# Paged mode and PDF

> Turning a board into a column of real sheets - the three paper sizes, why pages have a gap, and the one question the switch asks before it moves your drawing.

Source: https://www.revquix.com/docs/canvas/paged-mode-and-pdf
Last verified: 2026-09-04

---

By default a board is an endless canvas. **Paged mode** turns it into a document: a single vertical
column of real sheets, with the camera held to that column, exported as a proper multi-page PDF.

Use it when the diagram is going to be printed or handed over as a document. Leave it off when you
are thinking.

## Paper

| Preset     | Size                                                                  |
| ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **A4**     | 210 × 297 mm                                                          |
| **Letter** | 8.5 × 11 in - slightly wider and shorter than A4                      |
| **A3**     | 297 × 420 mm, two A4s tall - for a diagram that will be printed large |

Each can be **portrait or landscape**, and margins are **narrow** (½ in), **normal** (1 in) or
**wide** (1½ in).

## The gap between sheets is real space

Pages are separated by a visible gap, and that gap belongs to neither page. It is not decoration.

> **Note** - You cannot draw across a fold, because the fold is somewhere you can see
>
> With sheets flush against each other, a sentence sitting on the boundary gets sliced in half across
> two PDF pages - and neither fix is good: cut it, or shift it at export time so the file no longer
> matches the screen.
>
> A visible gap removes the problem instead of solving it. It is the reason paged mode works without
> any reflow.

## Turning it on

Switching a board that already has a drawing on it is the only direction that touches your work, so
it asks first.

You get a preview of how the content will land, and **one option: scale it to fit the page width.**

> **Warning** - The scale option only appears when it would actually do something
>
> On a board that already fits, there is nothing to scale, and offering the switch anyway invites you
> to shrink a diagram for no reason. That is exactly how an earlier version shrank boards a little on
> every off-and-on-again round trip.
>
> If you do not see the option, your drawing already fits.

Turning paged mode **off** returns the board to a free canvas and does not move anything.

## Exporting the PDF

With paged mode on, the export menu offers **PDF** - one PDF page per sheet, in order, at the size
you picked.

What is on the sheet is what is in the file. The margins are guides for you rather than a crop, so
anything drawn into a margin still prints.

> **Note** - The PDF is a raster of each page, not selectable text
>
> Text in the exported PDF is part of the picture. If you need selectable or searchable text, paste
> the diagram into a document rather than sending the PDF as the document.

## Related

- [Exporting a board](https://www.revquix.com/docs/canvas/boards-and-export) - The other formats.

- [Drawing a diagram](https://www.revquix.com/docs/canvas/drawing-a-diagram) - Frames, which are a different way to bound an export.