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Content creation. Unless you’re a graphic designer, it can be a phrase that’s said with dread. Yet an increasing amount of marketers, CEOs and customer service representatives are faced with creating content for online and offline channels. If you’re asked to create content for your digital screens, this can pose even more of a problem. What size should it be, what format? Where do I get images from, how can I get it up onto the screen when I’m done?

Creating content for digital screen displays is just as easy as creating for the web or social media. With the seven free tools below, ScreenCloud and a TV screen, you can be powered up in minutes. Here’s our pick of the bunch and how to use them to create the optimal digital signage display:

Canvais the Netflix of slidedeck creation tools. Forget InDesign, Powerpoint or anything else masquerading as a content creation tool. Canva is slick, intuitive and comes with a host of designs, templates and cool tools that allow you to get going on impressive presentation decks, brochures and social media content. As well as brochures, PDFs and showreels. Here are a few reasons why it’s ideal for creating digital screen content:Thousands of images.Canva comes stocked with illustrations, vectors and stock photographs that are available for your perusal. Each stock image costs $1 which is super cheap and there’s also a selection of free images to choose from. No external sourcing saves time finding the right images to illuminate your displays and allows you to work within one window. Using stock images means you won’t lack the resolution needed to make your images look great on a digital screen. You can also upload your own, making it easy to drop in logos, headers and the assets that suit your brand.

Intuitive. By clicking on an element (photo, illustration, text, chart) you get a series of options to change colours, typefaces, sizes and so on. Every aspect is self-explanatory so there’s no learning curve needed to get you up and running.

PicMonkey is a popular online photo editor used by bloggers, marketers and anyone looking to create fast, good-looking images. The best thing about PicMonkey is that it lets you do image editing and design without downloading any type of software. Here are a few of its most endearing features:Photo touch up. This allows you to manipulate photos in any way, shape or form; crop images, change the exposure, straighten (I’m always using this one), manipulate the colour, sharpen and add canvas colors. This includes adding frames, overlays and textures and so many filters and filtering options it makes Instagram look like a novice.

Options. What we love most about PicMonkey is the sheer amount of editing options. Unless you need very advanced photo editing tools, PicMonkey’s options will suffice and the premium ‘Royale’ account, which opens you up to even more options, is only $33 per year. The only thing I would mention is that the options available for creating text aren’t as advanced as they could be. The fonts are limited and it can be difficult to fit your copy to your brand guidelines without the premium account or creating text as an image elsewhere first.

It’s likely you’ll already have branded fonts to use within displays, but digital signage can sometimes call for a new variation. Text used on screen often needs to be bigger, more widely spaced or within a different formation for it to work.

Font Squirrel. If you need a free font for commercial use, such as creating great content for your digital screen display, then Font Squirrel is the place to head to. The website is super simple to use and has a variety of fonts to choose from.

Infographics are great ways to display information that could otherwise be fairly droll. Save hours of design time by using Hubspot’s 15 free infographic template downloads. Not only are they beautifully designed but they also come with a handy guide on choosing colour schemes, selecting a style and the best practice for using an infographic template. The files are downloadable in either PowerPoint or InDesign, so you can begin editing in either programme instantly, then save as an image to finish up and voila! You have a lovely looking infographic ready for your screen display. Just be aware that these templates come in portrait mode, so you may want to play around with the dimensions or flip them on their side if you’re working with a screen in landscape.

A couple of our favorite image and video stock sites include:Death to the stock photo. These guys are kind enough to send you a new pack of stock photos each month which can be used commercially however you desire. Launched by a bunch of creatives looking to promote the use of less boring stock images and illustrations, the image packs range from countryside, to office and even food. For access to more images, users can sign up for a premium package, at $10 a month. The agency also crowdfunds trips to locations, with any users who make a pledge receiving hundreds of images taken from the location - ensuring that your photos may never need be boring again.

Placeit is a great tool if you’re looking to add your own branding to a stock image or something that’s been taken by a member of the team. Unless you’re a designer, led by designer tools, manually customising an image to blend with an image you’ve already had, or have sourced from a stock site, can be difficult. Placeit allows you to upload your images and screenshots into a stock photo template. For example, allowing you to add a screenshot of your CRM to a stock photo of a PC or allowing you to add a dashboard or shot of your video player onto a screen that’s mounted on a wall. The images available span from mobiles and tablets, through to laptops and desktops, in a variety of situations and settings so there really is something for everyone.

As we mentioned in this post, choosing an appropriate color scheme for your digital sign display can be difficult. Different rules apply to digital screens, than print or even most online content. This can make it hard to create a color scheme that’s eye catching but not garish, on-brand but still easy on the eye. That’s where Design Seeds comes in. Design Seeds is a website that provides hundreds of variations of color palettes which work well together. The format of the site shows the color scheme with a photograph and six color strips to match, allowing you to see what might work for your own website, images or screen content. The images are personally curated by the owner and can be anything from an image of a bird, to a street or aeroplane. Once you’ve selected a color palette, you can gain access to each color’s HEX code by hovering over the color strip. If you need further inspiration, check out their Pinterest board - it turns everyday items into color palettes in a beautiful way.

So there you have it. Seven great, easy-to-use tools that turn marketers into designers and standard digital screen content into excellent digital screen content. Once you’ve had a play, use our free trial of ScreenCloud to get your fresh new content up onto your screens

At the heart of every great digital signage display is this: content. Make it look good and people will stop to look at it. Make it look bad or outdated, and chances are they won’t be looking at your screen again.

The most obvious is social media. If you invest your efforts in social media, why not use this to bring your digital screens to life too? You can also utilize user-generated content.

Walls.io offers a unique feature to showcase sponsored ads from brands you partner with. This feature is called Sponsored Posts, and they are special posts on your social wall that aren’t filled with regular social content from your sources. Instead, you can upload specific images (or videos or just text) that you want to display there and have it show up on your wall in regular intervals.

