How to Frame a Picture.

Pixellated frame

I've written a few times about designing cards on this blog, including a 10-step tutorial which includes finding clipart, making original shapes and using simple tricks with photos.

Here I just want to add a little word of caution: if your card is meant to be printed out and especially if you expect a high print quality, don't use picture frames provided in Graphics Inspector. (This is in response to a reader's question: he designed a book in Pages, but used picture frames from the selection in Graphics inspector)

They look nice on screen and even in print when used in small dimensions. But if you enlarge the image you'd see that the frame pixellates badly (small squares - pixels - show).

To avoid that make your own high-definition 'frame':

Coloured shape behind image.

– create a shape, eg. rectangle with solid colour fill, and slide your photo (image) over the created shape, adjust dimensions so that it looks as though the image is within a frame (pic. left). For additional effect, add a white rectangle between the picture and the coloured shape (pic. below right). This also improves the print quality, because the intense colour of the shape may affect the colours of the picture.

Coloured shape, white, then picture.

– instead of a coloured shape use a photo – take a macro shot of your wooden chopping board, or the garden table, or gravel, sand or thick foliage. Here (pic.below) I've used a picture of a beech hedge in winter.

– on the internet you may find high-resolution images of museum paintings with elaborate carved frames. Download the image, import it into your Pages document and cover the painting with your own picture while leaving the frame visible.

Slide white shape over 'frame', picture over white.

Image: 'Sappho', a fresco from Pompeii.

Drag and Drop Images Straight from the Browser

Don’t overload your computer – drag and drop images straight into your Pages document without first downloading them to your hard disc. The image will be stored with the Pages document and could always be easily extracted when needed as a separate file.

When you find an image you want on the internet click on it and hold, then drag it from an open browser window to an open Pages document. When Pages are ready to receive the image a blue outline will appear in the document. The blue contour shows where the images will sit: just on the page or inside a shape that you have already created in the Pages document.

Now, to get the image back from Pages open Inspector>Metrics and click on the little icon that shows in the Metrics file window. Hold and drag it to the Desktop or wherever you want it to sit.

That's it, easy-peasy!

This trick may be especially useful for Windows switchers. Macusers know that a lot of work is done by dragging and dropping.

Remember about copyright: look for free domain images on wikipedia or some such, or ask for permission to use an image.

Read this earlier article: Extracting Photos Back from Pages.

Quick Scrolling

Scrolling down a long document or a web-age can be annoying no matter how good is your mouse.

Here is a different technique I've discovered recently:

Press Option (Alt) and click in the vertical scroll bar, roughly where you want to go in the document, near the end or near the middle. You'll jump straight there. Without Option pressed clicking in the scroll bar will move you just one page. Using Option lets you jump much faster.

Another efficient method of skimming through a long document is using Command+F function - search. It works within Pages (opens search window), but it also works in most browsers. In Safari a little search window opens at the top, in Firefox at the bottom. Type in a key word, something you're looking for, and then click 'Next' or 'Previous'.

I Work in Pages Reaches 22,000 Visits.

Another thank you note to readers and supporters of this blog – it has passed 22,000 monthly pageviews mark and daily visits are about to break through a thousand mark. While the largest readership is in America, the UK and other English speaking countries, I am especially pleased with having huge audiences in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

How to 'clip' an image to a piece of paper.

 

- Import a clipart note,
- then insert the image, move it over the note,
- copy-paste the paper clip from Collector’s Newsletter template and position it over the image,
- insert a text box and write your message.

Tip: if you add shadows, make sure they all go in the same direction. Rotate the shadow wheel in Graphic Inspector to align shadows.

 

The picture: Zinaida Serebryakova, Self-Portrait,  1909.

How to make a hand-written note

- Find a clipart image of a sheet from a note-pad, or scan a blank sheet of lined paper, or take a photo of one using the macro setting on your camera;
- Drag the image onto a Pages document;
- Insert a Text box and type your text in it;
- Move the Text Box over the image, Group under arrange menu,
- for additional effect, rotate slightly.

