Text & Watermark
Bakery Menu Boards: Erase Last Week's Prices Before the Morning Rush
Keep the pastry photo, clear burned-in dollar amounts and sold-out stamps, and letter today's list for the counter, Instagram, and Google.
Written by Backgroundcanvas Editorial, the team that builds these image tools. We disclose that affiliation here. Platform sizes and rules below come from the linked official docs, not from a lab bake-off.
The counter still sells last Thursday's croissant price
Staff still get asked about a $4 almond croissant that moved to $4.50 because the A3 board and the Instagram tile show last week's list. Rebuilding in Canva from a layered file is ideal. Reality is a flattened JPEG in the shared drive, exported from a designer who left, while the ovens are already on. Regulars screenshot the board. They do not open the website first. The job is to keep the pastry photo and brand art, erase burned-in prices and SOLD OUT stamps, and export a blank master you can letter again for the counter, Stories, and Google. This pass is text removal, not a full redesign and not a background swap of the whole cafe.
Brush the prices; leave the pastry
Upload the existing board. Brush only the typed list — item names that changed, dollar amounts, "WEEKEND ONLY," a seasonal tart that is gone — and let reconstruction fill the croissant photo or kraft paper behind the type. Do not brush the logo lockup or the hero pastry you intend to keep. If a soft sponsor badge is logo-shaped rather than lettering, leave it or send that one mark to watermark removal; this article stays on menu text. Zoom to 100% on the former prices. You want the paper grain to match, not a blurred rectangle where $3.50 used to sit. Watch for stacked type: a late SOLD OUT stamp over an older price often leaves a double ghost if you only paint the top line. Paint the whole stack.
Before
After
Print math versus the 6000 px cap
Counter prints often target 300 dpi. A3 is 297×420 mm, about 3508×4961 pixels at 300 dpi — under the 6000 px long-edge upload cap. Export the cleaned master at the maximum the tool allows if you have it (up to 6000 px, 10MB, JPG/PNG/WebP/AVIF). A 1200 px web JPEG cannot become a sharp counter print no matter how many times you run the model. Social needs square and 4:5 crops; export at least 2000 px on the long edge so type you add later stays sharp. A 2400 px JPEG under 4MB typically returns in under 60 seconds. Google Business tiles are smaller: downscale from the same master so the counter and the map pin do not show two different tarts.
Lettering the blank master
Once the list is gone, put today's prices in your layout tool, not back in the photo editor. Match the bakery's type: if the old board was a condensed sans at a fixed column width, match that, and leave the same margins so the logo still sits on the kraft. Export three sizes from one layout: A3 PDF for print, 1080×1350 for Instagram, 1080×1080 for the story cover. If a pastry name is also a photo credit in the corner, decide whether that credit stays.
When reconstruction is the wrong tool
Skip text removal when prices cover most of the croissant or sit over heavy JPEG blocking — those frames need a layered source, not another auto pass. Skip it when the "board" is a photo of a TV menu with moire; reshoot the screen or export from the player. Only edit artwork the bakery owns. Clearing outdated prices is normal ops. Lifting another cafe's branded board is not. Keep a dated folder of blank masters without type so every price change is lettering only.
When the morning rush starts and the counter still shows last week's tart, clear the list, export the master, and hang a board that matches what is actually in the case.