Safe area and margins for digital signage design
Quick answer: DigitalSignage.com's rule for safe areas is to turn off TV overscan first (the picture size setting called Just Scan, Screen Fit, Full Pixel or 1:1), then keep text and logos inside the central 90 percent of the screen, the broadcast title-safe area, and anything else important inside 95 percent. On a 1920 x 1080 screen that is a 1728 x 972 text area with margins of 96 pixels left and right and 54 pixels top and bottom. Backgrounds still bleed to the edge. On video walls, keep text away from the seams.
Key facts
- Overscan is a TV enlarging the picture slightly so its edges fall outside the visible panel; our troubleshooting pages put the typical crop at roughly 3 percent.
- Broadcast practice for 16:9 HD (SMPTE ST 2046-1 and EBU R 95) defines action safe at 93 percent and title or graphics safe at 90 percent of the width and height.
- The 90 percent title-safe area is 1728 x 972 pixels on 1080p and 3456 x 1944 on 4K, with margins of 5 percent of the width and of the height on each side.
- The 95 percent area is 1824 x 1026 on 1080p, with 48-pixel side margins and 27-pixel top and bottom margins.
- On a 55-inch 1080p video wall, a combined bezel of 3.5 mm between two panels hides about 5.5 pixels of image.
- A portrait 1080 x 1920 screen has the same percentages rotated: a 972 x 1728 title-safe area.
Last updated October 25, 2026.
What is the safe area in digital signage?
The safe area is the central part of the screen where text, logos, prices and faces are guaranteed to be visible, regardless of overscan, bezels, mounting frames or viewing angle. Content outside it may be cut off or hidden. Backgrounds and decorative imagery should still fill the whole canvas, so the edge never shows a gap.
Television invented the idea because old CRT sets cropped the picture by different amounts. Broadcasters defined two nested rectangles: action safe, where meaningful picture content stays, and title safe, a smaller box for text and graphics. Flat panels with overscan switched off show every pixel, but the habit still pays off in signage for three reasons: many TVs ship with overscan on, frames and bezels cover the outer pixels of some displays, and text hard against the edge is harder to read.
A margin is simply the empty space between the edge of the canvas and the content. In signage design, a generous margin does more than protect content: it groups information, gives the eye a resting place and makes the screen look designed rather than crowded. Our content best practices page uses the same 90 percent safe zone.
What is TV overscan and how do you turn it off?
Overscan is the TV enlarging the incoming HDMI picture a little and cropping the overflow, a holdover from broadcast television. On a signage screen it cuts the outer edge of your layout and softens every pixel, because the image is rescaled. Turn it off in the TV's picture size or aspect setting, where the correct option has a different name per brand.
| Where | Typical name of the correct setting | Where to look | What to check after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung TVs | Screen Fit or Fit to Screen | Picture, Picture Size Settings | Thin outer lines of the layout visible |
| LG TVs | Just Scan | Picture, Aspect Ratio | Same, and no Zoom or Cinema mode |
| Sony TVs | Full Pixel or Display area: Full pixel | Picture, Screen or Wide mode | Same |
| Other TVs and commercial displays | 1:1, Dot by Dot, Native, Direct or Overscan Off | Picture or Display menu | Same; names vary by model year |
| Player side, Windows and graphics drivers | HDMI scaling or underscan set to 0 | Graphics control panel | No black border all round |
| Player side, Raspberry Pi | Exact output mode and overscan disabled | Pi display settings; see the Pi guide | No black border, no crop |
Bottom line: set the TV to Just Scan, Screen Fit, Full Pixel or 1:1 and the player to the panel's native resolution, and the full canvas reaches the glass.
The menu names in this table are typical, not guaranteed; manufacturers rename settings between model years, and some hotel and commercial modes hide them. A quick test is a scene with a 1-pixel coloured line drawn around the very edge of the canvas. If all four lines are visible, overscan is off. If some are missing, it is on, or the player is outputting a different resolution from the panel.
