About
The Library holds every file you use on your screens: images, videos, GIFs, fonts, music, documents and more. Upload from your computer, add a file from a web address or your local network, or connect Google Drive. Folders keep it tidy, and you can see which playlists use a file.
Get Started
Everything here is in the Library. We call the files in it assets.
Add files
Upload files from your computer
- Click + Upload assets
- Choose the files and click Open
Or drag the files from your computer into the Library. You can upload many at once, and you can leave the page while they upload.
Add a file from a web address or your local network
- Click From URL
- Choose Public file on the internet or Private file on local network
- Paste the link to the file
- Click Add
A private file is never stored in the Library: your player downloads it from your local network. Read more about Private Files.
Connect Google Drive
- Click Add Google Drive
- Choose your Google account
- Click Allow
Your Drive files are then in the Library, without downloading and uploading them. Read more about Google Drive and Google Drive Content.
Manage files
Replace a file everywhere it's used
- Click the file
- Click Replace Asset
- Choose the playlists where it should be replaced
- Choose Scale to fit or Scale to fill
- Click Select new asset, pick the new file and click Open
Every slide in those playlists gets the new file, so you don’t have to change them one by one. A new file with the same shape gives the best result.
See where a file is used
- Click the file
- At the top left, open Asset is used in (…) Playlist(s)
It only shows when the file is used in at least one playlist.
Rename a file
- Click Change to Tree view (next to the filter)
- Right-click the file and click Rename
- Type the new name and press Enter
Download a file
- Click the file
- Click Download
Remove files
- Click the file and click Remove
To remove several: hover over each file, select it, and click Delete Selected.
Folders
Create a folder
- Click New folder
- Type a name and click Create
Move files to a folder
- Hover over each file and select it
- Click Cut selected
- Open the folder and click Paste items
Rename a folder
- Click Change to Tree view (next to the filter)
- Right-click the folder and click Rename
- Type the new name and press Enter
Remove a folder
- Hover over the folder and select it
- Click Delete selected, then Remove
The files in the folder are removed too.
Options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| + Upload assets | Upload files from your computer |
| From URL | Add a public file from the internet, or a private file on your local network |
| Add Google Drive | Show the files in your Google Drive in the Library |
| New folder | Create a folder |
| Change to Tree view | Show files and folders as a tree, where you can rename them |
| Filter | Find files by name |
| Cut selected and Paste items | Move the selected files to another folder |
| Delete selected | Remove the selected files or folders |
| Downscale high-resolution content to 4K | In Profile → Default Values: makes files bigger than 4K smaller when you upload them. On by default |
FAQ
Files and limits
Which files can I upload?
Images
- .png (Portable Network Graphics) – Recommended file format for computer-generated graphics, supports transparency.
- .jpg .jpeg .jfif (Joint Photographic Experts Group) – Recommended file format for photos.
- .gif (Graphics Interchange Format) – Animated GIFs are supported! If you don’t use animation, we recommend using .png or .jpg files instead, as .gif files can only have up to 256 colors, so their quality is not as good.
- .webp (WebP) – An image format developed by Google to supersede PNG and animated GIF files with better compression. Most browsers have supported WebP files for several years, with Safari finally adding support in version 14 in Big Sur.
- .avif (AV1 Image File) – A newer image format based on the open-source AV1 video format. .avif files are converted to .webp.
- .heic .heif (High-Efficiency Image File Format) – Since iOS 11, Apple uses .heic as the default format for photos. We automatically convert .heic and .heif files to .webp.
- .tif .tiff (Tag Image File Format) – Files are automatically converted to .jpg.
- .svg (Scalable Vector Graphics) – Recommended file format for vector graphics as they don’t lose quality when enlarged. JavaScript and CSS keyframe animations inside SVG files are not supported.
- .eps (Encapsulated PostScript) – files are automatically converted to .png, and transparency is maintained.
- .ai (Adobe Illustrator) – Modern Illustrator files are automatically converted to .png files.
Video
- .mp4 .m4v – Recommended file format (H.264 or H.265 encoding recommended). If the video bit rate is more than 8 Mbit/s, the video is automatically converted to a lower bit rate. A video with a bit rate of 8 Mbit has 1 Megabyte (1 byte = 8 bits) per second of video, so a 10-second clip is 10 megabytes, and so on. Your videos should take up less than 1 megabyte per second. NB! 4K videos are not converted to a lower bit rate.
