How To Change Background Color In Pages

Pages recently added the power to set page backgrounds, so you can requite your document a blue or pink base color without messing effectually with full-folio objects that only become in the way.

To use this characteristic, you'll need to brand sure to update to the latest versions of the Pages app for Mac and Pages for iOS, rolled out before in June. With the update installed, it's fourth dimension to find the folio layout settings to change the background. Unfortunately, the feature is a little buried — and there's an important gotcha to look out for …

At present, the short explanation is that you need to deselect any objects, open the Format pane and select an option from the 'Background' menu. The chances are though that y'all won't be able to find those settings.

Here's why: the big thing most setting custom backgrounds in Pages is that it is only available for page layout documents. This requires some explaining.

Pages documents can be set in either 'give-and-take processing' or 'page layout' mode. A word-processing document allows text to exist typed immediately, and text automatically flows onto successive pages equally you go to the end of the previous folio. A page layout document does not have this base text entry area. Instead, it tin exist seen equally a sheet where you have to manually add text boxes to type into, and explicitly create new pages where you can make linked text boxes if y'all want to go on a passage from a previous page.

The 'discussion processing' choice is the general default. Page layout choice is best for sure types of projects — posters, newsletters — for purposes that demand more fine-grained control over the design. Folio background controls are only available on page layout documents, every bit you can fix a folio background for every distinct page that you add.

Now, on the Mac, it is possible to change whatsoever document into a page layout way. iOS does not currently have this adequacy.

On Mac, to convert any open document into folio layout way, open the Document sidebar by pressing the icon in the top right of the toolbar. Then, deselect 'Document Body'.

Pressing this will evidence a scary warning that conversion requires deleting any body text or inline elements; this means whatever text not in a text box will be deleted. Y'all can undo, there is no practiced fashion to migrate over. Ideally, you should remember to uncheck this box when you beginning make your document and you are staring at a blank folio.

With the document torso disabled, you can now go dorsum to the Format menu — brand sure not to select any object. You will now see a Page Layout header in the sidebar, with the options for setting the background merely below information technology. Y'all get the same kind of options every bit with any object's background; color fill, image make full, or gradient fill.

Colour Fill Background

Gradient Fill Groundwork

Tiled Paradigm Groundwork

Just select what kind of fill yous want to change the page groundwork. If you lot are using an image, you can cull to aspect fill up, scale to fit, or tile if you have a repeating pattern like in this example.

Of course, general rules of aesthetics employ — take note of contrasting colours to ensure text remains readable. If you must employ a busy image backdrop, one tip is to add a drop shadow to the text to make it stand out. (You can add shadows to text in the advanced options menu, hidden behind a gear icon in the Format pane when editing text.)

Now, that's for Mac … recollect to disable the certificate body, ideally before you've really started typing anything because all body text is deleted when converting.

iOS is more nuanced. If you have a page layout document already in iCloud Drive, Pages for iPhone and iPad will happily open and edit them. You can even edit the Background options; don't select any objects on the canvas and press the Format icon to display the page editing controls.

The trouble is that there is no way in the current version of iOS Pages to convert a document — the checkbox to disable the document body is not bachelor. If you are creating a new document and desire to use folio background features on Apple'due south mobile platforms, yous need to use a workaround: you accept to open a template that uses folio layout mode and and so delete all the content within information technology.

This means you lot can choice whatever of the flyer, poster or card templates as a starting point. Yous and then need to delete everything in the template to get to a blank document — crucially with page layout enabled. I would recommend the 'Type Poster' template every bit it doesn't have many elements to start with.

This is an annoying pain point of the whole procedure and an case of one of the few areas where the Mac and iOS iWork suites notwithstanding aren't wholly in sync with each other. Hopefully, in the future, Apple will add together direct page layout customization to the iPad and iPhone apps — or at least offer a blank page layout template to go started with.

iWork is costless for all Apple customers. Y'all tin can download Pages from the App Shop (Mac, iOS).