Overscan and underscan are mirror problems. Overscan crops the edge; underscan, often caused by a graphics driver compensating for an assumed overscan, shrinks the picture and leaves a black border. Both are fixed by matching native resolution on the player and 1:1 on the display. The full diagnosis is in content looks stretched, cropped or has black bars.
How many pixels is the title-safe area on a 1080p or 4K screen?
The title-safe area at 90 percent is 1728 x 972 pixels on a 1920 x 1080 screen and 3456 x 1944 on a 3840 x 2160 screen. Each margin is 5 percent of the width on the left and right and 5 percent of the height on the top and bottom.
| Canvas | Safe level | Safe area in pixels | Left and right margin | Top and bottom margin | Use for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 x 1080 landscape | 90 percent, title safe | 1728 x 972 | 96 px | 54 px | Text, logos, prices, QR codes |
| 1920 x 1080 landscape | 93 percent, action safe | 1786 x 1004 | 67 px | 38 px | Faces, products, key imagery |
| 1920 x 1080 landscape | 95 percent | 1824 x 1026 | 48 px | 27 px | Secondary graphics with overscan off |
| 3840 x 2160 landscape | 90 percent, title safe | 3456 x 1944 | 192 px | 108 px | Text, logos, prices, QR codes |
| 3840 x 2160 landscape | 93 percent, action safe | 3572 x 2008 | 134 px | 76 px | Faces, products, key imagery |
| 3840 x 2160 landscape | 95 percent | 3648 x 2052 | 96 px | 54 px | Secondary graphics with overscan off |
| 1080 x 1920 portrait | 90 percent, title safe | 972 x 1728 | 54 px | 96 px | Text, logos, prices, QR codes |
| 1080 x 1920 portrait | 93 percent, action safe | 1004 x 1786 | 38 px | 67 px | Faces, products, key imagery |
| 2160 x 3840 portrait | 90 percent, title safe | 1944 x 3456 | 108 px | 192 px | Text, logos, prices, QR codes |
Bottom line: on 1080p keep text 96 pixels from the sides and 54 from the top and bottom; on 4K double those numbers; on portrait swap them.
The 93 percent figures round to whole pixels: 93 percent of 1920 is 1785.6 and of 1080 is 1004.4, so the area is drawn as 1786 x 1004 with margins of 67 and 38 pixels, which add back up to exactly 1920 and 1080. Some designers prefer a single margin in pixels on all four sides, for example 54 pixels on 1080p, which is simpler to lay out and equally safe for text.
Our position is that a flat panel with overscan switched off shows everything, so the 90 percent rule is mainly a readability and robustness margin. Use it for anything a viewer must read, and use the full 100 percent for backgrounds, colour bands and full-bleed photos so the edges never look unfinished.
What margins should a portrait screen and a ticker use?
A portrait screen uses the same percentages applied to its own width and height: 54 pixels at the sides and 96 at the top and bottom on 1080 x 1920. A ticker, the scrolling text strip along the bottom of a screen, should keep its text inside the title-safe area while its background bar runs to the edge.
Portrait screens have a particular hazard at the bottom. They are often mounted low, in kiosks or on floor stands, where the lower edge is partly hidden by a frame, a counter or people standing in front. A common planning figure is to treat the bottom 10 percent of a portrait screen as low-visibility and keep the call to action and the QR code above it.
| Element | 1080p landscape position | Text area inside it | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom ticker, overscan off | Bar 0, 960; 1920 x 120 | Text about 70 px tall, centred between y 985 and 1055 | Bar bleeds to the edge; text stays 25 px off the bottom |
| Bottom ticker, overscan cannot be disabled | Bar 0, 906; 1920 x 120, ending at the 1026 title-safe line | Text inside 931 to 1001 | Raise the whole strip 54 px |
| Ticker horizontal run | Text starts and ends at x 96 and x 1824 for static text | Scrolling text may run full width | Static labels respect the 96 px side margin |
| Top header bar | Bar 0, 0; 1920 x 180 | Logo and title from y 54 | Logo inside the title-safe corner |
| Clock or weather in a corner | Box ending at x 1824, y 1026 | Digits fully inside | Corners are the first place overscan cuts |
Bottom line: let ticker and header bars bleed to the edge but keep their text inside the 1728 x 972 title-safe box, and raise the strip 54 pixels if overscan cannot be switched off.
