Almost every screen is 1920 x 1080, either landscape or turned on its side for portrait (1080 x 1920). If you make your screens with easyCMS Studio, you hardly need this page: every template is already sized to your screen, and long text shrinks by itself to fit. What is left for you to decide is how big the screen is, how far away people stand, and how few words to put on it.
Good to know The screen size and viewing distance calculator gives the right screen size for your farthest viewer, the smallest readable text, and when 4K is worth paying for.
Studio sizes the design for you
In Studio, the Screen choice above the preview is Landscape, Portrait or Custom size… Pick one and the template rearranges itself. Type over the words and, if a line gets long, it shrinks to fit, on the preview and on the screen.
Landscape, 1920 x 1080
The standard for almost every screen. Best for video, menus side by side, dashboards and anything with a news bar at the bottom.
Portrait, 1080 x 1920
For entrances, lifts, menu boards and shop windows. Mount the screen on its side and choose Portrait; check the screen is rated for portrait mounting first.
Custom size for LED walls
An LED wall has whatever pixel size its panels add up to. Choose Custom size…, type its width and height in pixels (64 to 8192), then Use this size.
Custom size also suits the odd screens you still meet: an old 4:3 panel at 1024 x 768, or a long strip above a counter at 1920 x 540. Make a design at that size and play it only on that screen.
How big the text must be
The working rule is about 25 mm of capital-letter height for every 3 metres of viewing distance. That is the minimum, so for people reading while they walk, go one row further down the table. The pixel figures are for a Full HD screen: a bigger screen needs fewer pixels for the same letter, because each pixel is bigger.
| Screen size | Read from | Smallest capital letter | In pixels (Full HD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43” | 2 m | 17 mm | 35 px |
| 43” | 3 m | 25 mm | 51 px |
| 55” | 4 m | 33 mm | 53 px |
| 55” | 6 m | 50 mm | 79 px |
| 75” | 8 m | 67 mm | 78 px |
| 75” | 10 m | 83 mm | 96 px |
A 55” screen read from 8 metres across a canteen leaves room for about six lines of text in total. If your design has twelve, the answer is fewer words, not smaller letters. Strong contrast (dark on light, or light on a truly dark background) helps more than size, and thin fonts fall apart first.
Is 4K worth it?
Only when people stand close, within about two metres: reception desks, wayfinding boards, product screens, or fine detail such as timetables and floor plans. Read from four metres or more, a 55” screen in 4K looks the same as Full HD, and 4K files are three to four times bigger. Check that the player can show 4K before you pay for it; our player overview says which can.
Watch out Set the screen’s picture mode to show pixels one to one, often called “Just Scan”, “Screen Fit” or “1:1”. Otherwise the screen quietly crops a few percent off every edge. Screen resolution and orientation covers it for each player.
LED walls: big screen, few pixels
A wall six cabinets wide and three high, with 3.9 mm pitch, is 3 x 1.5 metres but only 768 x 384 pixels. So use a Custom size that matches the wall exactly, big bold letters, and as few words as possible. Judge it from where people will stand, not from your laptop. More in content creation for LED displays, and the LED wall calculator works out the pixel size for you.
For your designer
If someone makes artwork for you in another tool, send them this list. Studio’s Library takes photos (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP) and videos (MP4, WebM, MOV).
- Size: exactly the screen’s pixel size, 1920 x 1080 or 1080 x 1920, or the LED wall’s size. Not bigger, not print resolution.
- Photos: JPEG, quality 80 to 85, sRGB colour.
- Logos and flat graphics: PNG, where you need transparency or sharp edges.
- Video: MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, progressive (not interlaced), a constant 25 or 30 frames a second, about 4 to 8 Mbps for Full HD. No audio track if the screen plays silent.
- Avoid: TIFF, BMP, photos saved as PNG, and long animated GIFs (a short MP4 is smaller and sharper).
A 30-second Full HD clip at 8 Mbps is about 30 MB, so file size matters on a 1GB account: see digital signage storage requirements. If a clip stutters on the screen, start with video playback problems.
Templates first, custom work when you need it
Studio has more than 200 ready-made templates, already sized for landscape, portrait or your custom size. Yodeck lists 800+ templates on its pricing page (checked September 2026), which is a fair reason some teams choose it. If nothing fits, you can build your own design in the advanced editor; creating layouts shows how.
Not sure what size your screens need? Send us the screen model and the viewing distance and we will tell you. The guides are free, and an expert hour is 25€ if you want a person on it.