If you need to create a quick notice, perhaps detailing a room change or a meeting time, there are a wealth of apps to make that happen. Like Noticeboard - an app that can be found in the ScreenCloud App Store. It allows you to create a quick and easy display in seconds, and also allows for real-time edits.

This type of content works well as ‘filler’ content in between video, ads and social media displays to stop your viewers from getting digital-overload.

Food is such a big part of our lives, it’s natural that we’re drawn to images, descriptions and menu boards showing it. Enter the digital menu board digital signage display.

This is one of the most important content displays you’ll create if you work in a restaurant, fast food chain or bar. It also works in an office cafeteria, an event setup or even as a fun noticeboard where you can swap menu items out for things you’re working on or fun descriptions of your team members. If you’re a franchise, this works especially well as you can change the price of an item across all screens and locations from one ScreenCloud login.

Data-driven companies are more likely to succeed – because they can easily see the areas that need attention. But most of the time this business-critical data is siloed and not seen by the teams that can make an immediate impact. Historically this data hasn’t been shown on screens due to security fears, which is why ScreenCloud developed Dashboards.

We love Slack at ScreenCloud. Like many startups, it’s how we do about 90% of our communication. So when a room’s really crucial to what we do, like our #praise room, we share it on our digital signage screens. This is made really easy with the Slack app.

How much time do you think your reception staff spend directing people to the right floor or meeting room? We love using the building directory app to share details of where everything is through our digital signage screens. The best part? If a room changes, you can update the screen easily unlike your static signs. Here are some non-obvious benefits of wayfinding in retail.

Imagine having a method of internal communication that allowed you to broadcast to your entire company, at the click of a button… That’s exactly what ScreenCloud Broadcast can do for you. This makes it easy to share company broadcasts that go out to all screens simultaneously with news, praise or health and safety announcements. Broadcast can securely live-stream meetings or announcements to screens in your office, and also onto the mobiles or desktop screens of remote or deskless workers, making sure everyone gets the news.

Everyone likes to see where they are in a leaderboard, whether that’s in sales or counting reps in the gym. Use your digital screens to show off this leaderboard and add an additional layer to your customer/employee experience. You can create it easily using Google Slides, or for something more automated, check out a tool like Bonusly, as shown below.

In the same way you might use your digital signage to share leaderboards, you could also entice employees or customers in with competitions. Promoting giveaways or asking them to submit something (like an Instagram image) for the chance to win, is a great use of your digital screens. Create a poster using Canvas and add a QR code to link through to a competition landing page.

Screens are great for all of the good stuff we like to put out into the world, but they’re also a good vehicle when you need to make an emergency notice that needs to reach a lot of people. For (planned) fire drills, you can schedule the alert to pop up on your screens, otherwise, have a template at the ready to push live should you need to display it in the moment.

Ever had a bad meeting room experience? Someone waiting awkwardly outside? Knocking before you’re finished to ask ‘how long’? Same. It’s why using small screens, iPads or tablets you have laying around is an awesome use of digital signage. We wrote more about how to set this up here.

If you work in an art gallery or somewhere you want to show off work, then digital signage is a great way to showcase photos, videos or actual designs of something special you’ve been working on.

You might not think that photos count as sensitive information, compared to a bank account statement or your Social Security number. But it can be devastating to find photos of loved ones used for nefarious or unsavory purposes.

This is why we prefer frames from reputable companies like Aura and Nixplay over cheaper ones with less clearly defined privacy and security practices. Nixplay offers reasonable security measures, like encrypting your photos during transmission, and Aura offers the option to delete metadata, like the location where a photo was captured. However, both say they may disclose personal information if court-ordered or subpoenaed, and neither provides safety guarantees against hacking.

Some digital frames can connect to voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. By doing so, you give these companies more access to search through your entire photo album. For example, you can connect an Aura frame to Google Assistant and ask it to find a photo from a specific event; the Aura app will search your camera roll for what you’ve specified.

If you"re concerned about security, you can avoid connecting to third-party services, but your most secure option is to just download several photos on a tablet and disable all internet connectivity.

String lights make everything a little better. So try using them to display the people and places that add a little light to your life. If you get a little creative with how you string them up, you"ll have multiple ways to display photos from just this one idea. (Pro tip: If you want diagonal prints like the example, rotate your images 45 degrees on your phone editor before printing.)

You don’t need a frame to hang it on the wall in an elevated way. A print hanger gives you all the sophistication of a frame plus unique minimalist appeal that can make the space. Just pick a large photo print that you love and slip it into the hanger.

Add a bit of string and tape to turn that fallen branch you found on your hike into unique decor. It’s the perfect way to bring in a natural element amongst your other photo display ideas. (Note: You can also use a hole puncher to string through holes in your prints... your call!)

Need new ways to display photos on a table or desk? Easel does it. A small easel can be the perfect alternative to a tabletop frame and makes it simple to swap photos. Just place a stack of your favorite prints on the ledge and change the feature print periodically.

Have a lot of prints to display? The more photos, the better the grid! We recommend using a ruler to space out your prints to keep your grid clean and consistent. Not to say you can’t also experiment with angles and spacing a bit to produce a more creative photo display. Just make sure you use poster tape so that you don’t damage your wall or prints.

Fencing makes the perfect blank canvas for a unique photo display. Plus, with a little bit of spray paint, you can customize to create an upscale look. A little gold goes a long way! (Pro tip: We used simple fencing from the hardware store to create the display in the photo.)

A Wooden Photo Ledge is a sturdy solution for unique photo display, and still simple to secure to a wall. Don"t want to hang it up? Placing it on the mantle works just as well. Either way, mixing and matching different print sizes can keep things from becoming too uniform. (Hint: Use multiple ledges like the photo above to make the most of your wall.)

Don’t throw out that old wooden ladder sitting in the garage — it’s your ticket to a multi-tier photo display. Tying a string across each rung will give you a line to hang photos. Or, you can choose to punch holes in your prints and tie each photo to the rung. For a little variation, alternate between photos and other items on different rungs.