To make the text look like it’s hand-written use italics font variation. Some fonts are designed to look like handwriting, try Lucida Grande Handwriting, Mistral, Santa Fe, Textile, School House Cursive, Handwriting Dakota or Marker Felt. The font in the example above is Lucida Grande Handwriting.

You can use the Draw Tool to create your own original letters and numbers. Read this article to learn how to.

...or make a screenshot of a Sticky note and use it as clipart. The font used here is Handwriting Dakota.

Background Photos: Everywhere

Rather than looking for background photos on the internet, it's better to build your own library of backgrounds. At least you know what you normally want, so can choose and collect pictures as you go.

Go where? Everywhere! If you don't have a digital camera, use the one on your mobile, these days most have one. I sometimes stop in the middle of a town market to take a few snaps of the pavement, or go up to a building and do a macro close-up of a stone wall. Meadows, fields, sky, beach – backgrounds are everywhere. People sometimes stare, but who cares.

Here is a lichen-covered wall of the 11th Century Bayeux cathedral in France. I was in town having lunch with friends and thought that it would make a good background. So here you are, the wall:

And here it is in the background. To make text stand out better I put it in a Text Box with colour-fill and reduced opacity to 50 percent.

Google+ and Facebook Contacts

If you are on Google+ or Facebook, you are welcome to join me – I am there under my real name Alexander Anichkin.

Those who use Twitter may already know my nick there iworkinpages, the same as the blog title, in one word.

Pages Bridges the 'Post-Renaissance Divide'

Leonardo would use Pages

Rob, from the Third Echo Design design company writes:
I just wanted to finally write and thank you for the wonderful repository for Pages your site has become. Being a web designer who also dabbles in print your resource has been great in helping me utilize Pages as a print solution. Many clients want simple flyers or quick brochures and, to me, Pages is a very easy to use graphic [and] word processor. Thanks to your site I have been able to bound over the hurdles that were in my way in utilizing Pages as a print design program. Awesome job and thanks for sharing all that you know!




Rob's note (thanks for the kind words) made me think once again about the wider meaning of programmes like iWork/Pages.

The great figures of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangello and others were all known to excell in many different fields of human creativity – from arts to literature, from engineering to military craft, from science to politics. In later centuries separation of labour created unsurmountable divides between professions. Writers couldn't understand how scientists work, engineers wouldn't concern themselves with what politicians do with the machines they create. The Renaissance Man has acquired a derogatory meaning – a Jack of all trades, but a master in none.

Which is unfortunate, though of course I am not going so far as to claim that specialisation isn't needed.



Rob is right – there is a serious divide between the skills of designers and typographers, and between writers (content creators) and designers and typographers. It's not always easy to go over that divide, but with iWork/Pages – and a little elbow grease – we can.

And doing that we also bridge the 'post-Renaissance divide' and create a more harmonious world.

Steve Jobs for President?

Apple, Inc., now has more money than America, Inc.

Apple blossom: a road to brighter future?

Apple's third quarter results showing its continued astounding commercial success coincided with the sad picture of the US President and congressmen bickering over the bill to raise the debt ceiling without which the country could have defaulted.

A BBC news report compared the operating cash balance of the US government and Apple which showed that the computer company now has more cash to spend than the US Treasury. (links to official documents on the BBC site).

Now, I've stuck with Macs for over twenty years now, for better and for worse, buying a new one even in 1997 when everybody thought the company was about to fail. I am not an American citizen or taxpayer, but if I were I'd think to myself: shouldn't someone like Steve Jobs, or whoever runs Apple's finances, be better at running the US finances than Obama, Geithner and the Congress? Maybe there is a way of sending them all, the 'Big Goverment' inside the Beltway, on a sabbatical for a quarter or two, or maybe a year, and let Jobs and his people run America, Inc. for a while? Maybe they can turn it around?

Just a thought.

The BBC report says:

Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government. Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn). Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn.

The United States is currently spending around $200bn more than it collects in revenue every month. In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125 percent higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn. Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results.

From Apple's 2011 third quarter results press-release:

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

Photo by ©A.Anichkin

Auto Save Everything. Big Brother Is Here.

The new version of OSX, Lion, introduces Auto Save. It is a long awaited feature, but the difference Apple made to it is that it is not for each separate application, but covers now anything you do on your Mac, including Pages.

