What is Marquee

Adafruit Marquee allows you to visually create interfaces for e-paper/eink displays without writing any code or storing images or fonts, or rendering graphics directly on the device.

Marquee comprises of two components:

• Marquee Web App: A browser-based canvas editor for Adafruit IO Marquee e-ink displays. It turns what you draw into epaper-ready bitmaps entirely in the browser and publishes them to Adafruit IO feeds. 
• Marquee Firmware: An open-source Arduino firmware that turns a e-paper device (or development board with an e-paper display attached) into a cloud-driven display for the Marquee web app. The device fetches a pre-rendered interface from the cloud and draws it directly on the display, so no images, fonts, or layouts live on the device itself.

How does Marquee Work?

The stage (bitmap) is created in the Marquee web app, and stored on Adafruit IO feeds you create. Your device fetches the stage image from the cloud, and renders it on the e-paper display. Marquee also handles putting the device into light or deep sleep modes to save power, and waking it up to fetch new content when the stage is edited.

🐛 See a Bug?

Marquee is an Adafruit Playground Experiment, which means it's still a work in progress and we're actively exploring the idea and letting people try it out. You may run into a bug or two along the way.

If you do, or if there's a feature or enhancement you'd like to see, let us know by posting up on the Adafruit IO Forum >>>

Supported Hardware

At the time of writing, Marquee currently supports two devices. It's designed to work with e-paper panels and e-readers from a range of vendors, not just Adafruit.

Adafruit MagTag (2025 Edition)

The MagTag pairs an ESP32-S2 microcontroller with a 2.9" E-Ink display in a single board.

Xteink X4 Pro Pocket eReader

We've added support for the Xteink X4 Pro Pocket eReader, which runs on an ESP32-S3. It's a great all-in-one platform.

If you are using this board with Marquee - read through "XTeink-specific Instructions" section before proceeding.

Adafruit Feather ESP32-S3 + 2.13" Tri-Color eInk FeatherWing

Marquee also works with setups where the E-Ink device isn't all-in-one. For example, we've included a build for an Adafruit Feather ESP32-S3 paired with the Adafruit 2.13" HD Tri-Color eInk/ePaper Display FeatherWing.

Get Started

Visit https://marquee.adafruit-playground.com.

Next, you'll need to connect your Adafruit IO Account to the marquee website. Click the Adafruit IO Account button on the marquee website:

Then, to obtain your Adafruit IO username and Key, 

• Navigate to Adafruit IO and sign in.

• On the left header/navigation bar and click the key icon (labeled My Key)

• A window will pop up showing your AIO Username and your Active AIO Key

Copy the username and key on this page.

Then, paste your Adafruit IO username and key into the Marquee website and click Save Account.

The Adafruit IO Account box should now display your username. Click Add a New Marquee Display and follow the on-screen steps to flash the Marquee firmware to your device.

Once your device is flashed with Marquee, you're ready to try it out!

Marquee 101

After you flashed your device with Marquee firmware, added credentials, and pressed its RESET button, the device is running the marquee application and waiting for a new image to display.

You should be brought to the BUILD THE SCENE page. On the center of the page is the scene - this is your e-paper display's usable area. You can add widgets ("props") to the scene by clicking them on the left-hand sidebar. 

Marquee is driven by data coming from Adafruit IO Feeds. Most props include an option to connect to a feed and display its data right on the stage.

After you've built a scene, you'll need to configure how frequently the device will go to sleep. 

Be mindful of your battery when selecting the amount of time the marquee device sleeps for

• A shorter sleep interval updates the display more frequently, but uses more power in light sleep mode.
• A longer sleep interval updates the display less frequently, but uses less power in deep sleep mode.

When a marquee device wakes up from sleep - it fetches the latest bitmap image (stored on an Adafruit IO feed), compares it to whats currently displayed, and (if they are different bitmaps) writes it to the display before going back to sleep.

After you've finished building the scene and configuring the sleep timer, it's time to set the stage!

Click Queue For The Next Take.

After the device writes to the display, the image on the display will refresh. The header on the SHOWTIME page also reflects that the device is awake and drawing.

After writing, the device will go to sleep. The SHOWTIME page displays the device's status, when it's expected to wake again, and when it last woke up.

If you want to edit the stage again - Click Edit Dashboard to be brought back to the BUILD THE SCENE page.

Adding New Platforms to Marquee

Marquee Firmware is open-source and welcomes contributions for adding new hardware or e-paper panels!

• First, add the platform to Marquee firmware by reading through the Local Development section of the repository's README file. 
• Next, to add the platform to the website, read through the "Adding a Platform" documentation for instructions on how to add a board to the web app. This documentation file was designed to be followed by a human or ingested by a LLM.

Xteink-Specific Instructions

The Xteink X4 Pro eReader is a great way to get started with Marquee, but there are two things to keep in mind before and during installation.

Back Up the Stock Xteink Firmware

Installing marquee will remove the stock firmware on the XTeink. Before installing Marquee, follow this guide page to make a backup of the firmware shipped with your Xteink.

Enter DFU Mode

The Xteink X4 Pro uses a different button sequence to enter programming (DFU) mode than Adafruit boards do. You'll need to put the device into DFU mode before flashing the Marquee firmware:

1. Press and hold the Prev. button on the left side.
2. While holding it, press the Reset button. The Reset button is recessed, so you may need a pencil tip or similar long object to reach it.
3. Release both buttons.