Not possible to create image of a shape in Pages

Hi garrett550,

Tested in Pages 8.1 under macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

No need to Group. Shift click on the Shape and the Text Box and Copy.

Open Preview

That Screen Shot is enlarged by the forum software. My view in Preview is not so fuzzy.

Please call back with questions.

Regards,

Ian.

You have inadvertently copied non-image content to the clipboard and that is the reason that Preview's New From Clipboard menu item is inactive. You can copy n-tuple iterations of single or grouped shapes from Pages v8.1 onto the clipboard, and you can image them in Preview with successive usage of the New from Clipboard menu item. I know, because I tested it.

The expression n-tuple iterations is shorthand for multiple attempts.

In order for Preview to offer that New from Clipboard menu item, the last copy to clipboard activity must be image data. As soon as you copy any non-image data to the clipboard, whether in Pages, or any other application, then Preview will make the New from Clipboard menu item inactive, until new image data is copied onto the clipboard.

That is not what I said or inferred.

Preview will activate that New from Clipboard menu item when the last paste operation to the clipboard is image data, whether that is a single Pages shape, or grouped shapes. To reiterate, if you perform any copy operation that is not image data, then you will have to copy your Pages shape(s) to the clipboard again to activate that Preview menu item.

Pages v8.1 will copy a shape with text to the clipboard without any indication that it is an image type, and Preview keeps New from Clipboard inactive. To demonstrate what should have occurred, I created the same shape with text in Pages '09 v4.3 on macOS 10.14.5, copied to the clipboard, and all manner of image pasteboard types are present, including PDF. Preview activates the New from Clipboard and inserts the shape (with text) as a PDF. Pages v8.1 is not handling shapes with text properly.

Your only workaround while using Pages v8.1, is to create your shape with text, but this time, launch Preview, and from Preview's File menu : Take Screen Shot : From Selection — and drag the cross-hairs within your Pages shape boundaries to define your selection. This will capture the shape into Preview at the same low (72 dpi) resolution as though it came in via the New from Clipboard menu item.

Isn't is ridiculous that Pages wrongly copies to clipboard, a shape with directly entered text, as non-image data, but layering a text box over the image and copying that to the clipboard does provide the correct information that Preview requires to activate that New from Clipboard menu item. Bah.

Yes, Bah indeed!