Have a small space on a mantel or shelf that’s perfect for a print? Use a photo block stand to make it happen with minimal effort. It’s subtle, sleek, lets you easily switch out photos, and gives more stability than standing prints up against other items. Plus, you can put it just about anywhere. (Bonus: Ours is made from reclaimed Colorado black walnut.)

Change things up a bit with a welcome twist on the classic tabletop frame. This display box lets you stand your photos up on any surface and store additional prints for easy rotation. Keep a stack of your favorite prints inside the back slot and swap the feature photo out as often as you’d like. (Pro tip: It also makes the perfect bookend.)

Take a page out of the old-school dark room with a clothespin display. Your line can go above a door frame, run between hooks, under a mantel — let your imagination run wild.

These creative ways to display photos without frames are just a start. We"d love to see how you use any of them in your space. Don"t forget to tag us on instagram (@artifactuprising) with your own spin.

Put your best memories on display with the best digital photo frame. Using an LED display, digital photo frames showcase digital versions of your snaps in a slideshow format, so not only are you displaying several photos in one frame, but you"re also saving money on prints. Plus, you can change the images on the display as often as you"d like.

Sharp, chic and easy to use, the leading models put your personal snaps front and centre. And, they"re a terrific (and economical) way to show off your family photos, vacation pics, and photography masterpieces.

What’s the best digital photo frame for most people? We highly recommend the Aura Mason Luxe, which boasts a neat look, slick interface, and detailed display. Alternatively, if you want an option which also supports for video calls, Facebook’s Portal is worth considering. But, if you’re looking for a great value alternative on a tight budget, the 8-inch Nixplay Nix ticks a lot of boxes for not a lot of money.

Whether you want a simple panel or a smart display, we have comprehensively tested the best options then gathered all the best ones here, covering models across a range of price brackets. We’ve also included some useful buying tips to keep in mind when deciding which frame is the best fit for your home.

From affordable frames to premium screens, here are the best digital photo frames available and ranked in the list below. Once you’ve found your favorite frame, you’ll find links beneath each entry that take you straight to the best deals available right now. Need some more in-depth advice? Also check out our guide on how to buy a digital photo frame.

The Aura Mason Luxe is a clear cut above most other photo frames. It’s stylish, has greater character to its design and, most important of all, the screen is excellent in most respects.

Its 4:3 aspect display is perfect for not just adding some color to your room with your photos, but to actually get an up-close look at them. Pixel density is so high they look sharp and detailed even when you get your face right up to the screen. We found that color is natural-looking and well-saturated too, so you can be sure you’re seeing a fair representation of the photos you fling its way.

Nixplay’s 2K Smart Digital Photo Frame features one of the sharpest screens on the market. With a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, the display offers detail for days – and it’s vibrant, too, with impressively deep blacks and more than enough brightness to beat the screen’s reflective coating.

At 9.7 inches, the display also strikes an excellent middle ground: with a flexible stand setup that can support the frame in portrait or landscape orientation, the Smart Digital Photo Frame will fit on almost any shelf, while also giving images enough real estate to really be seen and enjoyed. Handily, it can also be wall-mounted.

One of our favourite things about this frame is that loading up photos via the partner app is a straightforward process. Create, populate and organise multiple playlists using photos from your smartphone, or sync with Google Photos to display AI-generated smart albums. You can also connect with friends to easily receive snaps and assign them to your frame.

Classier than most competitors, the Aura Carver stands out with an embossed border and angular, free-standing design. Its 10.1-inch display isn’t as sharp as the slightly pricier Carver Luxe, but we found its 1280x800 panel fine in testing, with pleasant colors and good viewing angles. It helps that the screen can adjust automatically to ambient conditions and go impressively bright, helped by a semi-matte finish.

We think Aura frames have the slickest software out there, and the Carver is no exception. It doesn’t have a touchscreen, but the subtle touch panel on top makes it easy to flick between photos. Other settings are found in the similarly streamlined smartphone app, although customisation options are limited. Friends and family can contribute to your slideshow, but there’s no support for albums.

A cheap and cheerful photo frame, the Aeezo Portrait 01 is more flexible than its price tag suggests. Its no-frills, plastic build won’t win any design awards, but it’s neat enough, even if the simple stand has limited stability.

We were largely happy with its photo reproduction in our review. Color depth isn’t exceptional, but the 10-inch display strikes a good balance when it comes to detail: hard edges aren’t too soft or too sharp. It is less bright than other frames in the same price bracket, though.

The Netgear Meural isn’t quite like other digital photo frame. By the standards of this category, it’s a pretty high-end buy, but it"s actually the entry-level model in Netgear’s series of art displays. They scale all the way up to a 21.5 inches.

This is a 15.6-inch photo frame you can orient in portrait or landscape. It’s a large canvas for your photos, and the Meural app offers access to a huge library of paintings and other art works. They can inject some culture into your home. You have to pay for a subscription to get full access, but a good few handfuls are available without one.

With a generous border and glass facade, the Skylight Frame is one of the more attractive photo frames we’ve tested. It’s larger than most 10-inch models, but its white surround and classy design give it real presence on a shelf. In use, its responsive touchscreen feels quite a lot like a tablet: you can pinch to zoom and swipe to switch photos. It’s not sophisticated, but it works smoothly and makes it easy to find specific images.

We don’t think the Skylight Frame does a perfect job of representing images. Its compression software can add visible artifacts, soften images and make certain hues look unnatural. That said, its 1280x800 pixel LCD holds up well against similarly priced rivals, even if its 255-nit brightness is a long way below the Aura Carver.

Facebook is phasing out its Portal devices for consumers, but right now that makes this 10-inch display excellent value at its new low price. Meta will continue to provide support for existing customers and its core functionality will continue unaffected.

