How to Create a Digital Restaurant Menu from a PDF

By Dinebo team · Published 1 November 2026 · 2 min read

The short answer

Upload your PDF to a menu tool that can read it, check every dish and price it found, then go live. In Dinebo it usually takes a minute or two to read the menu, and nothing goes public until you’ve checked it.

The Add your menu screen in Dinebo, with two choices: take a photo of your menu and upload it, or add dishes one by one — Dinebo’s Add your menu screen.

You can, and it’s better than nothing. But a PDF was made for paper, so it has problems on a phone:

Guests pinch and zoom to read it.
Some phones download the file instead of opening it.
Every price change means making a new file.
You can’t mark one dish as sold out.
Old copies stay in people’s chats and downloads.

A digital menu keeps your dishes as separate items, so you can change one without touching the rest. For a full comparison, see digital menu vs traditional paper menu.

Prepare your file

A few minutes here saves time checking later.

Use the most recent version, with current prices.
Fix or remove anything you know is out of date.
If it’s a scan, make sure it’s straight and sharp.
Check that prices can be read and aren’t lost in a dark background or decoration.

No PDF? A photo works too. Take one per page, with the menu flat and in good light.

Step 1: Sign up and choose Take a photo of your menu and upload.
Step 2: Add your PDF or photos. JPEG, PNG, WebP and PDF all work, up to 20 MB each, and it reads up to 20 pages.
Step 3: Press Add my menu. It usually takes a minute or two, and you can leave the page while it reads.
Step 4: Check the dishes it found, then add them to your menu.

What to check

Software reads menus well, but not perfectly, and a wrong price is your problem rather than its. Dinebo marks the dishes it isn’t sure about:

Messages Dinebo shows on scanned dishes and what to do about them
What you’ll see	What to do
Add the price	It found the dish but no price. Type it in.
Check the price	Compare it with your menu.
Check the name	Correct the spelling.
Check veg or non-veg	This was a guess. Set it yourself.
May be a duplicate	Remove it if it’s the same dish twice.

Then read the whole list once, even the dishes with no message. Pay special attention to half and full prices and to extras. Never rely on a guess for allergens: add those yourself.

Finish and go live

Step 1: Add your restaurant’s name and city.
Step 2: Choose whether to show dish photos and automatic descriptions, and edit any you’d like to change.
Step 3: Press See your menu to view it as a guest would.
Step 4: Go live. You’ll get your link and QR code.

The Dinebo menu screen listing dishes by section, each with a photo, a price to tap and an In stock switch — The menu in Dinebo: tap a price to change it, flip a switch when a dish runs out.

After that

You can stop updating the PDF. Change prices in Dinebo, and everyone who opens your link sees the latest menu.

Print your QR code for your tables.
Add the link to Google.
Share it on WhatsApp instead of sending the PDF again.

Google’s profile also accepts a PDF under Photos of menu. That’s handy, but it’s a copy that goes out of date, so a link to your live menu is easier to maintain.