Unable to see some PDFs in Two-pages (side-by-side) PDF view in MacOS Preview

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Unable to see some PDFs in Two-pages (side-by-side) PDF view in MacOS Preview

I have a collection of PDFs, and see that for some PDFs, the 2-page side-by-side view works as expected (ie 2 pages are displayed side-by-side) and for some, it doesn't (ie displays on single pages). Let's call the ones that display correctly type A, and the ones that don't type B.

For type B, Even after selecting 2-page view, Preview only shows Single Page View.

For type B:

If you're in Single-Page View, and you select Two-Page View, the view stays in Single-Page.

If you're in Single-Page View and you select Two-Page Continuous View, the view switches to Single-Page Continuous.

Similarly, if you try to switch to any of the Two-Page views from Single-Page continuous, it switches to the corresponding Single-Page View.

This is a bit irritating as I need all these PDFs to be displayed in 2-page side-by-side view. This works correctly in the Chrome Browser PDF preview for both types of PDFs.

I'm attaching links to examples of both types of PDFs.

Link to a "type A" PDF

Link to a "type B" PDF

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 26, 2025 3:44 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,218 points

Jul 26, 2025 7:06 AM in response to apk276

Not all PDFs are created equal, and the type B is produced by jsPDF 1.5.3. Even though it is a PDF v1.3 document, the contents may not be entirely compatible with Apple's aging Preview PDF reader, and as you observe, it stubbornly resists a two-page view in Preview. The Type A is a PDF v1.7 document, also produced by jsPDF 1.5.3.

The type B PDF does toggle nicely between single and two-page view in the current Adobe Acrobat Reader v25.001.20577 — a product that maintains a more robust PDF handling quality.

Tested: macOS Sequoia v15.5.

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