While it"s primarily device for calling friends and family, Meta"s social screen does a side-gig as a slick digital photo frame. Styled like a floating box frame with neat lines and a quality finish, it’s an attractive fit for contemporary shelves – provided there’s space for the supporting leg. The stand can prop the Portal in portrait or landscape, but it sticks out by 12cm – and the power cable exits from its end, so it can’t sit flush against your wall.

Up front, the 10-inch display is vibrant and responsive, with good detail and color reproduction. The panel is quite reflective, but there’s enough brightness to counter glare – though this dips when viewing from a 45-degree angle.

Setup is straightforward and the slick touchscreen interface is matched by the polished partner app. which particularly impressed us. Photos can be sourced from Facebook, Instagram or your smart device, then sorted into albums which can be individually enabled.

The Nixplay Touch 10 passes for a traditional photo frame at arm’s length. Its back is heavily sculpted, but this will usually be hidden away from view. While its slot-in stand didn’t feel especially sturdy in testing, the frame itself isn’t heavy enough to make this a problem.

Its plastic display surface softens reflections, and photos generally look good. We liked the color temperature during our time with the Nixplay, finding that it could produce rich tones, even if its LCD panel lacks the depth of OLED. We were less impressed by its sharpening, which caused edges to appear pixellated.

The Nest Hub Max is both a hub for smart devices and a portal for accessing Google Assistant at home, but it also does well as a digital photo frame. Styled like a 10-inch tablet attached to a fabric-skinned speaker, it forms a neat free-standing package with a small shelf footprint – even if the screen’s plastic shell and bezels don’t feel particularly premium.

The fixed stand setup means you can’t adjust the display angle from its default upward tilt. While this will be an issue if you want to place the frame on a higher shelf, the viewing angles are otherwise good, with decent saturation and plenty of brightness – provided you’re fine with a reflective panel.

At 1280x800, the resolution of the touchscreen could be higher, but we found that there’s still good detail with no noticeable pixellation – and it makes controlling the Nest Hub Max a cinch. Swipe between photos or tap the pop-up controls to hide, star or share particular images, or do the same thing with voice commands.

The Nest Hub Max can display art backgrounds, a full-screen clock or a selection of snaps from your Google Photos account. It supports Live Albums, features the option to show portrait pics in split-screen and offers time, weather and image data overlays – but you can’t manually change the slideshow order. And because it only works with Google Photos, the Nest Hub Max makes sense mainly for those already invested in the company’s cloud backup service.How to pick the best digital photo frame for youWhere will you place it?Most digital photo frames include some kind of stand, but not all can be wall-mounted. Similarly, some only work in one orientation, while others can switch from portrait to landscape. It pays to consider placement, including how a frame’s finish will fit with your decor.

What screen size do you need?Screen size can vary substantially, from 8 to 13 inches. Frames with smaller displays can be easier to place and are sometimes sharper. Larger options offer more space for your snaps but won’t always have a higher resolution. The sweet spot is usually somewhere around a 9-inch Full HD display.

How will you add images?Many of the latest digital photo frames rely on cloud storage to host your slideshow, letting you add photos directly from different devices. Others feature social media integration. But if your images live on hard storage, consider something with a memory card or USB input.

How much control do you want?Some digital photo frames offer seamless simplicity, while others allow you to adjust every setting – from brightness to sleep schedules. It’s worth checking what a given frame lets you tweak, especially if you’re particular about color balance or slideshow transitions.

How smart does it need to be?More than passive panels, several of the best digital photo frames in 2021 are actually fully fledged smart displays. That means voice control, media streaming and smart home integration. Whether you need this additional functionality will depend on the other devices already in your abode.What is the best size digital photo frame?Digital photo frames are available in a wide range of sizes. Which dimension is right for you will depend on your available space, as well as your own personal preference. Smaller digital photo frames are more compact and easier to place in your home, but offer less canvas space for your digital images. Larger photo frames give your treasured snaps room to shine, but require a larger footprint – and the biggest screens risk dominating a room.

While you can find digital photo frames with screens as small as 5 inches, we think the smallest you should realistically look at is 8 inches. A frame such as the Nixplay Nix Digital Photo Frame 8-inch benefits from a small footprint that’s easy to place almost anywhere, while still giving your images enough room on screen to be clearly visible. Any smaller and you risk having to squint to see your snaps.

The largest digital photo frames feature displays to rival your average laptop. The Nixplay Seed Wave, for example, ships with a 13-inch panel. This puts your pictures clearly front and centre, but it’s not exactly subtle. It risks looking like a small TV and blends less well into the background – although it certainly makes your shots unmissable.

We think the best size digital photo frame is between 9 inches and 10 inches. Models like the Google Nest Hub Max, Aura Carver and Facebook Portal all feature screens which measure in at around the 10-inch mark, while our favorite digital photo frame right now – the minimalist Aura Mason Luxe – has a 9.7-inch display. These hit the sweet spot for visibility and flexibility. A display at this size will also provide better pixel density than a much larger screen, improving clarity and sharpness (especially with Nixplay’s 2K frame, which features a high-resolution 9.7-inch screen).

Digital photo frames are unique devices with a range of specific factors to test. We put each frame through a range of scenarios to ensure each one is worthy of a recommendation.

We place each digital photo frame in a series of similar viewing scenarios to assess the sharpness and brightness of its display. This will usually include a dark environment, a daylit room and a bright spot in direct sunlight. Using an identical set of photos, we look at the accuracy of color reproduction, the clarity of each image and the viewing angles of the frame. We also take into account the proportions of the display and whether any cropping is likely to affect standard-sized digital images.

The Aura Carver combines attractive hardware and simple software to create a digital photo frame that is the easiest to set up and operate, and at a great price. We found the quality of its screen to be on a par with that of pricier frames. You go through the setup process on your Android or iOS device, no clunky remote required. If you’re primarily a phone photographer, you should be able to have your pictures up on this frame in a relatively short amount of time.