It can be activated or disactivated. And it allows reverting to the previous version of your project. Added to AutoSave are Duplicate and Lock functions. Duplicate turns your existing document into a template, and Lock is a clever feature that prevents accidental unwanted changes to a finished project. That happens! Open an old file to have a quick look and delete a few words or an image without noticing, lock stops it.

See full description on Apple site.

Read my objections to Auto Save in this previous article: 'Say No to Autosave'. For most of the users Autosave is a blessing rather than a threat, but be careful with what you write if you are on a local network.

And see 'Zap To And Fro: Undo-Redo Shortcuts' for why autosave and undo is needed.

UPDATE: German macusers discuss my arguments against autosave on the macfix forum. Join in there or comment here. Thanks!

Mask vs Alpha (how to make a cutout image)

Strelka the Golden

This is a cutout of my dog Strelka. Cutouts like this can be used as logos, topic markers in brochures or websites, as elements of larger designs (an ad for a dog kennels, a vet practice or a pet food supplier) or as a stand-alone illustration on a page where text flows around an irregular shape/image.

I made it using Mask with Shape option (under Format menu).

Masked image showing editing points

Take the photo and drop into a Pages document, Mask with Shape. Use any shape, rectangle for example. Cover the element of the photo you want to cut out with the mask (the dog).

Then make mask editable and Smoothen Path (also under Format).

Then add editing points – press Option key and move cursor to the contour line of the mask. When instead of the white hand a small pen with a plus sign appears – click.

Add as many editing points as needed and move them as close to the object as reasonably possible to make a cutout.  Read more about this technique in this article: DSK: How to Make a Closely Cropped Cutout.

Now if this sounds like a fiddly business try Alpha tool to remove background to achieve a similar effect. It will work, however, only if the background is of consistent colour that is different from the colour of the object, a black dog sitting on a white sheet for example. Please see an example of how Alpha tool can be used to remove background and achieve a striking design effect in this earlier article: How to Remove Background.

Background partially removed with Alpha

I tried to remove the background around my dog, but was left with too many light-grey stones that have a shade similar in colour to Strelka's coat. There are simply too many bits to rub out, and when you do try to rub them out Alpha also tears out bits of the dog's coat. In the end I gave up and used the 'mask with shape' method.

See what suits you better.

Click on images to see small details.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012)

Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages  

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and add me to your circles on Google+ 

Photos by ©A.Anichkin

Publish Your Book in Pages

It's great to hear from other Pages users who have successfully used the programme to accomplish project bigger than home or office tasks.

A reader of I Work in Pages reports:

Just what I needed. I independently published a book last year using Pages and it came out grand, in my view, professionals might differ. But at the moment I was looking for CMYK info and found your site as I am looking for a different printer. Color has come into the vision of my book now and you have provided the answers.  
Once I found out about leading and Pages could do it, I was in book design heaven. No need for the expensive apps of InDesign or Quark. Also, once I figured out how to do the cover, you can say I completely did my book in Pages, both the interior file and the book cover.

- Kevin Cullis

See details of Kevin's book at createspace.com/3403435 (image of the book cover, right). Read Kevin's blog at macstartup.com.

Kevin also informs that a print-on-demand (POD) company for magazines, Magcloud.com, included iWork/Pages as a source, barring some CMYK ICC stuff to download.  There is a step-by-step guide for publishers using Pages here. Please note: I haven't used the company myself, so take it on 'as is' basis. I would welcome reports from anyone who have published with Magcloud or other POD companies.

I Work in Pages wishes Kevin Cullis success with his book venture and welcomes reports from other users.

Please read some tips on preparing a book for publication in Pages in an earlier article 'Putting together a book in Pages'.

Background Images

I am publishing this wonderful photo of a meadow in full bloom in France (photo by ©Francesca Bostock, 2011) just to show how to use background images.

What is attractive about this photograph is that it has a natural colour sequence: look how deep green, light green, speckled yellow, scarlet red, orange-red, deep blue and light blue is spread throughout the expanse of the meadow. And the curving road at the top adds a pefect finishing touch. Nature is the best artist.

