Magik Menu Builder
Magik Menu Builder is a free AI-powered tool that generates professional, display-ready restaurant menu board layouts from your design references and menu items. You upload inspiration images, provide your item list, describe the look you want, and the AI produces a fully designed menu board — with proper hierarchy, typography, color palette, and item layout — in a single click.
The output is a pixel-perfect menu board image rendered at 1080p or 4K resolution, in landscape or portrait orientation. You can export it as a PDF for editing in Canva, or export the background layer on its own to use as a custom background inside Menuboard Manager.
Magik Menu Builder is designed for restaurant operators, marketing teams, and Menuboard Manager users who want a professionally designed starting point without needing a graphic designer.
How to Access Magik Menu Builder
Magik Menu Builder lives at:
It is a standalone web tool — no Menuboard Manager login is required to use it. On your first generation, you will be asked to enter your name and work email to register. This is free and takes a few seconds. Your registration token is stored locally in your browser for 30 days, so you will not be prompted again on the same device.
Tip: Click the ? button in the top-right corner of the page at any time to launch the interactive guided tour, which walks through every section of the tool step by step.
Step-by-Step: Filling In Design Inputs
All inputs are contained in the Design Inputs card at the top of the page.
1. Upload a Design Reference
The Design Reference upload zone accepts one or more menus you admire — images (JPEG, PNG) or PDFs, uploaded in any combination. The AI visually analyzes each reference to extract layout patterns, color palette, typography style, and decorative elements.
Click the Design Reference zone or drag files directly onto it
Multiple files are supported — thumbnails appear in a grid as each is added
To remove a reference image, click the × button on its thumbnail
Uploading more references gives the AI more material to work from and generally produces richer results
Tip: Good reference images are menus with a clear visual identity — branded restaurant menus, well-designed PDF menus, or polished menu board screenshots. The AI synthesizes their shared patterns rather than copying any one directly.
2. Upload Your Menu Items
The Menu Items upload zone accepts your actual menu content in any of these formats:
Text files (
.txt,.csv) — item lists, price sheets, POS exports, or any structured textImages (JPEG, PNG) — a photo of your existing menu or item list
PDF — your current printed menu or a POS data export
Only one items file can be uploaded at a time. A preview of the file content appears in the upload zone after selection — for text files, the first 12 lines are shown; for images and PDFs, a thumbnail or inline preview is displayed.
Tip: A CSV or text file is the most reliable format for item data. If you use Toast POS, you can use the Toaster tool to export your menu items in a compatible format.
3. Describe Your Design
The Describe your new menu design text area is where you tell the AI what you want. Be as specific as you like:
Color palette preferences (
dark background with gold accents)Mood or cuisine style (
upscale steakhouse,casual taco shop,modern fast-casual)Typography feel (
elegant serif fonts,bold modern sans-serif)Section structure (
organize into Appetizers, Mains, and Desserts)Featured items (
highlight the Signature Burger as a hero item)
The more specific your description, the closer the result will be to your vision. The text area is fully editable — you can type freely or use the style chip suggestions below it.
4. Add Style Chips (Optional)
Below the text area, Style Suggestions chips are organized into four collapsible categories:
Layout & Structure — grid systems, white space, visual anchors, balance approaches
Font Selection — specific Google Fonts from sans-serif, serif, display, and script families
Color & Gradients — color theory rules, gradient styles, contrast approaches
Borders, Corners & Shadows — shadow types, border styles, corner treatments
Click any chip to add it as a styled pill below the text area. Selected chips are automatically appended to your prompt when you generate. Click the ✕ on a pill to remove it, or click the chip again to deselect it.
Tip: You do not need to fill in the text area at all if you use chips — the chips alone can drive the style direction. Combining a text description with a few targeted chips gives the AI the clearest brief.
5. Set Resolution and Orientation
The Resolution and Orientation toggles appear below the style chips.
Resolution:
1080p— generates at 1920×1080 px (landscape) or 1080×1920 px (portrait). Faster to generate; recommended for quick previews.4K— generates at 3840×2160 px (landscape) or 2160×3840 px (portrait). Full display-ready quality; recommended for final export.
Orientation:
Landscape— standard widescreen (16:9), suitable for wall-mounted horizontal menu boardsPortrait— vertical (9:16), suitable for portrait-mounted displays
Tip: Use 1080p while iterating to find a direction you like, then switch to 4K for your final export.
Generating the Menu
Once at least one design reference and one items file are uploaded, the Generate Menu button becomes active.
Click Generate Menu to start generation. The tool runs a two-step AI process:
Step 1 — Design Brief (~5–10 seconds): The AI analyzes your reference images and your prompt to extract a structured design brief — color palette, fonts, layout approach, category style, hero treatment, and price presentation.