The setup was the simplest of the frames we tested. Once you download the Aura app, pair your phone to the frame, and connect it to your Wi-Fi network settings using your phone, you’re all set. (I did have to wait for the frame to power up and download a recent update, but it hasn’t needed any other software updates since, and I was still able to get the frame up and running in about five minutes.) One of the few steps between turning on the device and adding photos is the option to send invitations to family members and friends via text so they can upload their own pictures (you can also set up the Carver as a gift for someone else; more on that below). In addition, you won’t have to do anything on the frame itself with a remote control because there isn’t one. Aura frames have touch bars on top of the device that let you control basic functions, while setup and other controls are found in Aura’s smartphone app. And the Carver frame’s slim top makes it easier to find the touch bar compared with the Aura Mason.

The Carver’s resolution is a little lower than the Mason’s—1280×800 versus 1600×1200, respectively—but I didn’t see an obvious drop in image quality. It still looks sharp, has excellent contrast, and displays colors well. From older digital-camera pictures to professional wedding photos, the images looked as great as we’ve ever seen them on a digital screen, without the typical blue undertone that you’ll find on a tablet or other digital frames we’ve tried. The Carver has a 16:10 aspect ratio, but I found that the wider ratio meant the entirety of my wedding photos always fit on the screen, so no guests were cut out. It also meant that when two vertical photos were displayed, they had a 4:5 aspect ratio. The automatic light sensor worked well in our trial runs, cranking up the screen’s brightness to combat sunlight. It also tended to pick up light from a different room better than the Mason’s sensor; when these frames were in my dining room, for example, the Carver stayed on with light spilling in from the kitchen, but the Mason did not.

Compared with a lot of other products in this category, with their plastic frames and borders that often look closer to a tablet than a decorative photo frame, the Carver has an aesthetic that combines form and function quite well. The frame has nifty features, such as touch-sensitive strips that let you mark favorite photos and go forward and backward with a swipe. (The strips take a little patience to work—we recommend moving slowly when using them.) Yet the grooved, textured plastic makes the Carver look like a nice frame you might buy for a print photo. Instead of relying on a flimsy stand to prop itself up, its thicker base makes it more stable, and there’s nothing to assemble beyond plugging in the power cord.

Once the Carver is up and running, you have many display options to choose from. Working with its default settings, you get behavior that’s more suggestive of a real picture frame than a digital one—the only giveaway is when it switches to side-by-side mode. You’ll find no cheesy animations between photos like on other frames we’ve dismissed, only simple fades and swipes. The Carver does a remarkably better job than competitors at automatically cropping photos to fit on the screen, ensuring the subjects are nicely centered. It’s also easy to re-crop an image within the app if it doesn’t automatically focus on your favorite part (but based on my experience, you will need to do this very rarely). Its “Photo Match” mode—which places two portrait-orientation photos next to each other to fill the landscape-oriented screen—did a fairly good job at pairing together photos of my infant son or from my wedding. Other times the pairing was a little more random, but I didn’t find that too bothersome.

All Aura frames, including the Carver, can play videos, and you can upload them the same way you add photos (you can’t, however, use auto upload from a Google Photos folder; you can only add videos manually). The Carver puts vertical videos into Photo Match mode, placing them side by side with another video or a portrait-orientation photo. I noticed the frame often paired two vertical videos from my wedding, or a video of my son next to a portrait-oriented image of him. The Carver includes a built-in speaker to allow you to hear sound from your videos (if you choose to turn sound on), and the speaker was solid enough in our tests that we could hear both voices and background sound or music. You turn on sound manually for each video by tapping on the touch-sensitive strip, versus there being an on or off sound setting overall. If you don’t intervene, the video will play once silently and then freeze for the rest of its time on screen, unless you tap the touch-sensitive strip to replay it with sound on. All replays will include sound, but the next video the Carver shows will return to the muted auto-play setting. Aura will remember the volume level you selected, though volume can also be controlled on screen or from the app when a video plays.

A nice surprise about Aura’s frames: Unlike every other brand of frame we tested, the Carver and other frames in the Aura family are compatible with Apple’s Live Photo feature. So you’ll see such images come to life for an instant when they first appear on the display, similar to the video experience.

Aura’s software helps you easily set up the Aura Carver as a gift. Using the app, scan a QR code on the box to pair it with your account. That lets you invite family members to contribute photos before the recipient unpacks the frame and plugs it in. You can also have the frame shipped directly from Aura and use the company’s email-setup process to associate it with your account while the frame is in transit. Though we didn’t try the gift-setup method ourselves, we do appreciate Aura’s focus on the gift angle. This is a feature other frames don’t have (to replicate the experience, you have to prepare the frame yourself manually and then give it as a gift afterward).

Unlike the Aura Mason, the Carver’s aspect ratio isn’t our preferred 4:3, but we found that both landscape and portrait photos still fit nicely on screen.

If you don’t want to see photos placed side by side, you can turn off the Carver’s Photo Match mode in the app. But without it, there’s large pillarboxing on either side of portrait photos. We also found that turning off this setting wasn’t instantaneous—it took several minutes for the frame to recognize the change.

Unlike a traditional photo frame that requires you to have a paper-based print made of your favorite image before you can display it, a digital photo frame allows you to transfer digital photos directly from your mobile device, digital camera, a computer, or the internet and then display them—either one at a time or as part of an animated slideshow. Digital picture frames come in a wide range of sizes, but best of all, most now come with their own email address and connect to your home’s Wi-Fi for easy photo transfers and sharing.

The best digital photo frames look great in a home and make it easy to transfer images to them. ... [+](Nixplay 10.1 Touch Screen Photo Frame shown here.)Nixplay

This makes it possible to send images to the frame—from anywhere in the world—via email (from your smartphone, for example). As a result, these frames make a great gift for non-tech-savvy people who are not active on social media, but still want to see photos of family and friends. Any of these best digital picture frames, like the Pix-Star Digital Photo Frame (our pick for Best Digital Frame Overall), offer an easy way to showcase your favorite photos at an affordable price.