Now, drop the photo into your Pages document, then under Arrange menu Send it to Back or Send Object to Background. After that create a Shape (a text box, or a rectangle) and in Graphic Inspector choose colour fill, pick colour (here it is a shade of green, but grey would work well too) and reduce opacity to around 75 percent, then type and format your text – an invitation to the Fourth of July barbecue, to la Bastille fireworks or to the Remembrance ceremony (image on the right).

One semi-transparent box

If you think the text doesn't stand out enough, use the two box trick (image below): insert a second shape, make it larger than the shape with text and Send Backward under Arrange menu. Then reduce opacity to around 75 percent.

Next select the box with text, in Graphic Inspector click on colour well and when  Colour viewer opens increase opacity to 100 percent. Using two boxes instead of one gives the impression of transparency while in fact the main box has solid colour fill to allow the text to be clearly visible.

Read more in the articles How to make coloured text stand out on the same colour background and Fading Out a Background Image.

See more photos of Normandy on my photo blog.

How to convert currencies on a Mac

Currency converter

If you write or edit copy (articles), you probably have to convert money sometimes from pounds to euros to dollars for your target audience.

Macs come with a calculator application pre-installed. If you don't have it in your Dock (the semi-transparent strip with applications at the bottom of the screen), find it in Applications folder and drag to the Dock to have it handy. Among various calculations it can do there is Convert which includes currencies and exchange rate updater.

An even easier converter is included in the standard set of Dashboard widgets. Click on the Dashboard icon in the Dock, click plus sign and find the Currency Converter widget, add it to your Dashboard. Now the cool thing about this widget is that it allows you to type in the sum you want converted in the source currency and instantly have the corresponding sum in other windows of the widget. Add whatever currencies you have to deal with more often – and make your life a lot easier.

Calculator's convert menu

And if you can't find the € symbol – it's Option+2 (Option key is the one between Control and Command, Command key is the one with apple and the little 'chateau' sign).

How to add accents to letters without switching languages

Option key

How do you type café with the accent sign on top of the 'e'?

If you use several languages on your Mac you probably know that it is dead simple to switch between the languages (keyboard layouts): Control Command + Space for the two most recently used or Control ⌘+Option+Space to switch between more than two languages used. (You have to add language options in System Preferences.)
Important UPDATE: In current OS (July 2019, High Sierra), instead of Command key use Control+Space bar to swithc between the last two languages. To go through all the languages you use, add Option (alt) key to the combination. 

However, simply to add an accent (diacritical mark) to one or two letters in your text, you don't need to switch to French, Russian, Spanish or German.

Option key (the funny one between Control and Command) gives most commonly used diacritical signs: press Option and type 'e' to get acute accent, common in French and also used as a stress mark. The accent will appear highlighted in your document, then type 'e' or another letter that needs the accent - é, á, ó or í .

To see the available combinations open the Keyboard Viewer and press Option.

To add circumflex (Welsh tô bach – little roof) press Option and type 'i' to get the highlighted accent circumflex, then type the letter you need: ô, î, ê or â.

Tilde sign, common in Spanish, is with letter n – ñ.

Two dots (trema or umlaut) over some letters in Russian, German and other languages are with u – ü or ë.

Cedilla, the little tail attached in French to 'c' when it should be pronounced as 's', is, logically, with 'c' – press Option and type ç.

It's cleverly programmed – it won't let you put diacritics on letters with which they are not used.

Switching between language layouts can be an annoying distraction, so learning this little trick can help improve efficiency. It takes little time to memorise accent combinations and then you use them automatically, much like touch-typing.

There is an article on Wikipedia describing diacritical marks and accents, their names and uses.

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+

How to make coloured text stand out on the same colour background.

We can’t write white on white or black on black, can we?

Here is the trick I’ve used to make text stand out even when it has the same colour as the dominating colour of the background. The text needs to be put inside a box with a semiopaque colour fill. Above is the card I designed for a relative’s jubilee. Cherries in the background have the same colour theme as the message inside the box. This technique is also useful for magazine design.