Step 2 — HTML Generation (~15–30 seconds): The AI receives the design brief, your menu items, and an embedded set of professional menu design principles (including menu psychology, typography hierarchy, color rules, and digital legibility standards), then generates a complete, styled HTML menu board.
The page displays a loading indicator with a status message during each step. Total generation time is typically 20–40 seconds.
When complete, a full-resolution PNG preview of your menu board scrolls into view automatically.
Note: Generation requires an internet connection and uses Claude Opus, Anthropic's most capable AI model. If generation fails, an error message appears beneath the Generate button — most failures are temporary and resolve on a retry.
Previewing and Refining
After generation, the Menu Preview card displays a full-width image of your menu board. The resolution and orientation are shown below the preview image.
Regenerate — Click ↺ Regenerate to run a new generation with the same inputs. Each generation is unique — regenerating with identical inputs will produce a variation, not an identical result. Use this to explore different layout or color directions.
BG Only toggle — Check the BG Only checkbox to reload the preview showing only the background layer, with all text and item content hidden. This is useful for evaluating how the background design looks on its own before exporting it for use in Menuboard Manager.
To change your inputs before regenerating, scroll back up to the Design Inputs card — it remains editable while the preview is visible.
Tip: If the first result has the right mood but the wrong layout, adjust your text description to add layout direction (for example, two-column grid with a featured item box on the left) and regenerate. The design brief step makes each generation highly responsive to text direction.
Exporting
Two export options are available in the Menu Preview header.
Export for Canva
Click ↓ Export for Canva to download the full menu board as a PDF. The PDF contains the complete menu design — background, typography, item names, descriptions, and prices — at the full resolution of your generation (1080p or 4K).
Open this PDF in Canva to make text edits, swap item names, adjust prices, or layer additional branding elements. Canva's Import PDF feature preserves the layout while giving you an editable surface.
Export Background Only
Check the BG Only checkbox first, then click ↓ Export Background Only to download a PDF containing only the background layer — all text content is hidden. This background-only export is the intended workflow for Menuboard Manager users:
Export the background as a PDF from Magik Menu Builder
Upload the PDF or convert it to an image and upload it to your Menuboard Manager presentation playlist as a background slide
Use drag-and-drop or Field Sections to place live dynamic fields (POS-connected item names, prices, calories) on top of the background
Tip: Generate at 4K before exporting for use as a Menuboard Manager background. A 4K background image (3840×2160 landscape or 2160×3840 portrait) matches the native resolution of most commercial displays and will look sharp at full size. See Working with Presentations for how to set a custom background in the Presentation Editor.
The In-App Tour
On your first visit to Magik Menu Builder, an interactive guided tour launches automatically after a brief delay. The tour walks through all 10 key areas of the tool in sequence:
Welcome — what the tool does
Design Inputs card — the main workspace
Design Reference upload zone
Menu Items upload zone
Describe Your Design text area
Style Suggestions chips
Resolution and Orientation toggles
Generate Menu button
Menu Preview and Export actions
You're ready — closing summary
You can move through the tour with Next and ← Back buttons, skip directly to any time by clicking Exit tour, or restart it at any time by clicking the ? button in the top-right corner of the page.
Note: The tour completion state is stored in your browser's localStorage under the key mbBuilderTourSeen. Clearing browser storage or opening the tool in a new browser will trigger the tour again on the next visit.
Tips for Best Results
Use multiple reference images. Uploading two or three distinct references gives the AI more design signals to work from. It synthesizes their shared patterns rather than cloning any single one.
Be specific in your description. Vague prompts like
nice menuproduce generic results. Specific prompts likedark walnut background, warm amber accents, Playfair Display headings, two-column layout, casual steakhouse feelproduce far tighter results.Combine text and chips. Use the text area for overall mood and cuisine style, and chips for precise typography and color direction.
Use 1080p for iteration, 4K for export. 1080p generates faster — iterate freely, then switch to 4K once you have a direction you like.
Your item list format matters. A clearly structured text file or CSV with item names, descriptions, and prices in columns produces more accurate item placement than a photo of a handwritten list.
Regenerate freely. Each generation is a fresh creative pass. If the first result misses the mark, regenerate — variations can be significantly different.
For Menuboard Manager workflows, export the background only. Place live POS-connected fields on top in the Presentation Editor rather than baking pricing into the image. This makes future price updates instant.
Related Articles
Toaster — Toast POS Integration Guide — Export your Toast POS menu items in a format compatible with Magik Menu Builder's items upload.
Working with Presentations — Complete guide to the Presentation Editor, including how to set custom backgrounds and position dynamic fields.
Sections in Presentations — Layer dynamic POS-connected item fields on top of a Magik Menu Builder background using structured Field Sections.