Getting Started: Preparing Your Graphics

for DisplayStudio Digital Signage

Version 1.00 September 12, 2014

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Table of Contents INTRO 3

STATIC FILES: JPG & PNG 3

VIDEO FILES: MP4 & MOV 4

MS POWERPOINT: PPT & PPTX 5

ADOBE ACROBAT: PDF 6

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Preparing Your Graphics for DisplayStudio Digital Signage

INTRO When modifying pre-existing signage content or creating new content to be used for Dynamic Digital Signage it is important to remember two key pieces of file size information.

1. Most digital signage is displayed on high definition (HD) screens so the highest pixel size will be 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high, this is small by printed signage standards.

2. HD resolution has a 16 by 9 (16:9) aspect ratio. For some programs creating a file by pixel size is not an option so remembering the aspect ratio can make it simple to format a file for the screen.

Note1: With Roland DisplayStudio, content that is not the correct pixel size will automatically scale. But, if the file is not in a 16:9 aspect ratio it will have black bars on the sides or on the top and bottom.

STATIC FILES: JPG & PNG 1. When creating a typical JPG or PNG file for digital signage you will want the final version to be

1920x1080 pixels in size.

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2. Also remember that you are working with a monitor and not ink so the color space should be

RGB, not CMYK.

3. It is recommended to save the file using the ‘Save for Web…’ feature in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop or ‘Export for Web…’ in Corel Draw and Paint to remove any unnecessary file information like thumbnails, color profiles or layering information that can bloat a file’s size or potentially cause a compatibility issue.

VIDEO FILES: MP4 & MOV Video content used for digital signage will typically be played at full screen and be formatted at a 16:9 aspect ratio, typically this is 1920x1080 pixels or 1280x720 pixels. The smaller size will correctly scale proportionately and fill the screen as well as give you a smaller file size.

Note2: See the User Manual for a complete list of supported video file types however MP4 and MOV are the preferred formats for file size and playback quality.

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MS POWERPOINT: PPT & PPTX When working with PowerPoint, there are four key points to keep in mind:

1. Configure the slide size to match the monitor:

a. When you first open a new file, go to the “Design” menu and click on “Page Setup”.

b. In the setting “Slides sized for:” set it to “On-screen Show (16:9)”.

c. The size of the presentation does not need to be large. The default size of the “On-screen Show (16:9)” setting is 10” by 5.63” and this works fine.

2. Make sure each slide automatically forwards to the next slide in the presentation:

a. For each slide, go to the “Transitions” menu.

b. You don’t have to choose a transition but using one like “Fade” or “Wipe” will make your digital signage look more professional.

c. On the far right, below “Advance Slide”, uncheck the box next to “On Mouse Click” and place a check in the box next to “After”.

d. Make sure to give it a time length, typically between 10 seconds (00:10.00) and 20 seconds

(00:20.00) depending on the length of time to complete any animations in the slide and how long you want the content displayed.

3. Verify and Time

a. Make sure to play the presentation on your computer. It should behave automatically just like you want it to display on your digital signage.

b. Time the length of the presentation so you can set the duration correctly in DisplayStudio once you add it to a playlist.

4. Smaller Embedded Videos

a. You can embed videos into PowerPoint but sometimes the added overhead from the software doesn’t allow a video to play as smoothly as if it were placed directly into a playlist.

b. If you are planning to embed a video into PowerPoint make sure it has been scaled down to be closer to the actual, final size you want it to play at. For example, if you have a full HD video, 1920x1080, but you only want it to play inside PowerPoint at one quarter of the screen then have it scaled down in the movie editing software. If you bring it down to a much small size than

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HD, like 480x270 which is one quarter HD, there is much less strain on PowerPoint and the media player to play it back.

Note3: PowerPoint loads fonts from the local version of the operating system. Some special fonts on your computer may not be loaded onto the DisplayStudio media player so make sure to check your fonts after the file is loaded and playing on DisplayStudio. You can have the text in that special font brought in from your design software to PowerPoint as a graphic to get around this situation.

ADOBE ACROBAT: PDF DisplayStudio will only play the first page of Adobe Acrobat PDF files. The advantage of a PDF file is it makes it very easy to convert single page documents in programs like MS Word or MS Excel to a PDF format that can be used with DisplayStudio.

1. Like other files, make sure to create the document in a 16:9 aspect ratio to avoid black bars on the sides or top and bottom. The way to do this is to create the document in sizes like 8” wide x 4.5” high or 12” wide x 6.75” high.

2. MS Word and MS Excel provide quite a few tools for making your documents much more graphic, colorful and presentable as a sign like Page Color, Page Border and Word Art.

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