Skip to content
Keep a screen looking right

Docs contents

Put it on a screen

Keep a screen looking right

Calibrate each screen for the room it is in, set quiet hours, check its health and keep wall displays on current software.

You’ll have

Text sized for where you read the screen from, nothing cut off at the edges, a screen that dims at night, and a health check that says what is wrong when it isn’t.

You’ll need

Follow these steps in your own Denframe. This website never connects to your household, your accounts or your devices, and never asks for your credentials.

  1. Open Calibrate the room

    In Studio, open Screens & rotation, then Calibrate the room, and choose the screen in the Screen picker.

    Stand where you normally look at the screen: you will tune it until the time, date and main reading are comfortable from there. Dashboard preview chooses which dashboard the preview beside the controls shows.

  2. Tell Denframe how big the screen is

    The page shows the screen’s size and where it came from, or that it is not calibrated yet. Give it the size the best way you can:

    • A wall panel: choose its Display size preset.
    • A Cast TV: choose its Screen diagonal.
    • A paired display: measure it with a bank card. Choose Cast test pattern at the bottom of the page, hold a card against the glass and size the outline to it under Bank card (on a touch panel, pinch the outline on the screen; otherwise move the slider and choose Update outline on screen). Then Confirm card size.

    A card measurement beats every other source. Reset card calibration forgets it, and re-pairing a panel starts it uncalibrated.

  3. Set the reading size and overscan

    Under Read it from, choose Arm's length, Across the counter or Across the room. Each card says what that distance asks of this screen; choosing one clears any fine-tune. The distances need the screen’s size from the step before.

    Under Numerals, keep The dashboard's own or choose Legibility face, a face where 0 and O, 1 and l, and 6 and 8 cannot be mistaken. Numbers only: words keep the look’s face.

    Move the overscan slider until nothing is cut off at the edges: televisions may crop their edges, while Nest Hubs and panels normally use 0 % (Set to 0%). The fine-tune slider adjusts the text, and Advanced reading settings sets a minimum reading size below which Auto layouts hide lower-priority blocks.

    Choose Save profile.

    Text stops at a 192 px ceiling. If a distance asks for more, the page says how far short the screen falls rather than claiming the target is met.

  4. Set brightness and quiet hours

    Brightness is Automatic, Day or Night. To quiet the screen overnight, tick Use an overnight screen window and choose its Window behavior:

    • Quiet · pause motion
    • Dim · lower light and pause
    • Blackout · hide the screen

    Set Starts, Ends, the Time zone and the days under Active on, then Save profile.

    The same page also turns on Allow on-screen touch controls (requires a touch-capable screen), Ask before marking things done on this screen and Kid mode: bigger pictures, a clock face beside times, names in words, and learning-pack sound. With the test pattern on the screen, Pause motion and Resume motion stop and start its animation.

  5. Check the screen’s health

    In Screens & rotation, open Keep the screen dependable, choose the screen and Run checks. Each check says its status and, when something is wrong, the action to take.

    A wall panel also reports its app and WebView versions, free memory, thermal state and brightness. When Denframe is recovering a screen, a line says so; Details shows the Recovery state, the Retry budget and the Last receiver acknowledgement.

  6. Keep wall displays up to date

    In Screens & rotation, open Keep displays up to date. Check available releases lists the signed releases the host already has. Add one with Import a release (the .zip bundle from Denframe) or Fetch a release by its version, from the release source the host is set up with.

    Under Roll out, choose the Display release and Update displays (All paired displays or one), then Roll out to all displays (or Roll out to selected display) and confirm with Roll out update. Displays download and check the release, then restart into it; they check for updates when they connect and every six hours.

    The host needs its trusted signing certificate and APK verification tools before it can import releases.

  7. Check it worked

    From your usual spot, the time and main readings are comfortable to read and nothing is cut off. The page shows the screen’s size and its source (such as measured with a card), Run checks reports the screen as normal, and in quiet hours the screen dims or blacks out as you chose.

If it doesn’t work

Cast test pattern is greyed out

The interactive test pattern needs a paired display. A Cast screen can’t show it today, unless you run your own registered Cast receiver (advanced); give a Cast TV its Screen diagonal instead.

Confirm card size is greyed out

Cast the test pattern first, so the outline you match is the one on the screen. The screen must have reported its viewport, and it must be a paired display.

The distances don’t change the text

They need the screen’s size: pick a preset or diagonal, or measure it with a card.

Text stays smaller than the distance asks

Text stops at 192 px; the page says how far short it falls. Move closer, or use a bigger screen for reading across the room.

Health checks say to choose a screen

Choose an online screen in the Screen picker; an offline screen can’t be checked.

Releases can’t be imported

The host needs its trusted signing certificate and APK verification tools configured first.

Something else

Use Support, with a diagnostics report if it helps.

Related guides