- Insert Photos and Other Graphics into Pages Documents
- Design Photos and Other Images in Pages Documents
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Design Photos and Other Images in Pages Documents
You can design the photos and other images in your Pages documents in a number of ways, including the following:
- Resize photos or images. You can change the size of images to make them fit the page or size them appropriately for their level of detail or importance to the content. You can also change the proportion of images, but this can have unintended consequences. So be careful about changing the size of images out of their original proportions, or you may end up with squished or stretched versions.
- Rotate photos or images. You can change the orientation of images or flip them horizontally or vertically.
- Style photos or images. You can use the Inspector to change the appearance of photos and images by adding borders, using drop shadows, applying a reflection, and changing their opacity. These tools enable you to make images more visually appealing and increase their impact; they also enable you to express your creativity. Like styling other elements, such as text and tables, you can use the built-in styles in Pages or create and save your own styles.
- Mask photos or images. Masking is useful to remove parts of images that you don’t want to appear in a document. Masking is similar to cropping except that when you mask an image, you don’t actually change the image; rather, you choose the part of the image you want to be shown, and the rest is covered over so that it can’t be seen. Masking is nice because it is easy to adjust the mask or simply remove it to display the full image again. (This is in contrast to cropping, in which part of the image is actually removed and is no longer available.)
- Remove background from photos or images. Sometimes an image has something in the background that is distracting. You can use the tools in Pages to remove the background from images so that the primary subject becomes more prominent.
- Adjust photos or images. Although Pages isn’t a photo-editing app, it does have some basic tools you can use to improve the quality of images in your documents. These include adjusting the exposure, contrast, saturation, and other aspects of photos. You can also use the Enhance tool in Pages to have the app make semi-automatic adjustments to a photo. It’s often a good idea to start with the Enhance tool, and if you don’t like the changes it makes, you can easily undo them and adjust the photo manually.
- Position photos or images manually. You usually want photos and images to be in the area of text to which they relate. Like other objects in Pages, you can manually position photos on a page.
- Use the Arrange tab to place photos or images. The Inspector’s Arrange tab provides tools you use to determine how photos and images interact with surrounding text. You can configure photos and images to remain on a page or float with the surrounding text. You can also layer images, rotate them, and more.
Refer to the following tasks for the details to accomplish each of these design activities.
Resize Photos in Pages Documents
You can easily resize images in documents as follows:
- Select the image you want to resize.
Drag a selection handle located on the photo’s corners to make the photo larger or smaller. As you drag, a line appears across the diagonal of the image, and its current dimensions appear next to the selection handle you grabbed.
When the photo is the size you want it to be, release the selection handle.
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Rotate Photos in Pages Documents
You can change the orientation of images or photos in your documents by performing the following steps:
- Select the image you want to rotate.
- Click the Arrange tab of the Inspector.
In the Angle box, enter the angle with which you want to rotate the image; for example, to rotate it clockwise by 90 degrees, enter -90.
- Press Enter. The image is rotated by the amount you input.
- To rotate a photo, drag the Rotate wheel clockwise or counterclockwise. As you drag, the image rotates, and you see the current angle in the Angle box.
- To flip an image horizontally, click the horizontal arrow.
To flip an image vertically, click the vertical arrow.
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Style Photos in Pages Documents
Use the style tools to add visual interest to photos and other images in Pages documents.
- Select the image you want to style.
- Click the Style tab in the Inspector.
- Click the left- or right-facing arrows to browse the available styles.
- Click a style you want to apply to the photo. The photo is restyled accordingly. If you are happy with the photo, you can skip the rest of these steps.
To manually apply a border, click the disclosure triangle next to Border.
- Choose the type of border you want to apply. The options are Line, Picture Frame, and No Border.
Configure the options for the type you selected; when you choose Picture Frame, click the frame menu.
Click the style of frame you want to apply.
- Drag the Scale slider to the left to reduce the thickness of the border or to the right to increase it; or use the scale box to enter or choose a scale.
To apply a shadow to the image, click the disclosure triangle next to Shadow.
- On the Shadow menu, choose the type of shadow you want to apply. The options are None, Drop Shadow, Contact Shadow, and Curved Shadow. These steps show the Curved Shadow option, but using the others is similar.
