I understand the default reading order used for PDF export, but it's utterly non-intuitive -- and forces us to order our artboards in ways that do NOT make sense for the experiences we're designing, and only provide a work-around.

It would make much more sense to have them go in their order in the Layers menu (or to at least have this as an option). Then we could at least arrange the output page sequence differently than the physical layout of the artboards.

To those experiencing issues exporting pdf in the order suggested by Peter Flynn..
Check if some of the artboards are "off by a pixel or two" in the vertical order, this will cause some artboards to be considered out of order.

hi Peter. its not exporting artboards in the same order you are saying. its not left to right. Iam using latest version as on 28-5-2020

numerical/alphabetical artboard naming option

Very important to fix this quickly. It's making XD unusable for my clients

Having the same problem here. Hope Xd could provide functions for arranging page order when exporting PDF. Otherwise, it would be so time-consuming if we always need to rearrange the page orders after exporting. This feature is really important as some sort of clients would rather prefer looking at a PDF than a preview link.

This is really frustrating. I've literally spent hours moving pages around because it's not working left to right in terms of exporting PDF artboards. PLEASE fix this. It's consuming SOOO much time when making PDFs. It's killing my efficiency.

One work around is to create a new blank XD file, select each artboard, copy and paste into the new file in the order you want. Far from ideal, but it beats reordering pages in an exported PDF each time.

This is still an issue. I've tried all of the suggestions here, and none of them work. This combined with the broken "auto" margins feature for the layout grid, I'm fed up with XD. Right now it's a terrible program.

It is not working when my order is topmost row left to right, then move on to the next row of artboards. Please look into this.

After keeping the first artboard at x = 0, y = 0.
And aligning the next artboard at y = 0, I have around 26. X is varying for different artboard.

And based on the listing of the artboard in Layers (window/manager) as compared to the similar visual display at the workspace.
The PDF is getting generated in the right sequence.

Will this be even considered to be fixed or never going to happen??

For some reason, it's not working that way right now.

I would very much appreciate the option to export PDF document as per order in my art-board panel. Currently, if it is a bigger app, and if I need to share it as PDF, this can get very time consuming.

The Y value should be exactly right for the export to work. Works perfectly if the Y value is exactly the same and boards are arranged from left to right.

My artboards get exported to PDF without rhyme or reason, and do not follow the order described at top - left to right, top to bottom.
I need to go into Acrobat and re-arrange my sheets one by one - not scalabale and plain not cool.

Please fix this simple basic requirement.

So will this be addressed? This is simply a flaw. It should export in the exact order as defined in the "Artboards" panel.

As Peter Flynn mentioned

"Just to clarify how it works currently – artboards in the PDF are currently listed based on looking at your artboard layout on XD’s canvas in “reading order." The PDF page order will start with artboards in the topmost row left to right, then move on to the next row of artboards below that (starting with the leftmost artboard again), etc."

@Peter this is not entirely correct even if you order them perfectly from left to right. you cannot export pdf in row and the reason artboards are not aligned. After arranging the artboards from left to right, make sure you have aligned all your artborads from top. This is how it works in XD to export one sequential PDF.

Design is not a challenge, it's XD who has given us option to explore this software :). because they even don't know this software.

The current export to PDF function works well for a 10 page app or feature mock-up, but when you get to more complicated apps, its a train-wreck. I know the focus is on sharing through the cloud, but I often have to print out companion documents for stakeholders to follow while in presentations.

Exporting in the same order as the layers panel would be a very simple and intuitive way to make this a lot better.

nothing works, but there's a way to do it... Rename your artboards 1,2,3... and export png's into one folder, if you are using a mac, all you've got to do is select all files, right-click > Quick Action > Create PDF