This is how it works:

– open a blank document, choose landscape (horizontal) layout if it is going to be a card, vertical if you are making a poster of a flyer;

– drag and drop the photo into the Pages document from iPhoto or Desktop, resize and position as needed;

– next insert a Text Box (or a rectangle, it doesn’t matter). Text Box by default doesn’t have a colour fill, go to Graphic Inspector and add Colour fill to the Text Box. Here I chose a custom grey colour (CMYK: 14, 10, 8, 0), but Silver from the Crayon Box in the Colour Viewer would work as well. Text box sits ‘on top’ of the background photo, resize the box so that the photo can be seen in wide margins all around the box;

– next type your text in the box as you would in a word processing document;

Click on colour well

– formatt the text in Text Inspector: here I centred the text, then aligned it to the centre of the box. Then highlight all text (Command+A), make it bigger and change colour to one that is similar to the main colour theme of the background photo. Here a preset colour from the Crayon Box – Cayenne – works well (CMYK: 11, 85, 96, 33);

Drag slider to reduce opacity

– next, click away, somewhere in the document, and then click again on the Text Box to select it as an object. Go to Graphic Inspector and click on the colour chooser (well) under the drop–down menu bar. Then in Colour Well reduce opacity to around 75 percent. Now you see that the background photo is just visible through the coloured Text Box and the text, which has the same main colour as the background, stands out and is clear and readable.

It’s a simple trick that adds striking effect to your designs. If you design a cover for a magazine or a brochure with a large photo that covers all space and goes over the edges(bleeds), this is one good way to make straplines (text) on the cover clear and visible. For print publications, including posters and cards, it is very important – passersby or people browsing in a news agent need to see instantly what’s in the magazine, or what the card is about.

Please read about 'Cover Design Tricks: Making Text Stand Out'. Note the semiopaque box in the bottom left corner of the cover. And also 'How to Outline Text in Pages' and 'Fading Out Background Image'.

DSKNY (Make T-shirts With Pages)

The ugly incident with Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York which caused a renewed world-wide debate on the treatment of women, the abuse of power and position by men and of course on the balance of press freedom and privacy has inspired me, among other things, to produce this t-shirt design. It is available on spreadshirt.net (click on 'Choose design' and type DSKNY in the search window, then adjust the position of design and choose the size and whatever else you want to customise).

In this design I used Impact font, but the final graphic image of the text is stretched vertically to reduce the 'squat' effect of that thick font. Read in detail how to make a t-shirt design with Pages here.

It is of course a variation of the famous DKNY by the American designer Donna Karan which many women have been wearing for years on their shirts – as a fashion item, but also as a statement of support for the working women philosophy as expressed in Donna Karan's work.  

Donna Karan became famous in the 80s when she took over as the leading designer at Anne Klein. I had a brief passionate affair with fashion journalism back then writing for Russian and American press. I even had a cover story in W magazine (my feature is pre-internet, not on their site). I've moved on since, but have kept an interest in design and fashion.

Interviewing Donna Karan I was very much impressed with her ideas for creating stylish clothes for working women. She designed them with liberation in mind – liberation from worries about what to wear and how to look great. Her clothes do look great, but they are also comfortable at work and easy to rearrange so that a formal professional look magically changes to casual, or casual smart, or even very smart evening look, all by adding or removing a few elements, a jacket, a scarf, a piece of jewellery, the elements that can be taken along to wherever a woman's day takes her.

Her designs make it easy to disguise what a woman might think of as her 'problem' body areas and also to look different every day without having to invest in several different full sets of clothes.

Wikipedia on Donna Karan here.
Photo of DSK from here, cropped in Pages, read how to crop a photo using Pages here.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012).

Join 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+

Images Within Typography

The popular web-site Fuel Your Creativity has re-published my design of I ♥ NY slogan alongside the new MTV logo and a Tower Records design.

Letters of the famous slogan are filled with a photo of the New York skyline.

Have a look at their web-site to compare what you can quickly do in Pages with some grand designs of the world!

Tutorials on how to put images inside letters are here and here.

Growing With Readers: 17,000 Pageviews

I Work in Pages blog has recently reached a new milestone by breaking through 17,000 pageviews per month. Every day four to eight hundred readers come here for tips, advice and to read tutorials.

