Transparent Background.

Photo with sky in the background

Abby Olivo, a reader of this blog, is asking: Is there a way to make the background of an image transparent in Pages?

- If you want to make transparent an image IN the background of a document select it and drag the Opacity slider in Graphic Inspector.

If you can't select the image go to Arrange menu and choose Make background objects selectable. If the image is locked (it shows small black crosses in the corners) choose Arrange>Unlock.

- If you want to make transparent the background of a photo (lake, mountains, sea or sky with you and your children in front), first make a cutout of the people in the photo and then import the same photo into your document again, Send to back or Send Object to Background (Arrange menu), make it transparent (Graphic Inspector, drag Opacity slider). With the cutout over the second photo itself it will look as though the background is transparent, or semi-transparent.

Sky removed with Alpha.

To make a cutout, use Format>Mask with Shape. 

Choose Oval and when the mask appears go to Format>Shape>Make editable. Little red dots (editing points) will appear on the mask. 

Click on a dot and move it with the mouse of the keyboard arrows so that all of the image is inside the mask. 

This method is more complicated, but fun. 

If the background in your photo is in solid colour, eg blue sky, you can remove it with Alpha tool (it's in the toolbar and under Format>Instant Alpha. 

Photo by me A.Anichkin: war memorial in a Normandy village.

Read 'Mask vs Alpha: How to make a cutout' and 'DSK: How to make a closely cropped cutout in Pages' on I Work in Pages.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012), follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+

Don't Bother With Cropping, Import the Whole PDF

A quick tip, in case you spend ages cropping PDFs or other graphic images before importing them into your Pages project: don't bother with cropping, just import the whole PDF (or JPG, or PNG, or anything else) – and mask the required portion of it.

It is much quicker and doesn't affect the final result.

I've done it, for example, when putting sudoku and crossword puzzle solutions at  the end of the small ads section. Sudokus and crosswords are done by someone else, I print them to PDF and drop the PDF into the page, then mask. 'Snap to grid' function (alignment guides) helps here, because when you drag mask borders they snap to the columns of the page layout.

The same principle applies to photos: import the whole photo, then mask it to leave just the detail that best suits your design. And remember – masks can be rotated and even edited like any other objects.

DSK: How to Make a Closely Cropped Cutout

DSK

Here the former chief banker of the world smiles before his sensational fall.

Pages have an option of Masking With Shape. It is under Format menu.

Start with any shape, rectangle or oval. In this cutout I've started with a rectangle.

- Put the mask over the face in the photo.
- Under Format menu make the mask editable: Format>Shape>Make Editable.
- Then, make the curves flexible: Format>Shape>Smooth Path.

Now the key point: add or remove as many editing points (the little red dots that make up the cutout) to make the mask 'cling' to the contours of the face. 

To add an editing point press the Option (alt) key as you move the cursor over the curving outline of the mask. When the little pen with a plus sign appears click – and get an additional editing point. You can move it with the mouse or with arrow keys.

Editing points

To change the flow of curves click on editing points, when two 'propellers' appear drag them to rotate, pull them out or push in until you achieve the perfect 'cling'. If you drag one propeller, another one also moves. To move them independently from one another, press Command. That trick allows to make a really tight 'cling' in awkward places of the cutout, for example near the ears.

This technique can be used to 'separate' people or objects from the background in the photo and put them in front of the text. It allows to achieve dramatic effect, for example on magazine covers or posters.

Depending on your project the work should take about 15-30 minutes for a simple cutout or up to two hours for a more sophisticated design (not including photo research).

Another way of making a cutout is to create an original shape with Pages drawing tool that is superimposed over the photo and then use Image Fill option in Graphic Inspector. Read more about that technique in this earlier article How to separate people in the photo from background.

Editing point with propeller

With DSK I simply wanted to create a little icon-type image to add to articles about the scandalous incident in New York. In the original photo Strauss-Kahn poses with Bob Geldoff.

Photo from here.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012), follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+

Let's design a Christmas card in Pages: (9) - adding a holly pattern

Click here to go to Step 10

... and this is what you should get after working on the photo with the Alpha tool.

Here are a few how-to steps:

- import the photo into a Pages document. Opening a new one might make the work easier.

- remove blue sky with the Alpha tool (it’s under Format menu and in the Tool Bar). Drag the crosshairs several times, but be careful not to make 'holes' in the leaves.

- mask the Alpha image with Shape. Mask with Shape is under Format menu. We want to mask the image in order to get a piece of clipart without the unwanted bits.

Here I used the Oval. After putting the mask on, we first resize it to cover the wanted area of the photo.

Then, under Format, we make the mask editable just like any shape. Red editing dots appear. When you click on them you can move them with keys or mouse, and also change curves of the shape with 'propeller handles'.




Click on propeller end-points and drag to extend or shorten them. Click on the red dots and move them around one by one until you achieve the desired result. Remember that if blue grids get in your way, you can temporarily disable the 'snap to grid' function by pressing and holding the Command key while moving the dots.

After  masking is complete we have a holly clipart that we can put anywhere (image at the top).

Come back in a few hours to put the holly on our Christmas card.

To go back to Step 8 click here