features of Pages when using images on your documents is that text wraps dynamically as you move your image around or resize it, making it fairly easy to work with image files that you imported or simply dropped into your document. However, you don’t have to settle for the default way in which text wraps around your image. In fact, there are plenty of ways in which you can customize how text and images work together in your Pages document to make it really stand out. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Use Your Options
As mentioned above, while Pages provides a really cool feature that arranges text dynamically as you move an image, most of us don’t use this feature to its full potential. To do just that, select the image you want to work with on your Pages document and click on Format on the toolbar (paintbrush icon). Of the three tabs that show up, Arrange is the one that gives you the most options for customizing how text looks with your images. For example, by default, this document wraps text both above and below an image. This can be easily changed by simply selecting another option from the drop-down menu under Text Wrap. In this case I selected ‘Around’, which wraps text all around the selected image. Now let’s take this a bit further to make the overall appearance of the document better. For this, you can use any of the several available formatting options. But for this tutorial, let’s adjust the text-image spacing by changing the number right below the drop-down menu mentioned a moment ago. As we reduce this number, you’ll notice that the space between the text around the image and the image itself becomes smaller, making the document far more presentable.
2. Mask It
Now, if you double click on an image, Pages will show the Masking bar. This allows you to set the exact area that you want your image to use on your document regardless of the size of the image. This is really helpful if you, say, have a large image and only plan to use a specific part of it on your document. Once the Masking bar is shown, clicking on the right icon will allow you to set the image mask using the slider as shown below. After you are done with the mask, you can then click on the leftmost icon to adjust the overall image size. Then just drag the image around until you get the exact positioning within the set mask.
3. Wrap It
This one is a really cool technique that really shows how advanced Pages can be as a word processor while at the same time remaining easy to use. Let’s say you have square image that has a uniform background but you would like to just use the image or shape without the background so that it blends seamlessly with the text of your document. Normally, this would require you to know a bit of Photoshop, but Pages removes this need entirely. You achieve this same effect by heading to the Image tab of the formatting panel and then clicking on the Instant Alpha button. You will then be prompted to select the color you want to make transparent. After you select it, click on Done and the text of your document will magically wrap around the core image of your photo, completely disregarding its background and making for a far cleaner finish to your document. Pretty neat, right? Well, that’s about it. Now you know how to handle text around images on your Pages documents much better, and you will surely create superb-looking documents from now on. You’re welcome!
