The catalog is done. The link is not.
The spread looks right. The type sits where you put it. The client does not want an InDesign package, and they will not enjoy a press PDF that their phone treats like a download.
You have three doors. Publish Online, which is Adobe’s own host. A PDF of the pages, opened as a flipbook. Or a plugin such as in5, Flipsnack, or Joomag, which publishes into that company’s system. This article is the second door. It also says, plainly, when the first door is the one you should take.
If you designed the piece in Canva instead, the Canva flipbook walkthrough is the matching set of steps. What a flipbook actually is, if you need the short version for a client, is in what is a PDF flipbook.
Three ways out of InDesign
Pick the row that matches the file in front of you. The rest of the article is how to do the PDF path without gluing the pages together.
| Publish Online | A PDF, then a flipbook | An InDesign plugin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | Adobe hosts it. You get a link and an embed code from the dashboard. | You export a PDF. A flipbook reads those pages. | That company’s host, after you install their tool. |
| What you need first | A verified Adobe ID and an internet connection. Adobe’s help says unverified IDs cannot publish. | The PDF. No publish step inside InDesign. | Their account. Prices change, so read their page the day you install it. |
| What survives from the InDesign file | Buttons, slideshows, animation, audio, and video. Adobe’s Publish Online help lists those. | The look of the pages. A print PDF does not keep live buttons or video. | Whatever that plugin claims. Check it. Do not assume it matches Publish Online. |
| A password on the link | Yes. General tab, Enable Password Protection. | Not this feature. A password on the PDF only stops someone opening the file. | Depends on the vendor. |
| Best fit | The piece is interactive, or it has to stay inside Adobe. | A catalog, lookbook, or brochure that is a sequence of designed pages. | You already publish on that platform every week. |
Adobe documents Publish Online as File > Publish Online. The General tab takes a title, a description, a page range, and Export As: Single shows one page at a time, Spread shows facing pages together. The Advanced tab covers the cover image, image quality, and whether viewers can download a print PDF. The Analytics tab can link a Google Analytics account. There is also Export HTML5 Package, in the same dialog, if you want a local HTML package instead of Adobe’s host. That page was last updated on 2 June 2026. If a menu name has moved in your version, trust the Publish Online help over this paragraph.
Export pages, not one wide sheet
Facing pages are how you design a catalog. They are a bad way to hand the file to a flipbook.
If you export spreads, the left page and the right page become one wide PDF page. The flipbook then turns that whole sheet as a single page. There is no turn in the middle, because there is no middle. You already glued the spread shut.
Leave Facing Pages on in Document Setup. You still want to design in spreads. The export is what changes.
For a normal catalog, choose File > Export, then Adobe PDF (Print). On the General tab, do not turn on Spreads. Each InDesign page should become its own PDF page. You do not have to split the document into single pages by hand before you export.
Adobe PDF (Interactive) is the other export, for a PDF that must keep form fields. Its General settings name the same idea out loud. Adobe’s interactive PDF help, also updated 2 June 2026, says Export As Pages for individual pages and Export As Spreads for facing pages together. That page is Interactive PDF options. Use Interactive when the PDF itself is the deliverable. Use Print when you want a clean page-turn book of a lookbook.
Turn crop marks and the printer slug off unless you want the reader to see them in the margin. Bleed that sticks out past the page will show up too. If the job is a saddle-stitched booklet for a print shop, that is a different export, covered in how to turn a PDF into a booklet. This article is the book on a screen.
A screen PDF, not a press PDF
A press PDF is built for a printer. The pictures are huge. A flipbook draws those same pages in a browser, on a laptop or a phone. A long photo catalog exported at press settings can be slow to open, and it can be too heavy to share.
Adobe says the same tradeoff on Publish Online’s Advanced tab: higher image resolution increases quality and file size. You do not need a magic DPI number. Export, then look at one page of small type and one full-bleed photo. If the type is soft, raise the image quality one step and export again. If the file is enormous and the type was already sharp, bring the images down.
- Pages, not spreads.
- No crop marks, unless you mean the reader to see printer marks.
- Check body text and one photograph after the export, not only the InDesign screen.
- If you will share a public link on this site, a guest can publish a PDF up to 100 MB. An account reaches 300 MB. Past 300 MB, export a lighter PDF. An account does not lift that ceiling.
That size is the original PDF you drop in. A press file of a photo book often clears it. A screen export of the same pages usually does not. Make the lighter PDF before you promise the client a link.
Open that PDF as a flipbook
Once the PDF is single pages and light enough to open, the rest is short.
- Open pdftoflipbook.io and drop the PDF on the page. The preview is drawn in your browser. The original PDF is not uploaded for that preview.
- Turn a few pages. On a wide screen you should see a spread built from your separate pages. On a phone it should be one page at a time. If you see one endless wide sheet, you exported spreads. Go back one section.
- If the book is only for you, stop. Close the tab. Nothing was published.
- If the client needs a link, use Share. That step stores the page images so the link can open. Do not publish a file you are not allowed to share.
A password on the PDF is a different thing from a password on a published link. If the PDF itself is locked, you will be asked for that password so the pages can be read. That does not hide the shared book behind a second password. If the link must ask for a password, use Publish Online’s Enable Password Protection, described above.
Client work, price lists, and anything with a name you would not post in public belong in the privacy guide before you click Share. A preview you only look at yourself is not that step.
Stay with Publish Online when the PDF would drop the work
Exporting a PDF is the wrong move when the InDesign file is doing more than sitting there as pages.
Stay on Publish Online if the piece uses buttons, a slideshow, audio, or video. Adobe’s help says those come along. A print PDF flattens them into whatever was visible on the page, or drops them. You will not get them back by opening that PDF in a flipbook.
Stay if the published link must ask for a password. The General tab has that switch. Adobe also notes a quirk worth knowing before you embed it: on a password-protected document with more than one page, a viewer who changes pages from the page menu has to enter the password again.
Stay if you want Google Analytics on that document, or you already run the Publish Online dashboard and the team expects the book to live there. Export HTML5 Package, at the bottom of the same dialog, is the local version of that interactive output. It is still Adobe’s HTML, not a PDF.
A plugin earns its place when you already publish on that platform every week and you want the file to leave InDesign in one click. It is a poor first step for one catalog this afternoon. You would be maintaining their account on top of the InDesign file. If you were about to do that with Heyzine or FlipBuilder, the cost of those free plans is a separate article.
Design in spreads. Export pages. The flipbook builds the spread again when someone opens it. If you export the spread, the pages are already stuck together.