Birthday & Celebration Screen turns a display into a party greeting: your headline and name in big lettering, with confetti, rising balloons, bunting and fireworks in matching colours. Put it on a TV or laptop as it is, or switch to a black background and throw it onto a wall or window with a projector.
Before you start
- The name and number you want on screen. Names are trimmed and hold up to 20 characters; a custom message holds up to 32.
- A dark room, if you're projecting. A projector can't paint black, so any room light washes the wall gray.
Set it up
- Choose an Occasion: Birthday, Anniversary, Congratulations, Graduation, or Your own message.
- Type a Name. Then fill in the number that goes with your occasion: Age for Birthday, Years for Anniversary, Class year for Graduation. For Your own message, type it into Message.
- Pick Lettering (Party, Script, Elegant or Neon) and Text motion (Float, Pulse or Still).
- Pick Colours. The colours tint the letters, confetti, balloons, bunting and fireworks together.
- Pick a Background.
- Set Confetti, Balloons, Bunting and Fireworks to taste.
- Select Play Fullscreen, then set Brightness.
You'll know it worked when the headline pops in with your wording, for example "Happy 7th Birthday" with the name below it, and confetti starts to fall.
What each control does
| Control | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Occasion | Birthday, Anniversary, Congratulations, Graduation, Your own message | Sets the headline. Graduation reads "Congrats, Grad!". |
| Message | up to 32 characters | Shown only for Your own message. Becomes the headline. |
| Name | up to 20 characters | Shown largest, under the headline. Blank hides it. |
| Age | up to 3 characters | Shown only for Birthday. Only the number is used: 7 reads "Happy 7th Birthday". |
| Years | up to 3 characters | Shown only for Anniversary. 25 reads "Happy 25th Anniversary". |
| Class year | up to 4 characters | Shown only for Graduation. Adds "Class of 2027" under the name. |
| Lettering | Party, Script, Elegant, Neon | Party is multicoloured and outlined, Script is gold handwriting, Elegant is a spaced-capitals headline over a gold italic name, Neon glows in your colours. |
| Text motion | Float, Pulse, Still | Float bobs and tilts slightly, Pulse gently swells, Still holds steady. |
| Colours | Party mix, Gold & silver, Pink & purple, Blue & silver, Green & gold, Custom colours | The palette for lettering, confetti, balloons, bunting and fireworks. |
| Colour 1, 2, 3 | colour pickers | Shown only for Custom colours. Your own three colours. |
| Background | Party lights, Black (for projectors), Solid colour, Two-colour gradient | Party lights is a dark room with soft coloured lights. |
| Background colour | colour picker | Shown for Solid colour and Two-colour gradient. The solid colour, or the top of the gradient. |
| Bottom colour | colour picker | Shown only for Two-colour gradient. |
| Confetti | 0–100% | Falling confetti plus a cannon from each bottom corner every 45 seconds. 0 turns it off. |
| Balloons | 0–100% | How many balloons rise at once. 0 turns them off. |
| Bunting | on/off | Pennant flags along the top edge. |
| Fireworks | 0–30/min | Shells per minute above the lettering. 0 turns them off. |
| Fireworks spell the name | on/off | About every 25 seconds, the first after about 5, a firework writes the name, or the number if there is no name. |
| Fireworks sound | on/off | Launch whooshes and booms made in the browser. Off by default. |
| Volume | 0–100% | Shown only when Fireworks sound is on. |
| Scale, Horizontal position, Vertical position, Mirror horizontally, Flip vertically | see below | Shown only with the Black background. |
| Brightness | 0–100 | Overall output. At 0 the screen is black. |
Show it on a TV
- Connect a laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable and switch the TV to that input. If the TV shows only a wallpaper, the laptop is extending its desktop: drag the browser window onto the TV, or mirror the display (on Windows press Windows + P and choose Duplicate).
- Or cast the tab: in Chrome, open the menu, choose Cast, and pick your TV. A cable is steadier on busy Wi-Fi.
- Select Play Fullscreen.
- Stop the laptop sleeping: plug it in, and set the plugged-in screen timeout to Never (Windows 11: Settings > System > Power & battery > Screen and sleep; Mac: System Settings > Lock Screen). Some TVs also dim an idle HDMI input, under a setting usually called auto power off or eco mode.
Over HDMI, Fireworks sound normally plays through the TV's speakers. If it comes out of the laptop instead, pick the TV as the laptop's sound output.
How to use this with a projector
Set Background to Black (for projectors) so only the celebration lights the wall. Scale, Horizontal position, Vertical position, Mirror horizontally and Flip vertically then appear under Placement. Use Scale and the two position sliders to fit a wall, window or garage door. Turn on Mirror horizontally for rear projection through a window with a screen or film, so the lettering reads correctly from outside. Turn on Flip vertically if the projector is mounted upside down and can't flip its own picture.
A window needs a surface: frosted film, a sheer, or a rear-projection screen on the glass. Clear glass won't hold the image. Darken the room, then lower Brightness to taste; 0% is black.
Common setups
- Kid's birthday on the living-room TV. Occasion Birthday, Age 7, Lettering Party, Background Party lights, Confetti 60, Balloons 50, Fireworks 10.
- Surprise when someone walks in. Occasion Your own message, Message "Welcome home!", Name "Sam", Lettering Neon, Text motion Pulse, Fireworks 10 with Fireworks spell the name on, so "Sam" is also written in the sky.
- Milestone anniversary dinner. Occasion Anniversary, Years 25, Lettering Elegant, Colours Gold & silver, Text motion Still, Confetti 20, Balloons 0, Fireworks 4.
- Window greeting for arriving guests. Background Black (for projectors), Lettering Script, Fireworks 6, Confetti 30, Brightness 70, with Mirror horizontally on if you project from inside.
Troubleshooting
The headline says "Happy Birthday" with no age. Age only takes effect on the Birthday occasion and needs a number of 1 or more. Type the digits into Age; 0 or text without a number is ignored.
The fireworks never write the name. They need Fireworks above 0 and Fireworks spell the name on. The first one comes after about 5 seconds, then about every 25. With no Name they spell the age, years or class year, and Congratulations or Your own message spell nothing without a name.
Fireworks sound is on but I hear nothing. The browser may hold audio until you interact with the page. If you see "Tap anywhere on the page to start the fireworks sound," tap or click the page. If the panel says the browser couldn't start the sound, the show continues silently.
The projected picture is reversed or upside down. Turn on Mirror horizontally for rear projection, or Flip vertically for a projector that can't flip its own picture. Both only appear with the Black background.
The wall looks gray instead of black. Check that Background is Black (for projectors): Party lights, Solid colour and the gradient light the whole wall on purpose. If it's already black, the gray is room light plus the projector's own black level, which Brightness can't lower. Close curtains and switch off lights near the wall.
The text looks small. Each line shrinks to fit within about 86% of the screen width, so a long Name or Message gets smaller. Shorten it.
Next steps
For a show without lettering, try Fireworks Projector. For a countdown to the big moment, use Countdown Timer.