Pub specials board

Pub specials board

This specials board prints on one A3 portrait sheet as a chalkboard: Today's specials in cream classic lettering, then 8 dishes in one column under three pale yellow headings, Starters, Mains and Puddings. Each dish has a dotted line to its price, from soup of the day at £6.50 to Sunday roast beef at £17.50, with a description underneath.

Last reviewed 3 October 2026

About this version

A specials board sits by the bar or the door and changes every few days, so it has to be quick to update and easy to read from a table across the room. This preset prints on one A3 portrait sheet, 29.7 by 42 cm, in the chalkboard style: a dark charcoal panel with a thin cream frame, Today's specials in large cream classic lettering, and a subtitle with serving times and a note to ask at the bar about allergens. Eight dishes follow in one wide column under three pale yellow headings. Starters has soup of the day £6.50 and garlic mushrooms £7.25. Mains has steak and ale pie £15.95, beer-battered fish and chips £15.50, Sunday roast beef £17.50 and butternut squash risotto £13.95. Puddings has sticky toffee pudding £6.95 and apple crumble £6.50. Each dish is in bold cream type with a dotted leader across to its price and a short description beneath in softer cream. With only eight dishes on A3, the item names print at about 29 pt, readable from across a bar.

Type today's specials over the sample. Keep descriptions to a few words, as the tool sizes the text to fill the board and longer lines make it smaller. If you add a lot of dishes, switch to two columns, which stays readable; and choose A4 for a copy on each table. A classic face and a pale yellow heading look like a pub chalkboard; rounded lettering suits a café bar.

A specials board sells best with five to eight dishes, each with one or two things that make it special, such as local beef or homemade pastry. Put the price at the end of the line, never in the middle, and keep the format the same. Mark vegetarian dishes in the description, and make sure staff can answer allergen questions for every dish on the board.

The chalkboard uses a lot of dark ink, and A3 needs a print shop or an A3 printer. Laminate the board, or print it on matt photo paper and put it in a cheap A3 clip frame by the bar, so tomorrow's specials slide straight in.