DSID Knowledgebase | Designing Your Own Content for DSID

Designing Your Own Content for DSID

DSID Admin

Last Update 21 days ago

Whether you're putting together a quick graphic in Canva or working with a professional designer, this article will walk you through everything you need to know to create content that looks great on your DSID screens.

Step 1: Know Your Screen

Before you open a design tool, you need to know two things about the screen your content will be displayed on: orientation and resolution. Getting these wrong means your content may appear cropped, stretched, blurry, or otherwise off — so it's worth confirming upfront.

Orientation

Landscape screens are the standard horizontal format — wider than they are tall, like most TVs. Portrait screens are rotated 90°, taller than they are wide, and are commonly used in hallways, windows, or narrow wall spaces.

Design files for landscape and portrait screens are not interchangeable. A landscape design on a portrait screen will appear rotated or heavily letterboxed, and vice versa. If your practice has screens in both orientations, you'll need separate design files for each.

Resolution

Resolution determines how sharp and detailed your content appears. DSID supports two resolutions:

HD: 1920×1080 pixels
4K: 3840×2160 pixels

4K offers four times the pixel density of HD, meaning finer details, crisper text, and richer visuals — but only if the content itself is created at 4K resolution. Uploading an HD file to a 4K screen will result in upscaling, which can make the image appear soft or slightly blurry.

Which resolution does my device support?

All DSID BrightSign media players support 4K resolution in landscape orientation. For portrait orientation, only Series 6 BrightSign devices support 4K. If you have an older BrightSign device and your screen is in portrait orientation, your portrait content should be designed at HD resolution.

Not sure which series your BrightSign is? Check the numbering on the top of the device at the bottom right corner. The number following the two letters indicates the series (eg HD6, LS5) . If you're still not sure, contact DSID support.

Step 2: Set Up Your Canvas

Once you know your screen's orientation and resolution, use the dimensions below to set up your design canvas. These are the exact pixel dimensions your final exported file should match.

Images & Static Graphics

Format	Orientation	Dimensions (w x h)	Target File Size
HD	Landscape	1920px x 1080px	~500 KB
HD	Portrait	1080px x 1920px	~500 KB
4K	Landscape	3840px x 2160px	1-5MB
4K	Portrait	2160px x 3840px	1-5MB

Aspect Ratios: All content should use either 16:9 (landscape) or 9:16 (portrait). Designs that fall outside these ratios will not fill the screen correctly.

For Canva Users: When creating a new design, select "Custom size" and enter the pixel dimensions for your screen. Canva refers to these as width × height.

TIP: If you need to compress very large, high resolution images to a more manageable size, check out the free tool Squoosh.

Video

For video, resolution is the most critical variable. A video renders at whatever resolution it was created at — uploading a higher-resolution file doesn't improve quality that was baked in at a lower resolution. If you want 4K output, your video must be produced at 4K from the start.

When you upload a 4K video to LoopOS, the platform will automatically generate both a 4K and an HD version, ensuring compatibility across devices with different resolution settings.

LoopOS also handles video encoding automatically, so you don't need to worry about format or codec in most cases.

For those working at the technical level, the target specs are:

Format	Codec	Resolution	Bitrate
MP4	H.264	HD (1920 x 1080)	10Mbps
MP4	H.265	4K (3840 x 2160)	20Mbps

Note on audio: If your video includes audio, there are additional guidelines to follow. See the related article: LINK

Step 3: Use High Quality Source Assets

If your design includes photos, logos, or other existing creative assets — especially ones you're sourcing from your own files or a client — make sure those assets are high enough quality before you build your design around them. Low-resolution images that look fine on a phone or a website can appear noticeably blurry or pixelated when blown up on a large display.

As a general guide, aim for:

HD content: 96–150 DPI, ~500 KB file size
4K content: 150–300 DPI, 2–5 MB file size

If an image looks sharp at 100% zoom in your design tool at the full canvas size, it will generally look good on screen. If it already looks soft in the editor, it will look worse on the TV.

Step 4: Design For The Screen

Digital signage is a different medium than a printed flyer, a social media post, or a website. Viewers are typically at a distance, often glancing rather than reading closely, and the content is sometimes in motion. The guidelines below aren't meant to be a design course — but keeping these principles in mind will help your content communicate clearly and look professional.

Composition

Keep your layout clean and uncluttered. A single focal point — a headline, an image, a key message — will always outperform a design that tries to communicate too many things at once. Use margins generously and avoid pushing content to the very edges of the frame, as some screens may crop slightly at the borders.

Color

High contrast between text and background is essential for readability at a distance. Light text on a dark background (or vice versa) works well. Avoid placing text over busy or detailed photographic backgrounds without a contrasting overlay or text shadow. Bright, saturated colors tend to pop on screen, while very light pastels can wash out under certain lighting conditions.

Text Size & Weight

Text that looks large in your design tool can shrink significantly when displayed on a screen viewed from across a room. Headlines should be large. Bold or semi-bold font weights read far more clearly at a distance than thin or light weights, which can disappear against the background.

Amount of Text

Less is more. Digital signage is not a brochure — aim for a short headline and a supporting line or two, not paragraphs. If you find yourself reducing font size to fit more text, that's a sign the content needs to be simplified. If you have a lot to communicate, consider breaking it into multiple slides rather than cramming it into one.

Spacing

Give your content room to breathe. Generous padding around text blocks, adequate spacing between lines, and clear separation between design elements all make content easier to process at a glance. Tight, cramped layouts are harder to read and feel visually overwhelming on a large screen.

Animation & Timing

If your content includes animation or motion, keep transitions purposeful and smooth — avoid anything too fast or jarring. It's difficult for a viewer to read text until it comes to rest, so avoid text transitions that take too long. Every key message should remain on screen long enough to be fully read at a comfortable pace. A good test: read the text aloud slowly. If the element disappears before you finish, it needs more time.

Step 5: Video Duration

For video content, aim for a duration of 30 to 45 seconds. This is the sweet spot for viewer attention in a waiting room or clinic environment — long enough to deliver a meaningful message, short enough to hold attention and loop frequently.

Avoid going beyond 90 seconds without a strong reason. Longer videos are less likely to be watched in full, and in a looping environment, longer clips reduce the variety and frequency of your other content.

LoopOS allows video uploads of up to 3 minutes maximum per file.

Export and Upload

When your design is ready, export it in the correct format:

Images: PNG or JPG
Video: MP4 (LoopOS will handle encoding automatically)

Double-check that your exported file dimensions match the canvas dimensions you set at the start. Most design tools will export at the canvas size by default, but it's worth confirming — especially if you've been working with zoom or scale adjustments.

Once exported, you can upload your file directly to your LoopOS account via the Upload tab.

Summary: Quick Reference

	HD Landscape	HD Portrait	4K Landscape	4K Portrait
Dimensions	1920 x 1080	1080 x 1920	3840 x 2160	2160 x 3840
Aspect Ratio	16:9	9:16	16:9	9:16
Source Asset DPI	96-150 DPI	96 - 150 DPI	150 - 300 DPI	150 - 300 DPI
Image File Size	~500 KB	~500 KB	1–5 MB	1–5 MB
Brightsign Support	All series	All series	Series 3, 4, 5	Series 6

Video: 30–45 sec ideal · 90 sec max recommended · 3 min upload limit · Export as MP4

Need help with your content? DSID's in-house design team can create custom graphics and videos for your practice with fast turnaround. Contact our support team or submit requests in your LoopOS account via the Request tab.