Tips on working with photos are here
There are tons of clipart images on your computer even though there is no clipart folder in iWork. Because you've already paid for clipart when you bought your Mac. iWork is an integral part of the Mac: it complements, works together with apps which are already there - iLife (iPhoto), Mail, Preview, Address Book, Dictionaries, Spotlight and others. Unlike MS Office which is a separate Universe on your machine. So where is clipart for Pages?
Pages (and other iWork) Templates
- First, elements of Pages templates can be used as clipart - just cut and paste them.
Among many others I have used a 'wrought iron fence post' (above) from the Collector Newsletter as a column divider. The image with little grey houses from the Real Estate Newsletter is good to go with anything about property. The index card image from the Back Page of the Green Grocery Newsletter went with a cooking recipe and the background image of yellowish piece of paper from Musical Concert poster looked nice behind an article on history.
Most of templates clipart is editable and easy to resize. Some of the images are locked or grouped. Under Arrange menu unlock and ungroup them to use as separate graphic elements. Many of them are easy to recreate with Pages tools. Bear in mind, however, that some of the images have low resolution and should only be used with small dimensions.
- A dozen or so attractive clipart images are in Image Bullets under Bullets drop-down menu (Text Inspector, List tab).
There are check boxes and others. I love silver and golden pearls. But any of your own original images can be made into a bullet. (Custom Image - Choose) Note that images with shadows may distort the surrounding text, so it is best to avoid shadows here.
Mac Library
- HD>Library>Desktop Pictures
There are 76 high-resolution images here including the famous dew drop (top right image) and the ladybird. These are large files, good enough for use as background images.
- Home>Pictures>iChat Icons
(or HD>LIbrary>Application Support>Apple>iChat Icons.)
National flags are stored here as buttons. The apple on the left is in the Fruit folder. I've also used Gems icons from this folder as bullets, like the ruby heart on the right.
- User Pictures, also in HD>Library.
Animals, flowers, nature, sports and other clipart here. I was disappointed not to find a cricket ball there even though, arguably, cricket, of all ball games, has the biggest following in the world (Britain, South Africa, Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc., more than a hundred countries in the international federation). But I found a free image on Wikipedia and made it into clipart.
Note: there may be several Libraries on your Mac. The main Library is on your Hard Drive, don't move or rename any folders there. Your personal Library (these are created for each Account on your machine) is in the Home folder. This may sound a bit confusing, but you don't have to wade through endless folders to find what you want - just use Spotlight like you'd use Google.
Character Palette
- And there are hundreds of very useful clipart-like characters in Character Palette
They range from the familiar Command symbol on the Mac keyboard to zodiac symbols, to chess pieces and cards icons, to mathematical and musical signs, various daily life shapes, including icons of telephones, pens and pencils, scissors, aeroplanes etc. And there is Greek alphabet for use in scientific papers (for instance, the letter π .) Just click and drag them into your Pages project.
Check out the Palette to find what you need under Input Menu chooser in the main screen menu. If it is not activated on your Mac, open System Preferences>International>Input Menu and check the Character Palette box.
The beauty of the Palette characters is that they behave like letters - there are font variations, you can change colour and font size in the Format Bar, add shadows and other effects in the
MS Office clipart is compatible
- And, if you have kept your old copy of MS Office, nothing is simpler than just copy-pasting or drag'n'dropping clipart from the Office folder right into your Pages project.
Among the Office clipart images I've used in the magazine without any problem are the pink and yellow electric lamp and the image of an old-fashioned computer with CRT display.
Create your own clipart
And, on top of all of the above, it is fun to create your own clipart in Pages. Children love it.
Here is a list of articles about clipart and graphic images in Pages:
Remembrance poppies: make your own with Pages
Christmas Clipart: a Few Easy Tricks
Fading Out Background Image
Show Detail With Magnifying Glass (how to use Wikipedia images as clipart)
Creating your own clipart with Instant Alpha
How to design folders in Pages
Creating clipart and original shapes in Pages
Curving lines and shapes: make them in Pages
Maps in Pages