I welcome comments, suggestions and questions. They all help to make this publication even more useful and exciting to those who have passed the initial stage of getting acquainted with iWork/Pages and want to get more out of this wonderful programme.

Please note that all content is original, including text, photos and graphs, unless otherwise stated. Images, quotes and other creative work is attributed and used either with permission or under generally accepted editorial and publishing rules. Copyright belongs to me, Alexander Anichkin, author and publisher. If you wish to republish, syndicate or otherwise use any of the content, please contact me beforehand. Commissions are also welcome.

Thanks for your support.

'True Black' (how to avoid fuzzy text)

Here is how to change black text in your Pages document to 'true black':

- select all text in your document,
- in Text Inspector click on the colour well (the bar with which you change colour)
- when Colour Viewer opens, click on the Slides option (second from left),
- choose CMYK in the drop-down menu and set CMY to zero, and K (black) to 100 percent. Repeat the same for text boxes and captions. 

That should give you what they call 'true black'. Default black, Licorice for example, can be composite, i.e. consisting of several colours. It may look nice on the screen, but in professional printing it comes out slightly fuzzy. To avoid that problem change black text to 'true black'. 

If this is too techy, ask the printers to show you how to do it, or ask them to adjust your PDFs themselves. Usually they would do it for an additional fee, or, if you are a regular client with large, long-term project, they just waive the fee.

Photo: Apple blossom, 2011, ©A.Anichkin

Pages Bookshop in Normandy

Another proof of the triumphant march of Pages: the English bookshop in the village of Passais-la-Conception, (the Orne, Normandy, France):

The Dog. From Smooth to Wire-Haired (Changing the Shape's Outline)

Please read the article on how to draw Picasso's Dog here.

A reader writes:
Thanks for the tips on using the Bezier pen. I tried to make the jagged line, but was not successful, can you include any helpful hints? – Dawn


To change the outline of the shape (dog's coat) open Inspector and choose Graphic.


In Pages'08 there is only one suitable option – the first one in Graphic Inspector>Stroke>Picture Frame (the tope left one). 


Pages'09 greatly improved the choice of outlines, moving it from picture frames to lines: Graphic > Stroke > Line. Try whatever suits your project best. Here is what I got – all sorts of different breeds of Dachshund (read about them on wikipedia) from smooth short-haired to wire-haired. First, simple outline:

Next option, smudged line, more hair:

And a bit of avant-garde: 

And the outline curves fountain-pen-style:  

And a Japanese calligraphy style:

And a hairy wild dachshund:

And, finally, if you want to add colour, in Graphic inspector click on Colour Fill and on the colour well. When colour viewer opens choose colour (here it's Mocha from the box of crayons):

And remember, the same method can be used to 'write' exciting letters and numbers! Read these two articles on I Work in Pages:

Doodling Memorable Dates in Pages and Let's Design a Christmas Card in Pages

All images ©A.Anichkin

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+ 

Picasso. The Dog. In One Line.

This is a copy of Picasso's famous drawing, The Dog (Le Chien). Not copy as in copy-paste, but as in a re-drawing of someone else's drawing, by hand, i.e. it's my original artwork. And you can try it too.

Smooth curve

I made it with the Pages' Draw Tool (pen) in one continuous line, beginning with the front paw and ending with the muzzle. I then added a picture frame (one of the jagged lines) to the image.

There are several tricks here involving curving the line. To see other articles on this technique search the curving lines in iWork Pages label (click on the label at the bottom of this post).

In this example one trick is crucial: changing the line from smooth curve to pointed angle. It comes in handy when you need to angle the line under the tail of the dog (the angle points inside the shape) and around the nose of the dog (the angle points outside the shape).

Here is how to do it:  

Nose: to change the smooth curve into the pointed angle select the editing point. Click on it to turn the red dot into the white circle with the red outline. Then double click on it – the rounded curve turns into the angle.

Pointed angle

Tail: in Pages when you make a Shape editable and its outline Smooth (Format>Shape>Make Editable and >Smooth Path) each editing point gets 'propellers' when selected. These are for changing the curve of the line. By default propellers point in opposite directions as in the Smooth curve pictures. When you drag one, the other also moves. To make the angled curve pointing inside under the dog's tail you need to move 'propellers' independently from one another. To do this press Command while dragging – that allows you to create an angled curve!

