Use Pages to create a professional–looking brochure

Apple’s word–processing and page layout tool is often overlooked, but it’s both powerful and easy to use

WHEN IT COMES to all the free apps that Apple makes available for macOS, Pages probably gets the least love. It doesn’t have the wow factor of iMovie or GarageBand, nor is at as close to its competitors in capability as Keynote and Numbers. However, it has a great deal going for it and is a very capable tool when it comes to laying out small documents such as leaflets, posters, and flyers.

It does have its quirks. The distinction between a word processing and a layout document remains, and how to choose which of the two to create is not obvious. That matters because some features are only available in one type of document, and which one you choose will substantially affect how Pages works.

Many of us wouldn’t dream of using Pages for word processing as the Mac is awash with excellent tools for crafting and editing text documents. So we’re going to concentrate here on what Pages does well — creating those posters, leaflets, and flyers. We’ll cover the basics but also take a look at some of Pages more powerful features, like anchoring objects such as images to text so they move with it as the layout changes. We’ll also walk you through how to wrap text around an object, and how to make images look stunning using transparency and masks.