Merrimo User Guide › Comic canvas and pages

Manage pages and sections on Mac

In Merrimo on your Mac, you can organize stories into chapters and sections, reorder page thumbnails, and configure print spreads and resolution settings.

Add and reorder comic pages

Build your story chapter by chapter in the Pages sidebar:

1. In Merrimo on your Mac, open the Pages sidebar tab.
2. Choose Insert > New Page (or press ⌥⌘N) to append a page.
3. To group pages into an act or scene, choose Insert > New Section (or press ⇧⌥⌘N).
4. Drag page thumbnails up or down in the list to reorder them. The canvas automatically updates page numbering.
5. Press ⇧⌥⌘← to collapse all sections, or ⇧⌥⌘→ to expand all sections.

To work on one section at a time, click All Sections at the top of the Pages sidebar and choose a section: the list shows only its pages until you choose All Sections again. The same menu ends with New Section. The bar at the bottom of the sidebar shows how many pages the list is showing.

Use the canvas without pages

To brainstorm or collect images instead of laying out a comic, work on a canvas with no pages:

1. In the Pages sidebar, Control-click each page thumbnail and choose Delete Page.
2. Add panels, balloons, lettering and images as usual. With no pages, each one lands in the middle of the canvas view (or where you drop it), free of any page, just like elements drawn beside a page.

The canvas stays without pages when you reopen the story. To lay out pages again, choose Insert > New Page.

Configure book spreads and frame dimensions

Set up facing book spreads in the Inspector, or choose dimensions for phone stories, digital webtoons, manga, and print comic trim sizes in Page Settings:

1. Click an empty spot on the canvas (or select a page thumbnail) and open the Inspector (⌥⌘I).
2. Under Display, set Columns to 2 (or up to 4) and turn on Book Spreads to join facing pages side by side. Turning on Book Spreads in one column sets Columns to 2. Turn on Cover Page to keep the first page on its own row, and set Reading to Left to Right or Right to Left.
3. Click Page Settings… in the Inspector to choose a paper preset under Social, Webtoon, Comic Paper Sizes (such as Standard Comic (6.625 x 10.25) or Manga (5.125 x 7.25)), Book Paper Sizes (Trade Paperback), ISO Paper Sizes, or Media, and adjust page orientation and Margins.
4. To type a size of your own, enter a Width and Height: the size becomes Custom in the group you were in and keeps that group's behavior, so a Custom size under Social stays paged and in pixels. Every group ends with a Custom row, and Page Settings reopens on it.
5. Under Render Size, turn on Size renders to the page and set Pixels per inch (or choose Presets > Draft · 150, Screen · 200, or Print · 300). Click Apply to existing pages to resize existing pages in the story, or OK to save.

Make a comic for phone stories and posts

For a comic read on a phone one page at a time (an Instagram or Facebook story, a TikTok, a Reel, or a carousel post), choose a size under Social in Page Settings: Social Story is 1,080 × 1,920 px and Social Post is 1,080 × 1,350 px. Social sizes are in pixels with no margins, like Webtoon, but the pages stay separate, one story each, instead of joining into one long scroll. Under the preview, Page Settings says "Paged: one story a page". The canvas shows a Social story's pages two to a row, and the Inspector names the size beside Page Settings…. To export the pages, see Export PDF and webtoons on Mac.

Set up pages on iPhone and iPad

On iPad, tap an empty spot on the canvas so nothing is selected: the Inspector shows the document's settings. Under Page Setup, Paper names the size and its dimensions ("Social Story · 1,080 × 1,920"), and for a page sized in pixels Render size gives the size its pages are drawn and exported at. On iPhone, open the canvas's More (⋯) menu and tap Page Setup….

1. Tap Paper. The list starts with Social (Social Story, Social Post and Custom), then Webtoon, then the print groups (Comic Paper Sizes, Book Paper Sizes, ISO Paper Sizes and Media), each opening a list of its own. Each row draws the page in its shape, and the size in use has a checkmark.
2. Tap a size to use it. When the pages already hold something, you're asked whether to resize all of them or only the pages you add from now on; what's on the pages stays where it is.
3. For a size of your own, tap Custom in a group, enter a Width and Height (in pixels under Social and Webtoon, in inches in the print groups), and tap Done above the keyboard. The page above the fields takes the shape you type. A Custom size keeps its group's behavior, so under Social the pages stay separate, one story each.

Preview a phone story on iPhone

Story Preview plays your canvas on an iPhone the way a follower sees a social story, so you can check what the crop shows and fix lettering that gets cut. Each page fills the screen edge to edge and plays for five seconds before the next one comes. A page that isn't the shape of the screen is cropped at its sides (or top and bottom), as Instagram and TikTok crop it, rather than shrunk to fit. The preview keeps up with the story: a change made on your Mac shows on the iPhone while it plays, and a page you add or delete adds or removes a segment.

1. On your iPhone, open the story and tap Preview, under Canvas. When the canvas has more than one section, choose Whole Canvas or one of the sections listed under Sections; a section plays only its own pages. A canvas with one section plays at once.
2. Or, while reading the canvas, tap More and choose Preview to play from the page you're on, through the end of its section.
3. Tap the right two-thirds of the screen for the next page, or the left third for the previous one. A swipe to the side turns pages too.
4. Touch and hold to pause: the page stays and the segments at the top fade away, so only your page is on screen. Lift your finger to carry on.
5. Swipe down to close. After the last page, the preview closes by itself.