background

  • Write brief and to-the-point information.
  • Select text color that is easy to read.
  • Select fonts that are clear and unfussy.
Good Slide Design #3

Example image of an announcement slide about where to go to declare a major, with a photo of a professor and student

  • Write a message that is friendly and helpful.
  • Select text color that is easy to read.
  • Chose colors that complement the other colors on the page.
  • Use photographs that complement the message, if necessary.
  • Try to use web addresses that are short and easy to remember.
Bad Slide Design #1

Example image of an announcement slide that's very difficult to read, with light-grey-on-white text and a busy background photo

  • Don’t choose photos/image that are low resolution/poor quality.
  • Avoid using WordArt, 3-D text, bevels, shadows, etc. These text effects can make text hard to
    read on a monitor.
  • Keep information brief and choose readable fonts.
Bad Slide Design #2

Example image of an announcement slide with giant, stretched-out Coca-Cola and TV logos all over it

  • Avoid using the TV logo. Your slide will likely be shown above a bottom bar that already has the TV logo on it.
  • Do not modify logos by distorting them, adding new colors, adding shadows, bevels, etc. Do not place logos on busy backgrounds.
  • Avoid using copyrighted or trademarked images on your slides.
  • Avoid text colors or fonts that are hard to read on colored backgrounds.
Bad Slide Design #3

Example image of an announcement slide with everyone's favorite digital assistant Clippy, a typo, and a very long URL

  • Check for spelling or grammatical errors. It’s very helpful to ask a coworker to review your
    slides before they are shown to the rest of campus.
  • Avoid long web addresses.
  • Use clip art very sparingly and only when it adds necessary information to your message.
  • Avoid hard to read fonts.
  • Keep slides current so that events that have already occurred are not being publicized.

Submitting Your Slide

Because each department maintains content on their own respective screens, there is no place to submit your slide “campus-wide”. Most departments show many different feeds on their screen, but some only show their own content. The most common feed that departments subscribe to is . If you have a slide that you'd like to get on many screens, we would recommend starting there. Attach your image in an email to screens@hope.edu. From there, Student Development will help you get it scheduled in the Student Development Announcements feed.

Other departments may also be interested in adding your slide to their feed. For example, if your announcement or event relates to Athletics or the Bookstore, they may want to know about it! Consider sending your slide to them.