Display and Appearance

The Display tab is where you control everything about how your FlipBook looks: colors, theme, Page Flip animation, cover style, paper material, lighting, and rendering quality. This article covers every setting, what it does, when to change it, and which combinations work best together.

Where to find these settings

Two places:

Global Settings at FlipBooks → Settings → Display — defaults that apply to every new FlipBook.
Per-FlipBook on each FlipBook's Display tab — overrides only for that FlipBook.

Most fields have a Global / Custom switch: leave on Global to inherit your site-wide setting, flip to Custom to override.

The recommended workflow: set up your branding once globally, then only override per-FlipBook for one-off looks (e.g. a single dark-themed Halloween catalog).

The basics: Theme & Style

Five core settings that define the FlipBook's look.

Color Scheme (Chrome)

The Chrome controls the surface palette used for the toolbar, sidebars, and popups. Pick from seven options:

Chrome

Look

Best for

Slate

Neutral cool greys

Default, fits most brands

Paper

Clean off-white, minimal

Editorial, blog-style content

Midnight

Deep blue-black

Premium, sophisticated

Ocean

Cool teal/blue tint

Tech, modern brands

Forest

Subtle green tint

Eco, outdoors, nature

Glass

Translucent frosted

Modern, layered designs

Sepia

Warm cream tones

Reading-heavy content, archives

Each chrome has its own dark and light variants. The Default Theme setting (below) controls which variant a new visitor sees.

Brand Color

A single color picker (any hex value) that drives the accent color throughout the FlipBook:

Buttons (primary call-to-action buttons in the toolbar)
Active icon highlights
Focus rings (when keyboard-navigating)
Reading progress bar
Hover states on interactive elements

Default: #0055d4 (TNC blue). For best results, pick a color with sufficient contrast against both light and dark backgrounds — your chrome's variants will use the same brand color, so it needs to read well on both.

Hardcover Color (optional)

Only relevant when FlipBook Style is set to Hardcover. Sets the color of the hardcover wrap (front cover, back cover, spine).

Leave blank to derive the color from the chrome automatically. Override when you want the hardcover to match a specific brand color (e.g. red hardcover for a "Red" branded report).

The spine and bevel shades auto-derive from the hardcover color.

Default Theme

Three options:

Auto — uses the chrome's natural polarity. Slate, Midnight, Ocean, Forest default to dark; Paper, Sepia default to light; Glass uses the system theme.
Dark — forces dark mode on first load.
Light — forces light mode on first load.

Readers can still toggle dark/light at runtime using the toolbar's theme button (unless you've disabled it under Toolbar).

Page Flip Effect

How pages turn when a reader flips:

Effect

Look

Best for

Realistic

Full 3D Page Flip with curl, shadow, paper bend

Default — most polished

Hard

Flat rigid flip (like a hardcover book)

Cover spreads in hardcover style

Slide

2D horizontal slide between pages

Slower devices, simpler designs

Fade

Pixel-dissolve transition between pages

Editorial/minimal aesthetic

Realistic is the most polished but the most demanding. On older devices, Slide or Fade can feel snappier.

FlipBook Style

How the book itself looks as a 3D object:

Style

Look

Default

A bound book with soft paper pages

Hardcover

Hardcover wrap (front, back, spine) with bevel detail

Spiral

Spiral binding (the wire ring through pages)

Hardcover and Spiral need the Realistic or Hard Page Flip — they require 3D rendering. On Slide/Fade, the special style is ignored.

Advanced — Animation settings

These tune the feel of the page-turn animation. Defaults are good for most cases; tweak when the FlipBook needs a specific personality.

Setting

Default

What it does

Flip Duration

1200ms

How long a single Page Flip animation takes. Range: 200-2000ms. Higher = slower and more dramatic.

Fast Flip Duration

300ms

Used when readers hold the arrow key to power through many pages.

Curl Intensity

0.6

How much the page bends in the middle of a flip. Range: 0.3-1.5. Higher = more dramatic curl.

Flip Sound

Default

Pick a built-in sound (1-5), upload your own, or set to None.

Custom Sound File

—

Audio file (MP3/OGG) used when Flip Sound is set to Custom.

Tip: for a stately, premium feel, raise Flip Duration to 1500-2000ms. For a snappy, fast-paced catalog, lower it to 600-800ms.

Advanced — Rendering settings

These control image quality and performance.

Setting

Default

What it does

Render Mode

Auto

Auto (plugin picks based on device), 3D (force 3D rendering), 2D (force 2D — flat slide/fade).

Render Scale

Page texture sharpness. Range: 1-4. Higher = sharper but slower and more memory.

Loading Logo (Dark)

—

Image shown on the dark-themed loading screen.

Loading Logo (Light)

—

Image shown on the light-themed loading screen.

When to lower Render Scale:

Your audience is mostly mobile.
The FlipBook is performing poorly on older devices.

