Design your board: styles and fine-tuning

The Design tab of every display gives your flight board its look in two steps. First you choose a style, which fills in many options at once. Then you fine-tune whatever you like, section by section, while a live preview beside the controls shows the result. This article walks through both steps and says which plan each option needs.

Start with a style

Open Displays, choose a screen and go to the Design tab. The style gallery sits at the top, with six styles:

Standard is today's board with every default, plus screen protection. It works on every plan.

Classic is the airport look: the Classic Airport palette in black and yellow, monospaced times and pages instead of scrolling. You can choose it on Basic; the monospaced figures and the pages need Pro and are left out on Basic, while the rest of the style still applies.

Minimal is light and calm, with the Minimal Light palette, no terminal or gate column, larger rows, no seconds on the clock and no flight count in the footer. It works on every plan.

Easy to read combines the High Contrast palette with extra-large rows. You can choose it on Basic; its plain-text status and the switched-off row animation need Pro.

Departure hall needs Pro. It shows a large "Departures" or "Arrivals" title, highlights only delays and cancellations, counts down for flights in the next hour, turns pages with condensed figures and shows the update time only when the data is old.

Concierge needs Pro. It is warm and personal, with the Champagne palette, city names, zebra rows, plain-text status, the weather in one line and two languages at once.

All six styles switch on pixel shift, which protects TVs that run all day.

Under the styles, Show classic looks (14) opens one card for each of the 14 palettes. A classic look combines its palette with the standard options and needs the same plan as the palette.

A card for a style your plan does not include shows the plan it needs and cannot be chosen. A card whose style contains a few options above your plan says how many settings are left out.

What a style changes, and what it never touches

A style is a starting point, not a setting that stays attached to the display. Choosing one copies its values into the form, and nothing reaches the screen until you press Save.

Every style works on the same group of options, namely those that any of the styles changes: text size, the terminal and gate columns, how destinations are named, the large title, the subtitle, seconds on the clock, the status style, the countdown limit, figures, capital headings, row style, paging, row animation, the weather style, the bilingual mode, the flight count and update time in the footer, and pixel shift. Each of them is set to the style's value or back to the standard, so moving from one style to another really gives you the new look. Everything else you have set, such as filters, QR code, announcement, night mode, background or your own texts, stays as it is.

A style never changes the logo, the languages, the airports, the layout, the slides or the display mode.

Values your plan does not include are not applied. Those options keep what they had, and a short note says how many settings were left out.

When you change one of these options after choosing a style, its card shows Customised. Colors never count as a customisation.

Colours

Every style suggests a palette. The checkbox Adopt style colours under the gallery decides whether choosing a style also sets it. The box starts ticked, unless the display already has colors of its own, from the Premium color fields or as a brand color from the setup wizard. With the box ticked, the style's palette replaces the current one and own colors are cleared; with it unticked, your colors stay exactly as they are. A palette above your plan is left out, and the rest of the style still applies.

Undo and reset

After every style change a note appears with Undo, and the same button sits in the design tools below the sections. Undo also works after you have saved: the design that was saved before the change is restored and saved again. Reset to style becomes available once you have customised a style; it re-applies the style's values and leaves your colors alone. Reset design returns every design option to the standard board, while the logo, colours and template, languages, airport, layout and slides stay as they are. Both can be undone.

Fine-tuning, section by section

Below the gallery, the options are grouped in collapsible sections, and each section shows how many of its options differ from the standard board. Some options only appear where they can do something, for example seconds only with the digital clock and the baggage belt only when the board shows arrivals. A hidden option keeps its value.

Options above your plan stay visible with a plan badge. If your hotel group has set and locked an option, it shows Set by your group; the article on group defaults explains how that works.

Colours & template

This section holds the 14 palettes: five on every plan, nine more on Pro, and your own colors on Premium. Everything about colors is explained in the article on colors.

Header

On every plan you choose the large "Departures" or "Arrivals" title, the subtitle ("Flight information" or none), seconds on the clock and a long, short or hidden date. The logo works on every plan as well. Pro adds your own subtitle of up to 60 characters, the analogue clock, up to three world clocks, the logo size, the accent line under the header and the header layout Title bar, as well as the weather with its details, forecast and style. Premium adds the header layouts Logo centred and Logo only.

Flight list

On every plan you choose what the board shows, switch the terminal column, the gate column (shown, hidden or automatic) and the airline name line, and name destinations by airport name or airport code. Status colors can be classic or colour-blind safe. The countdown can be limited to the next so many minutes, and departed flights can be dimmed or hidden.

