Menu and specials boards for cafés
Printed, magnetic and dry-wipe

Most café boards carry three kinds of information. The fixed menu: coffee, tea, breakfast, the things you sell every day. The daily specials: soup, cake, the guest coffee, whatever came in this morning. And the details people ask about at the counter: opening hours, the Wi-Fi, whether you take cards.

A printed sign handles the first well and the second not at all. A chalkboard is the other way round, and the chalk dust ends up in the cake. A board that is both printed and dry-wipe covers all three.

Enlarge

An example design: the header and headings are printed, the dishes are written in dry-wipe pen.

Every board we make is printed into a high-gloss enamel coating on 1.2 mm steel, and the whole surface is dry-wipe. So the question is not which board to buy but which parts to print.

Print what stays the same for months: your name and logo, the core menu, prices that don't change often, your hours. Leave space for what changes daily: specials, the soup, the cake of the day, a guest coffee or a note about the weekend.

Dry-wipe pens are dark, so the space you leave for them should be white or pale. Keep strong colours for the header, the frames and the headings, and keep the writing panels light.

A layout that works on most counters:

• Name and logo across the top, where it can be read from the door.
• The core menu in the largest area, in type big enough to read from the queue.
• A specials panel, light-coloured and ruled if you like, so the handwriting stays straight.
• A strip for magnets and cards: the whole face is steel, so a printed allergen card, a loyalty-card notice or a photo of today's bake can go up with a magnet.

If you don't have a designer, our B2B prompt library has written prompts for café, bakery and specials boards that an AI image tool can turn into a layout, with the writing areas left pale.

Enlarge

An example board, made for illustration. It is not a customer's café.

Every size comes landscape or portrait. Behind the counter, a large landscape board reads well over an espresso machine. By the till, a small portrait board suits the specials. At the door, a medium board can carry the hours and the day's soup.

The boards are made for indoor use. Hang one inside the window rather than outside the door: see the last section for why.

Boards for cafés are made with Create Your Own for Business. Upload your artwork, frame it on a picture of the real board, choose the size and see it on a wall at true scale before you order.

We take JPG, PNG, TIFF, SVG and PDF files. Boards print at 150 dpi at full size, so for a large board the file should be 5965 × 4488 pixels. Send the largest file you have: the original from your designer, not a copy from your website.

We check every file by hand and send you a PDF proof before anything is printed. Each board is made to order in Britain, in 3–5 working days + delivery, from when you approve the proof.

No artwork yet? Send us a rough idea of your menu and branding and we will prepare the artwork for you. Our design service is quoted per job.

Each board comes pre-drilled, with a hole near each corner, and with screws, wall plugs and instructions in the box. It screws flush to the wall, with no gap behind, and a cap covers each screw. White and black caps both come in the box, so you can choose the ones that suit the board.

Fix it where whoever writes the specials can reach the whole panel without a step.

Use dry-wipe pens only, never permanent markers, and wipe clean with a dry microfibre cloth. If someone uses a permanent marker by mistake, draw over the marks with a dry-wipe pen and wipe both off together.

The board is steel, so ordinary magnets hold anywhere on the face. Glass magnetic boards often need special strong magnets; this one doesn't. A pack of ten plain round magnets is enough for allergen cards and notices.

Keep it indoors. The boards have no UV-protective coating, so in direct sun the print fades within about three to five years, and outside the steel can rust over time.

You can order a single branded board. There is no minimum order and no set-up fee.

• Prices are shown before VAT on the business pages, and VAT is added at checkout.
• Purchase orders are accepted. Add your PO reference and we issue a proforma invoice against it.
• Bespoke sizes are made on orders from 25 boards, for a chain or a fit-out.
• Quotes come back in writing within one working day. Ask through the For Business page.

Every artwork file you send is kept on file, so a reprint when the menu changes is one email.