Spreads vs single pages
Export single pages. It is the one setting on this page that matters, and it is the opposite of what a print designer is used to sending.
The reader makes its own spreads. It takes your pages one at a time and lays them out like a printed book:
- the first page sits alone, on the right, as a cover
- then 2 and 3 face each other, then 4 and 5, and so on
- the last page sits alone as a back cover when the document has an even number of pages
On a phone, or whenever the screen is too narrow for two pages to be readable, it drops to one page at a time. That is the Auto layout, and it is why a document looks right on a desk and on a phone without you doing anything.
A PDF exported as spreads has already done that pairing: each PDF page is two pages wide. The reader then pairs those, so someone on a laptop sees two spreads side by side (four pages at once), each too small to read, and the page numbers in the reader no longer match your document’s.
How to tell which you have
Section titled “How to tell which you have”Open the PDF and look at the page count and the page shape:
- Single pages: a 12-page brochure has 12 pages, each the shape of one sheet.
- Spreads: the same brochure has 7 pages, most of them twice as wide as they are tall.
How to fix it
Section titled “How to fix it”Best: re-export as single pages. Every layout app has the choice in its PDF export dialog. See the guide for your app: InDesign, Affinity, Canva.
If you only have the spreads PDF, set the document’s Page layout to Single (on the document’s page in your dashboard, or for every document in a client, under Client workspaces). Each spread then shows on its own, full width, which reads well on a laptop. On a phone the spread is still two pages squeezed into one screen, so re-exporting remains the better answer. See Styling the reader and embed.
Getting the cover right
Section titled “Getting the cover right”Because the first page always sits alone, page 1 should be your front cover. If your file starts with a blank page or an inside cover, delete it before exporting, or every spread after it will be paired one page off: the left page on the right and the right page on the left.
For a back cover that closes the book on its own, give the document an even number of pages. With an odd number, the last two pages face each other instead.