Portrait or landscape: choosing the orientation for each screen

Keep a screen the usual wide way round when people watch it from across a room, when it shows video or sport, or when you want a split layout with the menu on one side and a picture on the other. Turn it on its side, in portrait, when it has to fit a narrow space such as a pillar or the wall beside a door, or when the content is naturally tall, like a menu, a class timetable or a poster. Decide screen by screen. There's nothing wrong with having both in one venue, and Casty treats each screen separately.

When widescreen works better

Widescreen is the default for good reason. TV programmes, sport and nearly all video are made that shape, so a screen that sometimes shows the match and sometimes shows your content has to be wide.

It also suits screens watched from a distance. A wide screen high on a wall sits comfortably in the eye line across a room, and people can take it in without tilting their heads back.

And it's the better shape for layouts split into zones. A wide screen has room for the menu on the left and a looping video of the food on the right, or this week's offers with a ticker running along the bottom. Squeeze the same zones onto a portrait screen and each one ends up narrow and cramped.

When portrait works better

Portrait fits places a wide screen won't. A pillar, the strip of wall between a door and a window, the end of a shelving run in a shop or a tall, narrow window all take a portrait screen comfortably, where a wide one would overhang the edges or look shoehorned in.

It suits tall content, too. Menus are lists and lists run downwards, so a long run of dishes and prices reads naturally top to bottom on a portrait screen, where a wide one would split it into columns. Class timetables, opening hours, directions and event listings work the same way.

Then there's print. A4 and A3 posters are portrait, so posters you've already had designed fit a portrait screen with far less cropping. The same goes for video shot upright on a phone, which is how a lot of social media video is made these days.

And a portrait screen looks like a poster, which suits entrances and shop windows. People already know how to read something that shape.

What changes when you turn a screen

Turning a screen on its side involves the hardware, the player and your layouts. All of them need to agree.

The screen and the bracket

Check the screen is designed to be mounted in portrait before you buy. Commercial displays usually are. Many consumer TVs aren't, and the manual may tell you not to, often because of how the set is cooled. Where it matters, the manual will also say which way round to turn it. The bracket has to support portrait mounting as well. Consumer TV or commercial display has more on this.

The player

Every Casty player can run in portrait, set for each display. Tell us when we set the screen up and we'll set the player to match. If a screen ever comes up the wrong way round, email us and we'll change the player's setting. To see each screen's orientation, click Columns above the Displays list and tick Orientation.

The layouts

A portrait screen needs portrait layouts, because a wide layout on a tall screen won't fill it. When you create a layout, change Resolution in the panel on the right to 1080p HD Portrait (1080 by 1920) or 4k UHD Portrait. The same applies to the screen's default layout, which should be the right shape too.

Images need the right shape as well: 1080 pixels wide by 1920 tall for an HD portrait screen. A photo taken the wide way will need cropping, so if you're shooting new food photos, take some upright while you're at it. Image and video sizes for HD and 4K screens lists the sizes for each shape.

Designing for a tall screen

A portrait screen hung at head height has its top half at eye level and its bottom half lower down, where heads, the counter or the coffee machine can get in the way. Put prices and the main offer in the top two thirds.

If the screen's mounted high, flip that round. The bottom of the screen is then nearest to people's eye line, and the top is a long way up.

Tall screens are narrow, so keep words short. A dish name that fits on one line across a wide screen may wrap onto two on a portrait one, and three-line dish names are hard work to read. Fewer zones work better, too: a heading, a list and a picture is usually plenty.

Video is trickier. Most video is shot wide, so on a portrait screen it either gets cropped or sits in a band with empty space above and below. Shoot upright for portrait screens, or use stills.

Running both in one venue

A mix of wide and portrait screens is easy enough to manage with a little organisation. Give each portrait screen a tag, say portrait, and make a dynamic display group that picks up every screen with that tag. Schedule portrait layouts to that group and wide ones to the rest. When you add a new portrait screen later, it joins the right group as soon as it's tagged. Group your screens explains dynamic groups.

Name layouts so the shape is obvious, like Lunch Menu Portrait, and save your best portrait design as a template so the next one starts at the right shape.

Before you settle on an orientation, read where to put screens in a venue. The spot on the wall often makes the decision for you.