Corners deserve special attention. A logo, a clock or a date placed tight in a corner is the first thing an overscan of a few percent cuts, and the corner of a curved or framed display is also where viewing angle hurts most. The documented L-bar and ticker layouts on screen layouts, zones and templates give zone sizes you can combine with these margins.
How do you handle bezels and seams on a video wall?
On a video wall, the seams where panels meet are the only parts of the canvas that are always hidden, so treat each seam as a no-text zone. Bezel compensation means the wall's controller or processor skips the pixels that would sit behind the bezel, so a straight line crossing a seam stays straight instead of jumping.
The width hidden by a seam depends on the combined bezel of the two neighbouring panels and the panel's pixel size. A 55-inch 1080p panel is about 47.9 inches, or 1217.7 mm, wide across 1920 pixels, so each pixel is about 0.63 mm. A combined bezel of 0.88 mm hides about 1.4 pixels, 1.8 mm about 2.8 pixels and 3.5 mm about 5.5 pixels per seam.
On a 2 x 2 wall of 1080p panels the canvas is 3840 x 2160, with seams at x 1920 and y 1080. Keep text and faces at least a planning margin of 40 to 60 pixels away from each seam line, and avoid a headline centred exactly on the vertical seam, which is the natural place a designer puts it. Our video wall design guide and video walls hardware guide cover controllers and bezel widths.
Worked example: a 55-inch TV that cannot turn off overscan
A clinic has a consumer 55-inch 1080p TV in a waiting room whose menu has no Just Scan option. The TV crops roughly 3 percent of the picture. Here is how to work out what survives and where to put content.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Visible area with 3 percent overscan | 1920 x 0.97 and 1080 x 0.97 | About 1862 x 1048 pixels visible |
| 2. Pixels cut per edge | 1920 x 0.015 and 1080 x 0.015 | About 29 px each side, 16 px top and bottom |
| 3. Title-safe margins | 5 percent of 1920 and of 1080 | 96 px sides, 54 px top and bottom |
| 4. Clearance beyond the crop | 96 - 29 and 54 - 16 | 67 px and 38 px of spare margin |
| 5. A logo placed at x 20, y 20 | 20 px is inside the 29 px left crop | Its left edge is cut; move it to x 96, y 54 |
| 6. Ticker at the bottom, 120 px bar | Original bar 960 to 1080; crop removes 1064 to 1080 | Text centred at 985 to 1055 survives but sits close to the edge |
| 7. Safer ticker | Move bar up 54 px to 906 to 1026 | Text fully inside title safe |
| 8. Physical margin on this TV | 55-inch 1080p is about 40 pixels per inch; 96 / 40 and 54 / 40 | 2.4 inches at the sides, 1.35 inches top and bottom |
Bottom line: with a 3 percent overscan, a 90 percent title-safe layout still has 67 pixels of spare margin at the sides and 38 at the top and bottom, so it survives untouched.
The same layout on a TV with overscan switched off simply shows a slightly wider border of background, which looks intentional. That is the real argument for the 90 percent rule: it works on every screen in a mixed estate, so one scene can go to every TV without per-screen adjustments.
How to do this in DigitalSignage.com
Build the scene at the screen's native resolution in SignStudio and place each text zone by typing exact X, Y, width and height values in the properties panel, using the margins in the table above. The scene presets are HD 1920 x 1080, 4K UHD 3840 x 2160, Portrait HD 1080 x 1920, Square 1080 x 1080, Ultrawide 3840 x 1080 and Custom.
