Tutorial
Canva cannot make a flipbook. Here is what does
Canva exports a static PDF, not a page-turn flipbook. The export setting that keeps your colours, and the upload that gives you a URL that flips.
3 min
Notion's native PDF block is a flat scroller. Paste an i3Dify viewer URL in the same block and visitors get a book they turn by dragging it.
You dropped a PDF into a Notion page and it came out as a grey scroller. Visitors get a download link with a thumbnail, or a vertical strip of flat pages nobody stops on. Notion will render a live viewer in that same block if you hand it a URL its embed engine recognizes, and an i3Dify flipbook is one of them.
Upload a PDF straight to Notion and you get one of two things. A file block, which is a download link with a small preview thumbnail that most visitors never click. Or an inline embed, which shows the pages as a flat vertical scroll, the same interface as a cloud drive preview. For an internal runbook that is fine.
For a page you send outside the team, a portfolio, a lookbook, a menu, a mood book for a wedding, it is the part of the page people skim past. A flipbook behaves like an object instead. Click the right quarter of the viewer and the sheet bends along its spine as it turns, with the two pages either side already loaded so the turn does not stall on a phone. The left quarter goes back, and the arrow keys do the same. Drag anywhere and the book spins, then springs back when you let go. A hotspot you drop on a page opens its link in a new tab, and the dock carries zoom buttons for small type.
Build the book first. Upload the PDF, where pages are extracted in the browser, set the cover color and the dock of links, then publish. The share panel hands you a viewer URL and an iframe. Notion only wants the URL, because its embed engine writes the iframe for you.
In the page, type /embed on a new line, pick Embed, paste the URL, click Embed link. Pasting the URL straight onto a line and choosing Create embed does the same thing. The block lands short, so drag the bottom edge to somewhere between 600 and 800 pixels and the viewer fills whatever width the column gives it. Free covers 3 projects and 50 MB, and every free viewer carries the i3Dify pill in the corner. Pro is 3 dollars a month and removes it.
The two privacy layers are unrelated, which is what trips people. Notion's sharing decides who sees the page. The project's visibility decides whether the viewer loads at all, and a Private project answers the public URL with a Not Found page, so the block comes up empty. Set it to Unlisted or Public before you paste. Unlisted keeps it out of search and open to whoever holds the link.
For a client deliverable, stack a password on top of an Unlisted project and send the passphrase out of band. The limit is worth saying plainly: the password covers the project page, not the direct image URLs, so treat it as a lock on the door rather than a safe. Sharing and distribution has the per project settings.
Two failure modes are worth knowing before you build a page around the embed. The Notion mobile app constrains iframe interaction more than a browser does, so app users still get the viewer but the touch gestures feel tighter. Anyone who opens your shared page in a mobile browser gets the full thing.
Exports split as well. An HTML export keeps the iframe, a PDF export replaces it with a link. If the page gets archived or forwarded as a file, paste the viewer URL as plain text next to the embed so the book survives the trip.
The same project embeds in WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Carrd and Squarespace, where you paste the iframe instead of the bare URL. One project, one URL, and the visitor gets a book inside the page instead of a download link nobody clicks.
Turn your PDF into a 3D flipbook.
Notion lazy loads embeds as the visitor scrolls, and the viewer is around a 1 MB initial bundle that streams pages on demand. Your Notion page loads at the same speed it did before.
The embed inherits the Notion page's access controls, so if the page is private, only logged in members ever see the block. To gate the viewer itself, set a password on the i3Dify project as well.
Notion can only embed Public or Unlisted projects. A Private one answers its public URL with a Not Found page, so the block renders empty. Set it to Unlisted and add a password instead of leaving it Private.
An HTML export keeps the iframe. A PDF export replaces it with a link, so paste the viewer URL beside the embed if the page will be exported.
Canva exports a static PDF, not a page-turn flipbook. The export setting that keeps your colours, and the upload that gives you a URL that flips.
Substack blocks iframes in posts. A linked cover image is the block that carries a 3D flipbook, and here is how to build one readers actually tap.
Transform your content into immersive 3D experiences in seconds.
Create Flipbook