When to raise Render Scale:

Your readers zoom in frequently.
Page text needs to stay crisp at high zoom.

Render Mode "Auto" is recommended unless you have a specific reason. On capable devices it picks 3D; on weak devices it falls back to 2D.

Advanced — Paper & Material

Available only when Render Mode is 3D. These settings shape what the paper itself looks like.

Setting

Default

What it does

Paper Type

Matte

Matte, Glossy, Textured, Newsprint — surface texture

Paper Tint

(none)

Optional color tint applied to paper. Useful for sepia, antique, or branded looks.

Page Shininess

0.3

How reflective the paper looks under lighting. Range: 0-1.

Page Roughness

0.7

How rough the paper surface is. Range: 0-1. Opposite of shininess; higher = more matte.

Recipes:

Glossy magazine cover — Paper Type: Glossy, Shininess: 0.7, Roughness: 0.3.
Newspaper feel — Paper Type: Newsprint, Shininess: 0.1, Roughness: 0.9.
Antique parchment — Paper Type: Textured, Paper Tint: light yellow-brown, Shininess: 0.2.

Advanced — Camera & Scene

3D-only. Tunes the camera angle and lighting that frames the FlipBook.

Setting

Default

What it does

Camera Distance

How far back the camera sits from the book. Range: 6-20.

Camera Angle

18°

Vertical tilt of the camera (top-down feel). Range: 0-45.

Camera FOV

50°

Field of view in degrees. Range: 30-75. Wider FOV = fish-eye perspective.

Book Tilt

4°

Tilt of the FlipBook itself (subtle 3D anchoring). Range: 0-25.

Ambient Light Intensity

0.4

Overall scene brightness. Range: 0-2.

Main Light Intensity

1.2

Brightness of the primary directional light. Range: 0-2.

Main Light Position

[-10, 10, 10]

X/Y/Z position of the primary light source.

Shadows Enabled

Render drop shadows beneath the book.

Shadow Softness

Soft

Sharp, Soft, Very Soft

Shadow Opacity

0.5

Range: 0-1.

Drop Shadow Enabled

Render the soft shadow ring on the floor.

The defaults are tuned to look great in most settings. Tweak gently — extreme values can make the book hard to see.

Branding (Global Settings only)

Set these under FlipBooks → Settings → Display → Branding so they apply to every FlipBook on your site.

Setting

What it does

Logo (Dark Theme)

Image shown in the dark-themed FlipBook toolbar

Logo (Light Theme)

Image shown in the light-themed FlipBook toolbar

Favicon

Favicon used by the standalone FlipBook URL (yoursite.com/flipbook/your-slug/)

Tip: if your logo isn't transparent, ensure the dark version sits well on dark backgrounds and vice versa. SVG and PNG with alpha work best.

Common recipes

"Premium magazine"

Chrome: Midnight
Brand Color: deep gold (#c8a04a)
Default Theme: Dark
Page Flip Effect: Realistic
FlipBook Style: Default
Flip Duration: 1400
Paper Type: Glossy
Shininess: 0.6

"Editorial / longform reading"

Chrome: Sepia
Brand Color: black
Default Theme: Light
Page Flip Effect: Realistic
FlipBook Style: Default
Flip Duration: 1200
Paper Type: Textured
Paper Tint: soft cream

"Performance-first / mobile-heavy audience"

Chrome: any
Page Flip Effect: Slide (or Fade)
Render Mode: 2D
Render Scale: 1.5
Flip Duration: 600

"Hardcover annual report"

Chrome: Slate
FlipBook Style: Hardcover
Hardcover Color: company brand color
Page Flip Effect: Realistic
Paper Type: Matte
Flip Duration: 1500

Troubleshooting

The FlipBook looks great on my computer but choppy on phones.

Switch Render Mode to Auto (default) — it adapts to device.
Lower Render Scale from 2 to 1.5.
Switch Page Flip Effect to Slide for the smoothest mobile experience.

Colors look wrong / don't match my brand.

Brand Color affects accents only, not the full toolbar/sidebar. To change those, pick a different Chrome.
Don't hardcode colors via Custom CSS — they'll fight the theme. Use the built-in pickers.

Hardcover style isn't showing.

Confirm FlipBook Style is set to Hardcover.
Confirm Page Flip Effect is Realistic or Hard (Slide/Fade don't show 3D covers).
Confirm Render Mode is set to Auto or 3D.

Pages look pixelated.

Raise Render Scale to 3 or 4 — pages will be sharper.
Note: higher scale uses more memory; very long PDFs at scale 4 can struggle on phones.

Flip sound doesn't play.

Confirm Flip Sound is not set to None.
The reader's browser might have blocked autoplay audio — they need to interact with the page first (any click).
Test in an incognito window with default settings.

Next steps

Toolbar Customization — pick which buttons appear
Settings Overview — global default settings
Advanced — Custom CSS — when built-in options aren't enough