Web-Pages to iWork Pages: just copy-paste

Quite often I need to copy material - text, images, logos from the internet.

Apple Mac allows just to click and drag elements off a web page onto your Desktop.

I haven't realised until recently that I can also copy-paste web pages straight into iWork Pages. Drag cursor over the web-page to highlight what you want to copy. Both text and graphics paste beautifully with pictures set as inline objects into a Pages document.

I find it useful for my own project because I can immediately see how images would look in my document, resize them, reprocess for high-end publishing or file for later use, already in Pages, or 'print' them to iPhoto.

I am sure many researchers and students who do a lot of work on the internet would find this simple trick useful too, because, as I hear, a lot of work these days is done the copy-paste way and not as we, old hands, used to do it by endlessly copying in long-hand from dusty volumes.

Bear in mind though, especially if your end product goes to professional printshops, that most images on the internet are low definition RGB with DPI count at 72 or lower. These are not good on high-quality print presses. Avoid them if you can. In fact, my printers ask me to provide them with a list of low-grade images in the magazine, so that they know I'm ok with that.

You can slightly improve the quality of 72 DPI images by reprocessing them through Acrobat to 300 DPI, the industry wide standard.

Check if higher definition downloads are available. Quite often images on internet pages are clickable and allow you to get a higher resolution version of the same image. Click on the photo of the beautiful Reinette Grise cider apples above to see how it works.

And don't forget to check the copyright!

In most cases you can find a free alternative to an image you are looking for. Many photo, cartoon or clipart downloads are inexpensive and allow multiple use. Or you can recreate the image yourself - these days it may not require sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Check these earlier articles:

- Quick JPEGs straight from Pages
- Creating your own clipart with instant Alpha in Pages