Reusable design
Page templates
A page template is a whole-Canvas layout you design once and reuse across many Canvases — so a multi-page menu, booklet or catalog keeps a single, consistent look with almost no repeat work.
Not the same as document templates. A document template is a whole-document starter you pick from the gallery when creating a new design. A page template is a reusable page layout that lives inside a document. (If you've used InDesign, page templates are what it calls master pages.)
What a page template is
Where a block reuses a group of objects, a page template reuses an entire Canvas: shared backgrounds, headers and footers, page numbers, repeated print furniture and guides. Apply it to a set of Canvases and they all inherit the same foundation, while each page still holds its own unique content on top.
That makes page templates the natural backbone of any multi-page print job. Set the page template right once and every page in the document stays aligned — the same margins, the same running header, the same trim guides, page after page.
Save a Canvas as a page template
Design the Canvas you want to reuse — the background, header/footer and anything else that should repeat — then turn it into a page template:
- Right-click an empty area of the Canvas.
- Choose Save as page template.
The new page template appears in the Library, in the Page templates section (collapsed by default — click the heading to expand it). Until you've saved one, that section shows its empty state:
No page templates yet. Right-click a canvas → "Save as page template".
Each page template gets a row with its name and, on hover, three actions: a pencil to open and edit the page template, and the two apply buttons described next.
Apply to the current page
To put a page template under the Canvas you're working on, hover its row in the Page templates list and click the + button — Apply to current page. The active Canvas inherits the page template's furniture immediately, with your existing page content left on top.
Use this when you're building pages one at a time, or when only some Canvases should share the page template.
Apply to all pages and flow text
The chain button on the row — Apply to all pages & flow text — does two jobs in one click. It applies the page template to every Canvas in the document, in order, and it flows (threads) text from one page into the next so a continuous story runs cleanly across the whole set.
That's the button to reach for when you have long, continuous copy — a catalog description, a multi-page article, terms and conditions — that should fill page after page. Because it threads the frames for you, text that overflows one Canvas picks up on the following one automatically. See Columns & threading text for how threaded frames behave once they're linked.
Overrides on applied pages
Inheriting a page template doesn't lock a Canvas down. You can still adjust the objects that came from the page template on any individual page — nudge a header, swap a color, hide an element — without affecting the other pages.
Those local changes are overrides, and they hold as long as they still make sense. If you later edit the page template in a way that removes what an override pointed at, the app tells you:
Some overrides no longer apply and were dropped.
That's expected — it just means the page template moved on and a stale local tweak couldn't be carried forward.
Detach a page template
When a Canvas needs to break away from its page template — a cover page, a full-bleed spread, a one-off that no longer fits the pattern — detach it:
- Right-click the Canvas (it must be one that came from a page template).
- Choose Detach page template.
The command only appears on Canvases that are actually instances of a page template. After detaching, the Canvas becomes fully independent: its objects stay exactly as they were, but it no longer updates when you edit the page template.
Page templates vs blocks
Both build-once systems, aimed at different scopes:
| Page template | Block | |
|---|---|---|
| Reuses | A whole-Canvas layout | A group of objects |
| Lives in | Library → Page templates | Library → Blocks |
| Best for | Multi-page layouts, shared furniture | Logos, badges, footers, repeated components |
| Applies to | Entire Canvases | Anywhere on a Canvas |
Reach for a page template when the thing you're repeating is the page; reach for a block when it's an element you drop in several places.
Print workflow tips
Page templates earn their keep on production jobs:
- Put bleed, trim guides and any repeated print furniture on the page template so every page shares the exact same setup. See Document setup & bleed.
- Add running headers, footers and page numbers once, on the page template, rather than page by page.
- Keep the page template's content inside your safe margins so nothing repeated ever risks the cut.
Tip: build the page template first, before you fill in page content. It's far easier to lay down a clean page template and pour content onto it than to retrofit one under pages you've already built.
Where to go next
Reusing a whole Canvas is one half of building fast — reusing objects is the other. Learn Blocks (reusable components), and see how page templates sit alongside multiple Canvases in a single document.