- Drag the Inward slider to the left or right to determine if the shadow curves toward the image or away from it and what the amount of curvature should be.
- Use the Offset slider or box to change the size of the shadow relative to the bottom (using a positive offset) or the top of the photo (using a negative offset).
- Use the Opacity slider or box to make the shadow more opaque or more transparent.
- Use the Angle wheel or box to change the angle of the shadow.
Use the Color tool to change the shadow’s color.
- To apply a reflection to the image, check the Reflection check box.
- Use the Reflection slider or box to set the amount of reflection.
- Use the Opacity slider or box to make the photo more opaque or more transparent.
If you want to be able to reuse the styles you have applied, click the right-facing arrow at the top of the Style tab until you see an empty style with the add (+) icon.
Click the empty style to save your current style settings.
To apply your custom style, select the image to which you want to apply it, and click the style you saved.
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Mask Photos in Pages Documents
To hide parts of photos you don’t want to appear in a document, you can mask them.
- Select the image you want to mask.
- Click the Image tab of the Inspector.
Click Edit Mask. The mask tool appears.
Drag the slider to the left to increase, or to the right to decrease, the size of the photo within the frame. The parts of the image that won’t be displayed are grayed out.
Drag the selection handles on the mask box to change the proportions of the box.
- Drag the image around inside the box to change the part of the image that is displayed.
When you’re done making changes, click Done. The photo is masked.
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Remove Background from Photos in Pages Documents
To remove background elements, or any color for that matter, from photos, use the Instant Alpha tool.
- Select the photo you want to change.
- Click the Image tab.
Click Instant Alpha.
Drag over areas of color that you want to remove from the photo. As colors are selected, the corresponding parts of the photo that will be hidden are highlighted in blue. (To remove a single color, just click on it instead of dragging around.)
Continue selecting colors to remove.
When the image appears as you want it to be in the document, click Done.
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Adjust Photos in Pages Documents
Although Pages isn’t a photo editing app, you can do some basic photo editing as follows:
- Select the photo you want to adjust.
- Click the Image tab.
Click Enhance to have Pages adjust the photo for you. If you like the results, you’re done. If not, continue to make manual adjustments.
- Use the Exposure slider and box to change the photo’s exposure.
- Use the Saturation slider and box to change the saturation of the colors in the photo.
For even more options, click the Adjust Image button. The Adjust Image palette appears.
- Use the tools on the Adjust Image palette to make more adjustments to the image.
Close the palette when you’re done adjusting the image.
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Position Photos Manually in Pages Documents
You can easily change the position of photos and other images in your Pages documents by dragging them.
- Select the photo you want to move.
Drag the photo around the document. As you move it, its current location appears in the black pop-up box. Yellow alignment lines appear to show when the photo is lined up with something. For example, when you see a yellow line down the center of the photo, that means its centerline is aligned with the centerline of the document. Alignment lines can appear on each side or the top or bottom, too. Text around the photo flows according to its arrange settings (covered in the next task).
- When the photo is where you want it, release it.
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Position Photos Using the Arrange Tab in Pages Documents
Configuring a photo’s Arrange settings, determine how it interacts with the text and other objects on the page on which it appears.
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- Select the photo you want to configure.
- Click the Arrange tab.
- If you want the photo to remain on the current page when text is added above it, click Stay on Page.
- If you want the photo to float so that it remains in the context of the text around it when you add text or other content before it, click Move with Text.
- On the Text Wrap menu, choose how you want the photo to interact with the text around it. Choose Automatic to have Pages flow the text automatically. Choose Around to have the text flow around the top, bottom, and sides of the image. Or choose Above and Below to have text flow along the top and bottom of the image but not along its sides.
Use the Text Fit buttons to determine how closely text follows the borders of the image. Click the button on the left to have the text conform to the rectangular boundary of the image. Click the button on the right to have the text flow to the shape of the image. This setting is most useful for shapes and other graphics that aren’t rectangular.
- Use the Spacing box to set the amount of space between the photo and the surrounding text.
- Use the Align menu to align the photo left to right or top to bottom.
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