Templates
Templates are pre-designed content that you can edit directly in Smartsign and use on your screen. They are versatile and can be used for manually added content, such as text and images, as well as for integrating data from external sources.
Why use templates?
Templates can be used to create two main types of content.
Messages
Use templates to manually add your own text and images.
This is achieved by using editable regions in the template.
- Promotional or Advertising Content
- Menu Boards and Restaurant Specials
- Emergency Alerts and Safety Information
- Corporate Communications like company-wide announcements, internal news
Control editable regions
By setting which parts of a template are editable, you ensure publishers can easily update text or images while preserving the core design and branding elements.
When you mark a text field or image as ”available for quick edit” it becomes available for publishers to change when they use the template to create new media items.
Data driven content
Use content that is connected to datasource and fetch information automatically.
- Social media feeds
- News feeds, from intranets or other sources
- KPI presentations
- Dynamic product advertisements connected through API’s
- Events fetched from calendars
- Departure times for public transport
Take Advantage of Data-Driven Templates
Configure templates to pull live content—such as social media feeds, RSS news, or data from APIs so your screens always display up-to-date information without manual updates.
Smartsign provides a number of built in datasources such as weather, public transport departures, as well as the possibility to connect to other systems like Social media, calendar, Power BI dashboards and many more.
See all available template datasources here
Even if Smartsign don't offer a dedicated integration to a specific system, it is often possible to connect to a system that is providing some sort of API that provides JSON or XML data.
Themes, templates and template data sources
Maintaining consistent, on-brand content is easy when using template themes for color palettes, fonts, and logos. Whether you start with a ready-made template or build your own, you can adjust it to fit your messaging while preserving vital design elements. You can also add live data from built-in or external sources, ensuring real-time information without constant manual updates.
Apply organizational branding with Template Themes
Configure a default template theme with your logo, fonts, and color palette so that all published content aligns with your visual identity. This consistency enhances brand recognition across all screens.
Template you get from the Marketplace are prepared to use themes. When you add a a new template, it will use the default site theme straight away, and media items created from a template using the default site theme will automatically update when the theme is changed.
Ready-made templates from the Marketplace
Explore the Smartsign Marketplace for templates that fit your use cases (e.g., event listings, social media feeds, promotional slides). This saves design time and ensures a professionally built foundation.
Customize templates
You can always customize the templates you get from Marketplace to fit the specific needs you have. Adjusting layout, color schemes, or imagery to suit specific messaging. Or create a new template from scratch if you feel confident.
Design for consistent look and feel
If the available templates don’t match your requirements, create your own to maintain consistency. Make sure any unique branding elements (logos, color, fonts) are integrated from the start by using the template themes functionality in Smartsign.
Think about refresh schedules
Determine how often the template fetches new data (e.g., every hour, once a day) to keep screens current while avoiding performance bottlenecks. Many datasources have limits on update frequencies that need to be taken in to account.