How to Create Restaurant Menus Online
One of the keys to keeping your restaurant in business is having an attractive, easy-to-understand menu. (The quality of the food is also a big factor, of course.) In addition to listing the dishes to choose from, a menu should also contribute to the overall attitude you've created for your eatery. Whether you're running a funky tapas place or a family-friendly comfort food restaurant, you can create a menu that will push sales and increase customer loyalty. Putting the menu online makes it easier for customers to find out more about your restaurant from the comfort of their own homes.
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Instructions
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Get a graphic design program that will allow you to represent your menu digitally. Adobe Photoshop is a great program, but it's also a bit expensive, particularly if you're only making one menu. A free alternative is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The controls for these programs are fairly intuitive, but there are lots of online tutorials to help you figure out the finer points.
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Sketch out a design for your menu, keeping in mind the style of your restaurant. Organize the dishes together logically (sandwiches with sandwiches, salads with salads). Choose colors and border designs that create the image you want to present. Use an online thesaurus and other resources to find more descriptive words for your ingredients. Instead of mentioning the "fresh field greens" in each dish, you can call them "crisp" or "locally grown."
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Collect photos and clip art to include in your menu. You can use a digital camera to take pictures of the actual dishes you serve. Additionally, there are plenty of places to find free clip art online. Edit the photos and graphics with your design program or use a service that allows you to edit in a Web browser. Sites such as Picnik allow you to crop and fine-tune photos "right in your browser." Change the contrast, and enhance the color sliders to make your images look their most appetizing.
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Plug your dish information and images into a blank image document or use an online template such as the ones at Must Have Menus. Once you have input the information, you can rearrange it however you like.
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Experiment with different ways of putting your menu together in the image document or online template. Decide, for example, if it is more logical to put your pork dishes before your vegetarian options or vice versa. Rotate the photos in the menu thirty degrees and see if that makes your menu look a little more fun.
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