Frame display size: 15-inches | Display resolution: 1,024 x 768 pixels | Storage capacity: 8GB | Cloud service compatibility: Pix-Star website, popular cloud services, popular social media services | Memory card slot: USB port, SDHC/SDXC memory card slot

One of the most versatile and full-featured photo frames you can buy, the Pix-Star offers just about every imaginable way to share photos and connect with friends and family.

For example, using Wi-Fi, it connects to online photo sources, including Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, OneDrive, Flickr, Google Drive and Google Photos. However, it also has 8GB of internal memory (enough to hold about 30,000 photos), along with slots for a USB flash drive and SD memory card, so you can load it up with a photo collection for offline viewing.

Another great feature is that you can easily email photos directly to the frame, which means family members can send photos that within a minute or so simply appear on the frame with no extra steps. You can also easily share photos you’re viewing on the frame with friends and family (via the Internet) with a few on-screen taps.

Frame display size: 9.7-inches | Display resolution: 2K (2,048 x 1,536 pixels) | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Unlimited (free) cloud-based storage | Memory card slot: None

Offering quick and easy setup, the Aura Mason Luxe 2K can be controlled via a free smartphone app for iPhones and Android-based devices. While the frame itself has no internal storage, it does include unlimited and free cloud-based storage from Aura. This means you can display an unlimited number of images on the frame, as long as the frame is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi.

Frame display size: 8-inches | Display resolution: 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: None | Memory card slot: USB port, SD card slot

This affordable digital picture frame offers an impressive 8-inch display with 1080p resolution. Thus, it makes photos look detailed and vibrant. Built into the frame are a variety of user-selectable slideshow modes, so the user can select their favorite transition effect, for example. Using the supplied remote control, the screen’s brightness can manually be adjusted as needed. One interesting feature is that when you add your favorite songs to the SD memory card you insert into the frame, you have the ability to play background music with your animated slideshows.

The Atatat Digital Photo Frame can be placed on a flat surface, such as a desk, or hung on a wall. In addition to showcasing photos, the frame can serve as an alarm clock, digital clock and display upcoming events from your calendar. It can also be set up to turn itself on or off at specific times. This is all impressive functionality for a digital frame that’s on sale on Amazon for just $48.

Frame display size: 10-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1,280 x 800 pixels | Storage capacity: 8GB | Cloud service compatibility: Skylight service | Memory card slot: None

The operation of this 10-inch digital photo frame could not be easier. Simply plug it into any electrical outlet and link it with your home’s Wi-Fi. Then, using the frame’s own unique email address, start sending it photos to display as an animated slideshow from your own computers and mobile devices.

The great thing about this frame is that you can share its email address within specific friends and family, so they too can send pictures to the frame. So, if you have an elderly parent or grandparent who is not tech-savvy and who is not active on social media, you can set up the Skylight frame in their home and then send photos to it from anywhere in the world via email. All the person who owns the frame needs to do is look at it to see the new images that are shared by others.

The Skylight also has its own proprietary mobile app that allows you to customize how the frame displays images and remotely manage the images stored within the frame’s internal 8GB of storage. Thanks to its low price, nice appearance and ease of use, the Skylight is one of the best deals when it comes to photo frames that are suitable for any home or office.

Frame display size: 10.1-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1,280 x 800 pixels | Storage capacity: 8GB | Cloud service compatibility: 10GB Nixplay cloud storage, popular cloud-based services | Memory card slot: None

The Nixplay 10.1-Inch Touchscreen Photo Frame is able to display still images as a slideshow or video clips (up to 15 seconds long). Thanks to two built-in speakers, audio from the video clips can be heard. The user can customize the slideshow experience and rotate the frame between landscape and portrait mode. The frame will adjust the images accordingly. It can also be hung on a wall.

Six frame finish options, including black, wood, white and polished steel are available. And while you can store thousands of images within the frame’s internal storage, images can also be pulled the from either Nixplay’s own cloud-based service, or a popular service like Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram or Dropbox. This is a versatile frame that"s offered at an attractive price. The Nixplay mobile app makes it easy to setup and manage the frame and its contents. For an optional monthly fee of $4.99, extra features, like the ability to display videos up to two minutes long, are unlocked.

Frame display size: 7-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1,024 x 600 pixels | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Google Photos | Memory card slot: None

The Google Nest Hub is designed to be a versatile smart home assistant with a seven-inch touchscreen display and built-in Google Assistant. You can verbally ask the Nest Hub questions, control smart devices within your home, have the hub display steaming video content, stream music on-demand, plus handle a wide range of other tasks.

As its screensaver (when it’s not being used for other tasks), the Nest Hub can also access your favorite photos that are stored online within a Google Photos folder and display them as a customized animated slideshow. When on sale for just $50, it makes sense to set up these hubs in multiple rooms within your home.

Frame display size: 10-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1,280 x 800 pixels | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Google Photos | Memory card slot: None

Best for: Using as a digital assistant and smart speaker with a 10-inch display that showcases your digital photos as an animated slideshow when it’s not otherwise in use.

The Google Nest Hub Max works very much like the Google Nest Hub, but offers a larger, 10-inch touchscreen display. Thanks to its built in speakers and camera, the hub can be used for video calling. It can also be used to stream video and audio from the web, plus respond to questions and commands issued to Google Assistant. When not being used for the other tasks, the hub’s screensaver activates, allowing it to display a slideshow of your favorite digital photos stored online within Google Photos. The Google Nest Hub Max is the ideal at-home companion for Android-based smartphone and tablet users.

Frame size: 15.6-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Amazon Photos, Facebook | Memory card slot: None

Amazon continues to be a pioneer in voice-controlled digital assistants with its smart speakers, home hubs and smart devices that support Alexa. The Amazon Echo Show 15 is designed to be a versatile smart home hub with a stunning 15.6-inch touchscreen display that gets hung on a wall. Its Amazon’s answer to the Google Home Hubs.

