Set movie and image formats for Pages documents on Mac
Pages keeps movies in their original format regardless of whether or not the format can be viewed on older computers and devices. You can change the optimisation settings if you want to make sure videos and images using newer formats — for example, High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) or Apple ProRes — can be viewed on any computer or device.
Optimise video and image formats
Pages can convert HEVC and ProRes videos you add to your document into H.264, the standard video compression that can be played on most Mac, iPhone and iPad devices.
Choose Pages > Settings (from the Pages menu at the top of your screen), then click General at the top of the settings window.
In the Adding Media section, choose a combination of options for the results you want:
Keep all movies and images in their original format: Unselect both the “Optimise movies and images for iPhone and iPad” tick box and the “Optimise movies for older devices” tick box. Movies and images may not display on all devices, or on all versions of macOS, iOS and iPadOS.
Convert HEVC, ProRes and movies in unsupported formats to H.264 and images in unsupported formats to a compatible format: Select both the “Optimise movies and images for iPhone and iPad” tick box and the “Optimise movies for older devices” tick box. HEVC, ProRes and movies in unsupported formats are converted to H.264 and images in unsupported formats are converted to a compatible format (for example, JPEG), and can be displayed on all devices and versions of macOS, iOS and iPadOS.
Convert HEVC and ProRes movies to H.264, but keep other movies and images in their original format: Unselect the “Optimise movies and images for iPhone and iPad” tick box, then select the “Optimise movies for older devices” tick box. Movies in H.264 format play on all devices and versions of macOS, iOS and iPadOS, but movies and images in unsupported formats may not display on all devices.
Keep HEVC and H.264 movies in their original format, but convert ProRes, movies and images in unsupported formats: Select the “Optimise movies and images for iPhone and iPad” tick box, then unselect the “Optimise movies for older devices” tick box. Movies in ProRes or other unsupported formats are converted to HEVC. If your computer or device does not support HEVC, the movie is converted to H.264. Images in unsupported formats are converted to a compatible format (for example, JPEG).
These settings apply only to movies and images you add from now on and not to any existing movies and images in your documents.
Note: macOS versions earlier than macOS 10.15 don’t support transparency in HEVC and ProRes movies, so if your HEVC or ProRes movie has transparency (for example, in the background), whatever is encoded in the movie (for example, black) is shown instead.