How can I view 2 pages side by side?

Tractorgirl wrote:

I dont know how to delete page 3

Select it in the sidebar and press the delete key.

Save the PDF as 2 different files and open them side-by-side at the required pages ... absolute genius . Why didn't I think of that!! I shall be doing that in future and it will save me a load of hassle so thank you, young man!!

You might want to instead consider adding a blank page to the beginning. It's the opposite of deleting a page. Just drag a new one-page PDF into the sidebar. Sometimes Preview wants to open multiple PDFs, so adding pages can be a little tricky until you get the hang of it.

I dont know what a true PDF editor is!!

I'm not sure you will have much luck with a "true" PDF editor. It is true that Preview is relatively simple and meant for end users. But for this particular feature, Preview is displaying the data how I would expect a professional tool to work.

The idea of "facing pages" is a very specific way to layout pages. It involves knowledge of how pages are folded in a booklet. Preview's expectation is that you might want to print this PDF. The problem really isn't the first page. The problem is page 2 and beyond. Pages 2 and 3 (and all subsequent pages) need to display as they would if you were actually reading a book.

You are just trying to view 2 pages at once, in a slightly incorrect sequence. Preview doesn't support that. Any PDF tool that did support that would be wrong.

FWIW, PDFgear from the App Store will show the first two pages side by side.

Try adding a blank Page 4 and see if 1 and 2 appear side by side. However, probably page 3 will appear next to the blank page.

Tractorgirl wrote:

I have a 3-page PDF.

In Preview I can choose single page view or two page view.

If I choose two page view, it shows me page 1 on its own, and pages 2 and 3 side-by-side

I need to see pages 1 and 2 side-by-side so I can screenshot and save as a single image.

Is there a way to do this please? It's driving me absolutely mad having to screen shot each page separately and then use a merging app to make them into one image!

delete page 3 and compare your results...(?)

open two instances of the PDF side by side ...(?)

use a true PDF editor and compare your results...(?)

Tractorgirl wrote:

• Thank you Leroy.

I dont know how to delete page 3 🤣🤣🤣🤣

•

Save the PDF as 2 different files and open them side-by-side at the required pages ... absolute genius . Why didn't I think of that!! I shall be doing that in future and it will save me a load of hassle so thank you, young man!!

•

I dont know what a true PDF editor is!!

Preview.app is a convenient catch all application baked into the macOS—which continues to be dumbed down over the decades and a mere shell of its old self as a powerful editor...

For any amount of serious work with pdf's you can investigate options

a true PDF editor, there are many, here are a few alternative options (some free, some paid) :

Acrobat Reader / Adobe Acrobat DC

https://get.adobe.com/reader/

PDFpen / Nitro

https://pdfpen.com/pdfpen/

pdfExpert

https://pdfexpert.com/

Master PDF Editor

https://code-industry.net/get-masterpdfeditor/

Foxit Reader / Editor

https://www.foxit.com/

Wondershare PDFelement

https://pdf.wondershare.com/

personally I have used PDFpen (now Nitro) since at least 2016 maybe before...

Smile on My Mac—>Smile—>Nitro

etresoft wrote:

You are just trying to view 2 pages at once, in a slightly incorrect sequence. Preview doesn't support that. Any PDF tool that did support that would be wrong.

Any PDF tool that does support it would be different than Preview. Doesn't mean it's wrong.

dialabrain wrote:

Any PDF tool that does support it would be different than Preview. Doesn't mean it's wrong.

Ah, but it does! And this is trivially easy to demonstrate.

I went to look for a PDF with pagination with the intent of creating an invalid page ordering. As luck would have it, the Internet Archive had already done it wrong. As you can see from this screenshot:

The page numbers are on the inside. They should be on the outside. You can put them in the middle bottom. You can put them at the middle top. Ideally, you should put them on the outside. But they never, ever go on the inside.

This is the kind of layout that Preview is trying to maintain. Of course, any PDF could have funky page ordering and show it incorrectly. But the idea is to make it look like an ePub in Apple's Books app. When you put a closed book in front of you, the cover is the right-hand side (at least in LTR languages). You don't get facing pages until you open it.

etresoft wrote:

Ah, but it does! And this is trivially easy to demonstrate.

FWIW, not all PDFs are books or have page numbers on the sides.

Case in point…

Another example, AppleCare document…