Smooth curve

Lump the Dachshund befriended Pablo Picasso and became his muse for years. The artist put him in many of his works. It's a touching story described in the book by David Douglas Duncan Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund's Odyssey".

I couldn't find a copyright-free image of Picasso's drawing, but you can see it, for instance here  and a photo of the great man himself with Lump here.

See also my copies of Picasso's Femme here and here.   

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' 

Pointed angle

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Macintosh First Ad (1984) and 'You Are All Different'

I've long wanted to publish here the first TV ad for Apple Macintosh computer. I remember seeing the first Mac in the Associated Press bureau in Tokyo in the 80s, when 'computers' were green-faced terminals. I was immediately seduced and danced around it so long that I forgot what I'd come to do there.

Since the late 90s Steve Jobs managed to turn around the fortunes of the company so successfully that it is now difficult to remember what it was up against in 1984. But the main theme that has stayed throughout Apple's marketing later – and its approach to creativity – is already there. Compare it to 'Think different. Think Apple'. Or to 'Mac vs PC' tv ads series.

Or, better still, compare to the scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian where he tries to persuade the  crowd of confused followers that he is not the Messiah: 'We are all different!'

This what the wikipedia article about the tv ad says:

It is now considered a watershed event and a masterpiece in advertising, and is widely regarded as one of the most memorable and successful American television commercials of all time.

And here is Brian telling the crowd to think for themselves, think different (sermon begins at 1min 30sec into the clip):

How to 'Age' a Piece of Paper

I wrote about 'folding' a corner in this post a few days ago. If you want to give the page the yellowed, aged effect, one simple way of doing it is to import the image into iPhoto, click Effects and then Sepia. Try Antique as well. If 'yellowness' is not enough, click on Boost Colour.

Here is how the note-pad page looks like after the process.

This image is a scan of a page I tore from my pad. If you don't have a scanner, try setting a digital camera (or your mobile phone camera) to macro and just photograph a piece of lined paper, crop the image in iPhoto or Preview afterwards and use as clipart.

Oh, and have a look at the Collector's template, it has several clipart images of 'antique' paper. Select and copy-paste into your own project.

Notepaper from Collector's template

A Note to German Readers

On a German Apple Mac forum found some nice comments on my small effort. Danke shön, Kollegen.

Die Seite ist ohnehin eine Fundgrube für die Nutzer von Pages. 

(English: The site is already a treasure trove for the users of Pages.)

Realmac Software Community Forums  
(Germany, re PDF Settings for Professional Printshops and a Few Tips)

PDF Settings for Professional Printhshops and a Few Tips

Acrobat Distiller has several settings.

Choose Press Quality or Prepress, whichever settings are available in your version of Acrobat. Here is a summary of my settings which have given me consistently good results (Acrobat Pro 7):

- Under General set Resolution to 2400 dots per inch;
- Under Images set Sampling off and resolution for color and grayscale to 300 pixels per inch and 1200 pixels for monochrome;
- Under Color: Settings file none, Color management policies: set to 'Convert All Colors to CMYK';
- Under Fonts: check Embed all fonts checkbox.

These should give you CMYK ready PDFs and keep your printer happy.

This is an excerpt from the longer article 'From Pages to CMYK PDFs'. I am republishing it in short version just to give the settings.

A few additional tips:

- If you are planning to use a professional (commercial) printshop for your project, arrange for a visit to sync your settings with them.
- If that is not practical, send them a test sample of your PDF to check that it's ok.
- Always ask for press-ready proofs, especially for larger projects such as books or magazines, preferably on paper, but surely in PDF form.
- It is not difficult to produce press-quality PDFs from iWork/Pages. But avoid getting into too much technical detail, decide early at what stage your work is finished and you hand it over to others. You may find a printer who would take the Pages document and convert them for you. Or 'print' your Pages project to PostScript and take PostScript files to the printer.
- Avoid those who tell you Pages can't be used for professional printing, they can. 

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' 

Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages  

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