When the screen is not being used for other tasks, it’s able to display your favorite collection of digital photos as an animated slideshow. The Amazon Echo Show pulls images from your online Amazon Photos albums or Facebook, for example.

Frame display size: 8-inch touchscreen | Display resolution: 1,280 x 800 pixels | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Amazon Photos | Memory card slot: None

When not otherwise in use, the Echo Show’s screensaver can easily be set up to display your favorite digital images as a slideshow. The images, however, must be stored online via Amazon Photos or Facebook. If you"re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get unlimited online storage for your photos, which are then displayed on the Echo Show’s screen using adaptive color, so they look great in any ambient lighting.

Frame display size: 24-inches | Display resolution: 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) | Storage capacity: 16GB | Cloud service compatibility: Canvia website, Google Photos | Memory card slot: No

The Canvia Smart Digital Canvas is unlike most any other digital photo frame; while you certainly can use it to display your personal photo collection, that’s not its main purpose. This frame is designed to display digital art. It works best with a subscription to Canvia’s art membership service, which gives you access to more than 10,000 pieces of fine art that you can turn into slideshows to display within your home, making your living room feel like an art gallery. Without a paid subscription, you have access to 500 works of art, along with your own digital photo collection. What’s great about this frame is that when you’re standing just a few feet from the display, you can"t tell you’re looking at digital reproductions of famous paintings or illustrations.

Of course, if you have a favorite piece of artwork, you can display it continuously, or select different pieces to display at specific times during the day or evening. The frame can also be used to display NTFs, video clips and your own photos stored in Google Photos. Between its larger size (24-inch) display and high resolution, the Canvia Smart Digital Canvas is rather pricey. You’ll pay around $600 for the frame, plus a $120 per year subscription fee to access digital artwork. Few other devices, however, give you quite the same access to so much fine art in your home.

The frame is controlled using a mobile app. It’s designed to be hung on a wall and replicate a framed piece of artwork. There are four frame color options, including white, cherry, wood and black, so matching your home’s decor is easy. Thanks to built in sensors, the brightness of the display automatically adjusts based on a room’s ambient light, while the display’s special coating helps to eliminate glare.

Frame display size: 55-inch anti-reflection, Quantum HDR with matte finish | Display resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) | Storage capacity: 4GB | Cloud service compatibility: Samsung Art Store | Memory card slot: USB port

Available in sizes between 32 and 85 inches, this QLED 4K resolution smart TV does a lot more than just allow you to stream and watch your favorite TV shows and movies. It also has built-in Google Assistant, Alexa and Bixby smart speaker support. However, the reason why The Frame made it into this digital frame roundup that the thin, anti-glare TV display is surrounded by your choice of picture frame options, so it can match the decor within your home. Then, when you’re not watching video content, the screensaver will display your favorite digital photos in a slideshow format, or display digital versions of more than 2,000 famous works of art from Samsung’s Art Store (subscription required).

Thanks to its 4K resolution, anti-glare display that offers a wide viewing angle, your digital images will appear vivid, clear and showcase extreme detail when they’re presented on your wall within The Frame. Images can be transferred from your smartphone or imported directly into The Frame via a USB flash drive. Oh, and your favorite TV shows and movies will look amazing too. Another cool feature is that The Frame can be rotated on your wall from landscape to portrait mode. It’s also a great gaming monitor thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync Premium Pro support.

Frame display size: 9.7-inches | Display resolution: 2K (2,048 x 1,536 pixels) | Storage capacity: 8GB | Cloud service compatibility: Nixplay service (5GB of free storage) | Memory card slot: None

Whether you use the included stand to display the Nixplay 9.7-inch 2K Ultra Photo Frame on a desk or shelf, or you choose to hang the frame on a wall, your favorite images will be displayed in a slideshow format in high-resolution. This means you’ll see intricate details within your images, along with vibrant colors. Images can be imported into the frame from the Internet, via email, or using the Nixplay mobile app.

You get support for Nixplay"s own cloud-based service, along with Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram and Dropbox. In addition, the frame can display 15 second video clips (with sound). But if you subscribe to the Nixplay Plus service for an additional $4.99 per month fee, two minute videos can be played. Plus, you get access to additional functionality, like up to 50GB of online storage and a 25% discount on the frame itself. Meanwhile, if you’re giving this frame as a gift, you can pre-load images onto it without taking it out of its box.

Frame display size: 10.1 inches | Display resolution: 1,920 x 1,200 pixels | Storage capacity: None | Cloud service compatibility: Aura website (unlimited free storage) | Memory card slot: None

While the Aura Buddy Digital Picture Frame does not have internal storage, you do get unlimited online storage for the digital images and video clips you want the frame to display in an animated slideshow format. Images can also be sent from your smartphone or tablet via the Aura app to the Aura cloud-based service, to then be displayed on your frame.

Based the ambient lighting in the room where the frame is positioned, the brightness of the display automatically adjusts. In fact, you can also set up the frame to turn itself off at night. The display is not a touchscreen, but the border of the frame contains a Touch Bar you can swipe with a finger to change photos, view details and handle other tasks. Thanks to its metallic silver finishing, the Aura Buddy offers an elegant design that nicely fits into the decor of a home or office.

The newest digital photo frames come in a wide variety of styles, at varying prices. When it comes to choosing which option is best for you (or for the person you’ll be gifting it to) here"s what to consider:

Consider the size of the display and whether it’ll fit on a desk, nightstand, dresser, or wherever you intend to place it. Some digital frames are designed to be hung on a wall. Also, determine if the frame can be positioned in both portrait and landscape mode and if it"ll adjust your digital images accordingly.

This determines how much detail you see within each image, plus impact the clarity and vibrancy of each photo’s colors. The frame’s resolution is measured in pixels. A pixel represents one colored dot on the screen, so the more pixels used to display an image, the better.

