Kitchen iQ Setup • Recipe Card & Spec Images

Created 24 July 2026 • Updated 27 August 2026

Recipe Cards & Item Spec Images

Kitchen iQ can display two types of services information to aid accurate item preparation and service:

• Recipe Cards - a full-screen document (PDF, PNG, or JPG) that kitchen staff open on demand to see preparation instructions, ingredients, plating notes, or allergen information for a specific item

• Spec Images - a strip of dish photos that appears automatically next to the currently selected order on station configured with panel view, so a visual check can be made to ensure that the item matches with the overall dish specification and plating guide

This feature is not enabled by default, for more information contact your Zonal Account Representative
Recipe Card & Item Spec Images Topics

Setup

When this functionality has been enabled by Zonal additional settings will be displayed within Kitchen iQ Configurations.

Recipe Cards

Navigate to Configuration → General

Follow these steps to enable recipe cards to be displayed:

  1. Enable the Show Recipe Cards check box

  2. Click Save

Spec Images

Navigate to Configuration → Channels

Follow these steps to enable spec images to be displayed:

  1. Select the required Channel for the images to be displayed on

  2. From the View Settings select the Show Spec Images check box

    • This setting is only available on Panel View

    • This can be enabled on any Channel with Panel View

  3. Click Save

    When the configuration updates any channels with this view will now display a grey bar on the right of the screen

File Types & Deployment

Recipe Cards

Recipe cards are accepted in 3 file formats, and should have the correct name and added to the correct storage location on the Kitchen iQ local site server to be viewed on a screen.

File Formats & Size Name Format Storage Location

The following formats are accepted:

  • PDF

  • JPG

  • PNG

PDFs:

  • Will be displayed for both portrait and landscape

  • Portrait - full width with scrolling

  • Landscape - displayed a 640px 480px view

The recommended size option for images:

  • Any reasonable resolution, the overlay will be centred and aspect ratio preserved

Aztec Entity Code, for example

10000000114. PDF

10000000114.JPG

10000000114.PNG

 C:\Program Files\Zonal\Kitchen iQ Server\RecipeCards

Spec Images

Spec images are accepted in 2 file formats, and should have the correct name and added to the correct storage location on the Kitchen iQ local site server to be viewed on a screen.

File Formats & Size Name Format Storage Location

The following formats are accepted:

  • JPG

  • PNG

The recommended size option for images:

  • 640px × 480px landscape

  • Other sizes will still work but they will crop / fit the image to fit

Aztec Entity Code, for example

10000000114.JPG

10000000114.PNG

 C:\Program Files\Zonal\Kitchen iQ Server\SpecImages
Customers are responsible for the creation, management and deployment of all files to each required site storage location

Updating Files

PDFs or Image files can be updated at any time even during normal service times and only requires files to be added / updated or removed for them storage location.

  • New files added will become available immediately

  • Files overridden will become available immediately and the next view / display of the file will be shown with the updated version

  • Files can be deleted at any time and will fall back to a place holder view where no content is available

Viewing Recipe Cards & Spec Images

For more information on viewing recipe cards click here and for spec images here.