15 Digital Signage Content Creators [Plus Design Tips]
Digital signs are everywhere, from restaurant menus to doctor's office announcements.
If you're looking to create a smart TV sign, you'll need a digital signage content creator to help you make the images, slideshows, and videos you'll display.
Maybe you want a slideshow showcasing all of your upcoming events. Or maybe you want to switch from your breakfast menu to your lunch menu at a specific time each day.
Whatever you're imagining, you can do it with a digital signage content creator.
In this guide, we show you the top 15 options to choose from. Plus we offer helpful tips to help you create more engaging content.
Set up your digital sign in minutes with Juuno.
Why you need a digital signage content creator
Digital signage refers to any digital content screen, typically large smart TVs used to display menus, events, announcements, dashboards, and other content.
In order to create a digital screen, you'll need:
- Digital signage software - Digital signage software converts your smart TV into an always-on digital screen.
- A smart TV with a web browser - Browser-based digital signage can be deployed with nothing more than a smart TV's web browser, eliminating the need for special hardware or media players.
- Digital signage content - This can be a PDF file or PNG file. Or, you can integrate with a tool like Canva to bring in your designs. You might also display slides to showcase a variety of different pages.
You'll want to use a digital signage content creator to help you design your screen.
A digital sign content creator should offer these benefits:
- Image editing tools
- Templates to make designing easy
- Cloud-based collaboration
- Ability to edit text and imagery at any time to keep your screen content up to date
You'll want to use something that works for the person who will be managing content. While a professional graphic designer might prefer Adobe InDesign or PowerPoint, most people will prefer to use an easy online tool like Canva or PicMonkey.
Top 15 digital signage content creators
Ready to create awesome content for your digital screen? Try one of these useful tools.
1. Juuno
Juuno is a digital signage app that doesn't require special hardware. All you need is a smart TV that has a web browser, and you can easily set up your digital sign. As for content, Juuno offers integrations with social media platforms so you can showcase a live real of your newest content. You also get a weather app, a Slack integration, and a Canva integration to fill your content needs. Canva offers tons of templates so you can design your screen there and deploy it with Juuno.
Juuno is affordable and easy to use. Learn more and sign up here.
2. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular online graphic design software. You don't need to be a graphic designer to create your digital sign content. You can use Canva's thousands of templates, from event promotions to workplace announcements to restaurant menus and more. There are also a variety of elements like images, gifs, videos, icons, and illustrations so you can come up with your own custom creations too.
3. PicMonkey
With PicMonkey, you get easy-to-use photo-editing and graphic design software in one place. The platform offers templates for flyers and presentations that will work great for smart TV content. Many of their presentation templates are super simple, with just a little bit of stylized text. If you're looking for more bold and vibrant options, you might want to choose Canva or Adobe Express.
4. Adobe Express
Adobe Express is the software giant's graphic design product for non-professionals. It offers a lot of modern, gen-Z style design templates so if you're looking for bold, fun colors, this might be the right option for you. You can add images, videos, and animations to your designs, allowing you to really capture screen viewers' attention. The platform also offers AI design features to help you complete your designs in less time.
5. VistaCreate
VistaCreate offers over 100,000 graphic design templates across dozens of content categories. You can upload your brand kit (your logo, fonts, colors, etc.) to the platform so that your brand essentials are always ready to use no matter what you're creating. Their announcement and presentation templates will be perfect for digital signage.
6. Pixlr
Pixlr is a graphic design and photo-editing platform with extensive AI capabilities. The Infill feature can be used to auto-generate images and even replace certain elements using nothing but text prompts. If you don't have a lot of custom brand imagery to use on your digital screen, the AI feature might be just what you need.
7. Design Wizard
Design Wizard offers templates for social media content, posters, websites, and other print and digital formats. Many of these templates can be easily adapted for digital announcements. The platform also offers premium videos, images, and fonts for your use. However, if you need to create a menu, you might be better off with Canva or Easil.
8. Visme
Visme is the ideal digital signage content creator for business use cases. Their templates focus on data visualizations, reporting dashboards, infographics, and corporate presentations.
9. PowerPoint
You might not need special software to create your digital signage content. You might be able to use tools you already have, like Microsoft PowerPoint. This platform offers tons of different presentation templates that you can use to create all sorts of digital signs, whether for a school, office, store, library, or other location.
10. Google Slides
Google Slides is another great option for making digital signage content. Just choose one of the simple templates and add your photos and text. Create content like workplace procedures, featured employees, upcoming events, etc. The templates are limited, however, so if you want to create on-brand designs, you might be better off with something like Snappa or Easil.
11. Snappa
Snappa is another great option for non-pros to make stunning graphic designs. Their pre-made templates cover all sorts of brand styles, making it easy for businesses and organizations of all sizes to achieve the look they want.
12. Venngage
Similar to Visme, Venngage is a digital signage content creator that's best for corporate use cases. It offers detailed, professional templates for infographics, reports, presentations, charts, diagrams, mindmaps, and more—making it perfect for all sorts of office and meeting-room TV screens.
13. Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a platform intended for use by professional graphic designers. It's great for both print and digital projects, making it great for the large-scale format of smart TV screens. It supports custom fonts and a variety of image and file formats. Keep in mind that if you use this platform, you'll also need a pro to help make any changes or updates to the content.
14. Easil
As the name suggests, Easil makes it easy to design just about anything. The drag-and-drop platform offers tons of templates. Plus, you can save your brand kit so that your brand styles are always available to use. If you're looking for some help, the company also offers custom services. They can create special designs or templates for you.
15. Stencil
While Stencil is intended for creating social media graphics, it can also work for informative digital signs. The templates for Facebook and LinkedIn posts have a horizontal orientation and are perfect for smart TV content. Create event promotions, workplace announcements, product releases, special coupons, etc.
Tips for creating digital signage content
To take your digital signage content creation to the next level, follow these smart tips:
1. Create goals for your content
Before you begin, create clear goals for your content. What are you trying to achieve? Who are you looking to impact?
Here are some example goals for a variety of business and organization types:
- Increase compliance with dress code
- Increase attendance for an upcoming event
- Increase awareness for a certain workplace policy
- Easily share and update our menu
2. Rely on design templates
Unless you have a professional graphic designer on staff, you should always begin with a template. This will save you tons of time and ensure that your design looks great. A template will have the right layout, spacing, weight, colors, etc. All you have to do is switch out your content. Try to choose a template that matches your brand as much as possible, so you have to do very minimal updates to the design itself.
3. Use widgets and integrations
Static text and images are only the beginning. If you want to make your digital signs more engaging, you can utilize widgets like weather, world clocks, and news. You can also try integrations like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and Slack to pull in your company's freshest content.
4. Create content playlists
You can automatically switch from one type of content to another with playlists.
Let's say you want to switch from your brunch menu to your dinner menu every day. Or maybe you want to have a special brunch menu that shows up on Saturdays and Sundays only.
In an office setting, you might want to showcase featured employees every Monday and workplace policies every Tuesday.
Whatever you decide, consider how you can keep your digital screens fresh and interesting by utilizing playlists.
Juuno offers this feature. Learn more and try our platform for free.
Create and launch your digital sign in minutes with Juuno. All you need is a smart TV.