Before you start dropping in content, it's worth taking a minute to set up your pages — your page size, layout guides, and background colour. None of it is mandatory, but getting it right upfront makes the rest of the build a lot easier.
Your page size
Every presentation has a fixed page size — the proportions you build against on the canvas. The page size is set automatically based on where your studio is registered, and you'll choose the actual paper size again when you export to PDF.
The page size depends on your studio's region:
Australia, UK, EU, and most other regions: A4 / A3.
United States: Letter / Tabloid.
You can't mix different page sizes within the same presentation.
Page size on the canvas vs paper size at export
When you export to PDF, that's when you pick the paper size — A4 or A3 for most regions, Letter or Tabloid in the US. So you're working against your regional default on the canvas, but you choose what actually gets printed (or attached, or emailed) at export time.
💡 Tip — think of the page size on the canvas as your working size, and the export paper size as the printed size. Since the proportions match standard paper, your layout will scale cleanly to whichever export size you choose.
How to add layout guides and rulers
Layout guides give you a configurable grid to align elements against, so your presentation stays clean and consistent across pages. Rulers run along the top and left edges of each page for finer placement.
How to add layout guides
Click the Zoom menu in the topbar → Add guides.
Set your column count, row count, gap (the gutter between rows / columns), and margin (the space between the guide grid and the page edge).
Click Add to apply.
The guides stay on the document — they'll be there next time you open it.
How to add a custom ruler guide
The thin grey rulers around the edge of the page let you drag a horizontal or vertical guide line out onto the canvas:
Hover over the ruler — your cursor will change to show you can drag.
Click and drag onto the canvas to drop the guide.
To delete a guide: click it and press Delete, or right-click → Delete.
How snapping works
Snapping helps you line things up without having to nudge them pixel by pixel.
When you drag an element close to:
A layout guide line.
A custom ruler guide.
The edge or centre of another element already on the page.
…it'll automatically jump and lock to that line, and a pink alignment line appears briefly to show what it's snapped to. So if you're laying out a row of product images, dragging the second one near the first will snap their top edges into alignment, no eyeballing needed.
The same works for centring (drag towards the middle of an element to snap to its centre) and aligning to the page itself (drag near a margin guide and you'll snap to the page edge).
How to show or hide your guides
Use the Hide guides / Show guides option in the Zoom menu, or
Press Cmd + ; (Mac) / Ctrl + ; (Windows) to toggle them on and off.
💡 Tip — hide guides briefly when you want to see the presentation as your client will see it, then toggle them back on to keep working precisely.
How to change a page's background colour
Every page starts on a white background. You can change the background colour per page — useful for dark-mode mood boards, branded title pages, or visually grouping related pages.
How to set a background colour
Hover your mouse over the top-right corner of the page — a small set of page controls appears.
Click Background Color.
Pick a colour from the swatch picker, enter a hex code, or use the HSV slider. You can also adjust the opacity.
Click outside the picker to confirm.
How to remove a background colour
Open the same picker again and either reset to white or use the no fill toggle.
Background colours are per-page, not per-presentation
Background colours are set page-by-page. If you want every page in the presentation to use the same background, you'll need to set it on each one — or set it once and duplicate the page.
💡 Tip — once you've set a background colour you like, duplicate the page (rather than setting the colour again from scratch) to keep the look consistent across the section.
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