If the frame does not have its own internal storage, determine if it has a built in memory card slot that allows you to transfer your favorite images to a memory card and then insert it into the frame. Alternatively the frame might connect to your home’s Wi-Fi and stream images from a cloud-based service, such as Apple iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox or a cloud-based service operated by the frame’s manufacturer. When the frame relies on a cloud-based service, determine if there’s a monthly subscription fee to store your digital photo collection online and how much storage space is offered.

Pricing for digital photo frames continues to drop as the technology improves, so for between $50 and $200, you can be confident that you’ll be able to purchase a really good quality digital photo frame, from a recognizable brand, that will make your favorite photos look great.

While some digital photo frames are designed to be managed from the frame itself, most have a proprietary mobile app for your smartphone or tablet that allows you to manage what images will be displayed on the frame and adjust the customizable settings, such as how long each image will be displayed, or what animated transition will be used between images.

Frames like the Skyline Digital Photo Frame are assigned their own, unique email address and can be set up remotely, so the person you gift the frame to simply needs to plug it in and connect the frame to their home’s Wi-Fi. The setup process and sending images to the frame (immediately and then over time) can then be done remotely—from anywhere. In fact, friends and family members can be given the frame’s email address, so they too can remotely add images to the frame in seconds, directly from their mobile device or computer.

Figure out what additional functionality, if any, the digital photo frame offers. For example, does it also serve as a smart speaker with a built-in digital voice assistant? The Google Nest Hubs offer the Google Assistant, while the Amazon Echo Show frames offer direct access to Alexa when the frame are connected to a home’s Wi-Fi.

Other nice features to look for include whether or not the frame measures the ambient light in the room and then auto-adjusts its brightness. It’s also nice when the frame allows you to customize the frequency and format used to display your favorite images and then automatically dims (or turns off) at night.

The biggest advantage to using a digital picture frame is that one frame can hold thousands of images. It can then be set up to continuously display just one of your favorite images, or create and display an animated slideshow to showcase many of your favorite images.Some digital picture frames, like the Canvia Smart Digital Canvas Display, can showcase famous works ... [+]of art, in addition to your favorite photos.Canvia

When you load up a digital picture frame with images of your loved ones, pets, friends and memorable moments in your life, throughout your day, looking at the frame will put a smile on your face as you reminisce about who is featured in the photos, as well as when and where each image was taken. Thus, these digital frames are ideal for a living room, TV room, bedroom, or home office, for example.

Using a digital picture frame to showcase a collection of images is much more convenient than creating and then having to flip through the pages of traditional photo albums, photo books, or scrapbooks, for example.

Other than a traditional digital photo picture frame, battery-powered digital photo frame classic 10 can instantly receive photos and videos via a Wi-Fi network. You, your families, and friends can share the moments with the cheap digital photo frame with multi convenient methods, such as a phone App, sending an email, or turning the frame to be a local FTP server.

A high-quality Bluetooth digital photo frame has a 10.1"" touch screen display with 1280*800 resolution and 16: 10 aspect ratio that recalls your precious memories. Our wifi digital picture frame can customized sleep mode and the Auto-rotate setting supports your better viewing experience, you can place this frame in either portrait or landscape mode, or even mount the digital wifi picture frame on the wall.

This digital picture frame wifi best buy offers you a huge storage capacity with built-in 16GB memory (around 40,000 photos of 300KB/pc). Best wifi picture frame also supports the SD card and USB drive connectivity to enable you to read the files and export the received photos and videos for better album management.

I have had the Nixplay Smart Digital Picture Frame 10.1 inch Wood-effect for 2 week now. It is like opening a new iPhone. The packaging was extremely high quality and instructions were well written. In looking for a photo album I wanted to avoid a cheap company with poor quality and, thankfully, that was not my experience with Nixplay. The finish of the frame is top-notch. There was a high quality bendable send on the back. The picture quality is crisp. The app is easy to use. It also syncs with Google Photos. The settings are abundant. You can edit the amount of time a picture is shown, how the photo fits in the frame, brightness, transition style, sleep hours, and more. Also there is a programmable motion sensor to save on electricity. I waited a long time to find a good picture frame and overlooked this one for a while due to uncertainty. I’m glad I picked this. It makes for a great gift. I would consider getting another for myself. I’m an amateur photographer and this is a great way to display my hobby.

nix-FamilyCircles allows you to create photo and video playlists that you can share with different family or friend groups. They can then play and add to them. Here are some cool Circle ideas:

nix-FamilyCircles allows you to create photo and video playlists that you can share with different family or friend groups. They can then play and add to them. Here are some cool Circle ideas:

Next login to your account directly at Nixplay store and enjoy 25% off the digital photo frames and you will notice the multi-shipping option is now available.

Photographs are lifetime souvenirs of those precious moments spent with family and friends. In the past, preserving your life’s special moments was a rather time-consuming process that involved shooting, printing the images, and finding the right wooden poster or holder before you could mount them on your wall.

Then why not take a look at the digital picture frame, which have become a common feature in most homes today. The best thing about electronic picture frame is that it has a clear LCD screen, built-in FHD or 4K media player and a USB port that let you constantly update all your photographic in a more attractive and organized style than the ordinary one. With internet connection, it even provides you a seamless way to showcase a large number of photographic at home or work from different location via WIFI network, you’ll never again run out of space to hang them on once you get one of wireless picture frame.

At DigitalFrame0, we can provide you with your customized large digital photo frame, which come with a wide range of choices to integrate perfectly with your interior design and home decors, whether you need a traditional, contemporary, or modern interior decoration, wall mounted in portrait or landscape orientations at home or a freestanding digital poster frame aka commercial advertising display at work. We can fulfill you all from small key-chain to largest format photo displays up to 98 inch .

Keep in mind that our digital wall frame features a glossy edge which is a better-looking alternative to the traditional white or matte black edges, has a more attractive slim design that doesn’t take too much wall space. Our poster display are designed to provide you with a sleek, stylish, and slim device to showcase your personal photographic or business presentation with crystal clear FHD or 4K resolution.