Most menu design fails at one moment: the handover from a bright screen to a dim dining room. Everything we hold about menu type follows from that moment.

The room is the reading condition

Restaurants are lit for atmosphere, not for reading, and menus are read at arm’s length by every age of eye.

A menu specified for daylight is specified for somewhere it will never be read.

Size is not negotiable

There are minimum body sizes below which a dim room defeats most adults, and elegant is not an excuse.

If the list will not fit at a legible size, the list is too long — and shorter menus reliably sell better anyway.

Contrast does the heavy lifting

Dark ink on light stock reads in candlelight; fashionable grey on cream vanishes.

Contrast is the cheapest legibility upgrade there is, and the most often designed away.

Proof it where it will live

Print the proof at actual size, on the actual stock, and read it somewhere dim.

Two minutes of honesty at proof stage prevents a season of phone torches.