About pages and spreads

The terms page and spread are fairly interchangeable in Affinity Publisher. If you're working with single pages rather than facing pages, the terms are interchangeable. However, for facing pages, the term spread becomes more significant.

Pages and spreads

Single pages: (A) landscape page, (B) portrait page.
Facing pages: (C) portrait pages in a horizontal spread, (D) portrait pages in a vertical spread, (E) landscape pages in a horizontal spread, (F) landscape pages in a vertical spread.

Pages and spreads

At document setup, you can create pages and spreads for your document. Pages in your publication will be presented individually by default, and can use a portrait or landscape orientation.

The Facing pages option allows you to arrange your publication in the form of spreads. By using spreads, instead of working on single pages, you'll be working with left (verso) and right (recto) page pairings displayed at the same time, e.g., a gatefold center spread of a magazine. Spreads can be arranged vertically or horizontally.

To use spreads in your publication:
  1. From the File menu, select Document Setup.
  2. Ensure the Facing pages option is ticked to work with spreads.
To alter the orientation of pages:
  1. Pages in your publication will use a portrait orientation by default. To change this to a landscape orientation, from the New document dialog, untick the Portrait option.
To edit spreads:
  1. From the File menu, select Spread Setup.
  2. From here, you can specify which spreads you wish to edit, and alter the dimensions, orientation, or margins of the selected spread(s).
To alter the arrangement of spreads:
  1. From the File menu, select Document Setup.
  2. Use the Arrange option to specify whether the spread should be arranged horizontally or vertically.

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