Pro adds a second column, info slides, search on touch and website screens, airline logos, the baggage belt for arrivals, city names, the next three flights in large type above the list, the status styles (pill, only exceptions or plain text) with the "On time" word, the way delays are shown, the status marker, monochrome status colors, a time window of 2 to 24 hours and hiding cancelled flights. Premium adds a third column and your own column headings.

Type & rows

Text size (compact, normal, large or extra large) works on every plan. Pro adds five fonts, which apply to Latin, Cyrillic and Greek letters while other scripts keep their standard font, as well as condensed or monospaced figures, headings in capitals, the row styles lines, zebra stripes, cards or split-flap look, and the style of the airline logos.

Background & theme

Pro adds gradients and patterns in several variants, a darkening that keeps text readable, and a seasonal accent (winter, summer or trade fair week) with an end date, after which the board returns to its usual look by itself. Premium adds your own image, linked by an https address and at least 1920 pixels wide.

Motion

The rotation between departures, arrivals and slides, and the time each phase stays on screen, work as before. Pro adds pages instead of scrolling, with 6 to 60 seconds per page and a fixed or automatic number of rows, the fade and slide transitions and the animation of new rows. Premium adds the split-flap transition. Autoscroll stays on the Behavior tab.

Languages

Pro adds the bilingual mode, which shows a second language under headings and status as at airports, and a steady layout direction, so the board is not mirrored each time Arabic or Hebrew takes its turn. Which languages the board uses, and how often it switches, stays on the Behavior tab.

Footer

The number of flights and the "Updated" time (always, only when data is old, or never) work on every plan. Pro adds a footer text for this screen. Premium can hide the whole footer.

Screen

Pixel shift, a safe margin of 2.5 or 5 percent for TVs that cut off the edges, and upright mounting for a TV turned on its side work on every plan. Pro adds the night mode, which dims the board, shows only the clock and the next flights, or turns the screen black between the times you choose. The article on screen care explains each of them.

Hotel extras

Pro adds a QR code that opens the board on a guest's phone or an https address of your own, with a short label, and an announcement ticker of up to 200 characters, marked as information or urgent, with an optional end time. Premium adds the "Leave hotel by" column for departures, which needs a transfer time to the airport; without one the column shows only dashes. The article on the leave-by column walks through the setup.

Filters

All filters need Premium. You can show only some airlines or all except some (up to 30 two-letter codes, and a codeshare counts when the operating or the selling airline matches), highlight up to ten partner airlines, and show only the terminals you choose.

The live preview

The live preview sits next to the controls, or above them on a small screen, where you can fold it away. It shows the board with your unsaved changes at the real screen size of 1920 × 1080 pixels, scaled down, for a landscape or an upright screen. Still holds the board and Play lets it move. Under Try a situation you can look at delays and cancellations, night mode, an announcement, the emergency notice or a board without flights whenever you like.

Two things behave differently in the preview: pixel shift stays off, and an active night mode appears as a small band until you choose the night mode situation. The preview needs the display to be switched on.

Saving

Everything in the Design tab changes only the form. The bar at the bottom of the editor offers Save and Discard, and the screen in the lobby picks up saved changes within about 20 seconds.

Your own styles, copying and files

Save as custom style keeps the design options, palette and colors of this display under a name of your choice, and needs Pro. Your styles appear under Your styles below the gallery for every display of your hotel, and styles shared by your group are marked as such. Choosing one of your styles replaces all design options with its values; its colors are only taken over when the display has none of its own. A style of your hotel can be deleted with the bin icon on its card, and displays that use it keep their settings.

Copy from another display… takes the sections you choose from another screen, including Colours & template if you wish. Export design saves the design options, palette and own colors as a file, and Import design reads such a file into the form; values that cannot be used are skipped with a note. Logo, languages, airport, layout and slides never travel with a copy or a file.

Troubleshooting

A style card says some settings are left out. Those settings need a higher plan. The rest of the style applies, and the options in question keep what they had.

Choosing a style did not change the colors. The display has colors of its own, so Adopt style colours started unticked. Tick it and choose the style again.

Reset to style is greyed out. It is only available when the display remembers a style and you have changed one of its options since.

Saving fails with a note that an option needs a higher plan. A value above your plan came in through an import or a copy. Set that option back and save again.

I cannot find the "Leave hotel by" option. It needs Premium and only appears when the board shows departures.

Next steps

Look after your screens with pixel shift, safe margins and night mode.

Set up the leave-hotel-by column for your departures.

Set the colors with palettes, own colors and the brand lock.

Take a tour of the display editor to see every tab at a glance.

Set design defaults for your group if you run several properties.

Support

If something here does not match what you see, write to info@lobbyflight.com or call +43 650 753 1811. Support is available Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 CET.

Design your board: styles and fine-tuning