- .3g2 .3gp .3gpp .avi .dv .flv .m2ts .m4v .mkv .mov .mp4 .mpeg .mpg .mts .mxf .ogg .swf .vob .webm .wmv – Files are automatically converted to .mp4 videos.
Presentation (PowerPoint, Keynote, LibreOffice Impress)
- .ppt .pptx .key .odp – Each slide in the presentation is converted to a .png image at 1920 x 1080 resolution (1080 x 1920 for portrait presentations). Unfortunately, animation effects are lost, because our software is not a PowerPoint player and can’t support the proprietary features of these tools. If you design the slides in our editor, you can animate elements as well.
- Presentations from Google Slides can be embedded with our Website plugin – see the Google Slides guide.
- Presentations hosted in a storage solution (Google Drive, Dropbox, HTTP server) can be embedded with our Website plugin using web-based file viewers – see the Office documents guide.
Fonts
- .woff / .woff2 (Web Open Font Format) – Recommended file format for fonts.
- .ttf (True Type Font)
- .otf (Open Type Font)
Audio
- .mp3 – Recommended file format for audio.
- .ogg
- .m4a
- .wav (Waveform Audio File Format)
- .flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
Portable Document Format (PDF)
- .pdf – Each page in the file is converted to a .png image at 1080 x 1920 resolution (1920 x 1080 for landscape documents). You can also use the Website plugin to display the PDF directly from a web URL.
Documents (Word, Pages, LibreOffice Writer)
- .doc .docx .pages .odt – Each page in the file is converted to a .png image at 1080 x 1920 resolution (1920 x 1080 for landscape documents).
- Documents from Google Docs can be embedded with the Website plugin – see the Google Docs guide.
- Documents hosted in a storage solution (Google Drive, Dropbox, HTTP server) can be embedded with our Website plugin using web-based file viewers – see the Office documents guide.
Spreadsheets (Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice Calc)
- .xls .xlsx .numbers .ods – Each page in the file is converted to a .png image with a transparent background.
- You can show spreadsheets from Google Sheets with the Website plugin – see the Google Sheets guide.
- Spreadsheets hosted in a storage solution (Google Drive, Dropbox, HTTP server) can be embedded with our Website plugin using web-based file viewers – see the Office documents guide.
Archives (Zip files)
- .zip – All supported files from the zip archive are converted into assets. The folder structure inside the zip archive is not preserved; all files are extracted to the same directory (flat) where the zip is uploaded.
How big can a file be?
Up to 3 GB per file. PDF files, presentations and documents can have up to 50 pages; split bigger ones before uploading. A file added from a URL can be up to 200 MB.
What is the storage limit?
We don’t limit how many files you store, but we expect fair use and watch for abuse.
Can I leave the Library while files are uploading?
Yes. The files are uploaded in the background.
What is Downscale high-resolution content to 4K?
A setting that keeps your files at 4K or smaller. If all your screens are HD or 4K, keep it on. If you have screens with more than 4K, for example a video wall, turn it off in Profile → Default Values so you keep the original files.
Can I replace a file on one slide only?
Yes, in the playlist: click the file on the slide, then click Replace Asset. Learn more in Images.
How do I split a PDF file?
Print a range of pages as a new PDF. For example, open the PDF in Chrome, press Ctrl/Cmd + P, choose Save as PDF and pages 1–50. Then do the same with pages 51–100, and so on.
Why was a file in my zip archive skipped?
We convert every supported file in a .zip archive, with two exceptions:
- Apple office files (.key, .numbers, .pages). Unpack the archive and upload these one by one
- Office files (.ppt, .pptx, .odp, .doc, .docx, .odt, .xls, .xlsx, .ods) bigger than 100 MB, because many large office files in one archive take too long to convert. Upload them one by one
Files from a URL
What happens when I add a file from a URL?
Our server downloads the file and keeps a copy in your Library, so you can still use it if the original disappears. The maximum is 200 MB; download bigger files to your computer and upload them instead.
Why is CORS needed?
The editor runs on my.playsignage.com and draws slides with the HTML5 canvas. Browsers only allow images from another domain in a canvas when the server sends Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers with them.