- Turn off overscan on the TV and set the player output to the panel's native resolution.
- Create the scene with the matching preset, or a custom size equal to a video wall's combined resolution.
- Let the background image or colour fill the whole canvas.
- Place text and logo zones inside the title-safe box, for example x 96, y 54, width 1728, height 972 on 1080p.
- Place a ticker zone along the bottom with its text inside the safe area, or raise it 54 pixels if the TV cannot disable overscan.
- Save the layout as a template so every new scene starts with the same margins.
Our documentation does not describe safe-area guide overlays in the SignStudio scene editor, or bezel compensation inside SignStudio or SignPlayer; on video walls, bezel compensation is usually set in the wall controller or the LCD panels' own wall settings. For a definite answer ask support (support@digitalsignage.com, live chat at https://chat.digitalsignage.com/).
Frequently asked questions
Safe area and margins for digital signage design
Turn off TV overscan with the picture size setting called Just Scan, Screen Fit, Full Pixel or 1:1, then keep text and logos inside the central 90 percent of the screen. On 1920 x 1080 that is a 1728 x 972 box with margins of 96 pixels left and right and 54 pixels top and bottom. Let backgrounds bleed to the edge and keep text off video wall seams.
What is the title safe area for 1080p?
At 90 percent it is 1728 x 972 pixels, with 96-pixel margins on the left and right and 54-pixel margins on the top and bottom. The 93 percent action-safe area is 1786 x 1004, with margins of 67 and 38 pixels.
Why is my digital signage content cut off at the edges?
Almost always TV overscan, which enlarges the picture by roughly 3 percent and crops the edges. Set the TV's picture size to Just Scan, Screen Fit, Full Pixel or 1:1 and set the player to the panel's native resolution. A black border instead of a crop is underscan, usually a graphics driver setting on the player.
Do I still need a safe area if overscan is off?
Yes, as a readability margin. Text hard against the edge is harder to read, mounting frames and bezels can cover outer pixels, and a mixed estate always has some TVs with overscan on. Keep text inside 90 percent and let backgrounds fill 100 percent.
What margins should a 4K signage design use?
Double the 1080p numbers: a 3456 x 1944 title-safe area with margins of 192 pixels left and right and 108 pixels top and bottom. The 95 percent area is 3648 x 2052, with margins of 96 and 54 pixels.
Where should a ticker go on a digital sign?
Along the bottom, with the bar running to the screen edge and its text inside the title-safe area. On 1080p a 120-pixel ticker at y 960 carries text about 70 pixels tall; if the TV cannot disable overscan, raise the strip 54 pixels so it ends at y 1026.
How much image does a video wall bezel hide?
On a 55-inch 1080p panel each pixel is about 0.63 mm wide, so a combined bezel of 0.88 mm hides about 1.4 pixels, 1.8 mm about 2.8 pixels and 3.5 mm about 5.5 pixels. Keep text 40 to 60 pixels away from every seam as a planning margin.
Does overscan happen on the TV I have?
Many consumer TVs ship with overscan on for HDMI inputs, and commercial displays usually default to 1:1. Test with a scene that draws a 1-pixel line around the canvas edge: if all four lines show, overscan is off; if any are missing, change the picture size setting or the player's output resolution.
Related guides
- Content best practices for digital signage
- Video wall design
- Content looks stretched, cropped or has black bars
- Screen layouts, zones and templates in SignStudio
- Video walls for digital signage
- Portrait screens and rotation
- Typography and viewing distance
- What size should images be for digital signage?
- Digital signage aspect ratios explained
- How big should a QR code be on a digital sign?
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Maintained by MediaSignage Inc., operator of DigitalSignage.com since 2006. Product behavior on this page comes from our own SignStudio and SignPlayer documentation; where we do not document a step, this page says so instead of guessing. Last reviewed October 25, 2026.