Working with multiple canvases

A design can contain several canvases. Each canvas is a page or artboard with its own size, background, and content. Use several for a card front and back, a social campaign, or a longer document.

Add and name pages#

Use the + button in Pages or Object → Add canvas to create a page. The Pages panel shows a thumbnail for each page and, in a facing-page document, groups left and right pages into spreads. Select a page to bring it into view. Use the page's menu to duplicate, rename, or remove it. Duplication copies its contents and puts the copy after the source in page order. A design keeps at least one page.

Give pages names that are useful in a list, such as “Cover,” “Inside,” and “Back.” For page dimensions and units, see Canvas size, units & presets.

Select and move canvases#

Click a canvas on the stage or its thumbnail in Pages to select it. Shift-click adds or removes a canvas from a selection. Drag across empty stage space to draw a selection box around several canvases. Drag a selected canvas to move it with its contents; when several canvases are selected, they move together. Hold Alt while dragging to leave copies at the starting positions.

Selecting a canvas differs from selecting an object on it. Click an object to edit that object. Click a canvas label or its empty area when you mean to work with the page itself. The Layers panel lists objects on the active page.

Set the page order#

Drag thumbnails in Pages to reorder them. When several pages are selected, a drag moves the selected set together. On a touch screen, open a page's menu for the move-left and move-right actions.

In Page-order view, the canvases are laid out in reading order. Drag a page there to change its position in the document rather than its free position on the stage. Page order controls the sequence in a multi-page export and in presentation mode. Recheck page numbers and any table of contents after a reorder.

Facing pages and export#

Turn on Facing pages in document setup when left and right pages should sit around a spine. Pages then displays spreads and can apply left or right page templates. See Facing pages & spreads for booklet work.

A multi-canvas design can export as a multi-page PDF or separate files. Use the multiple-canvas export guide to choose the output. Clip content to canvases hides overflow at page edges in the editor and export; leave it off while positioning bleed artwork, then inspect the final export setting before downloading.