Create and write to a .pages file using Terminal Is it possible to create and write on a .pages document file via Terminal.app?

I have tried it as explained below but it didn't work. As I understand, I was able to create a .pages file but the binary format wasn't correct.

 touch file.pages  #CREATE THE FILE
 open -a Pages file.pages #OPEN THE FILE WITH PAGES (Pages can not open file.pages)


I have had the same result with following:

ls -l &gt;&gt; file.pages
open -a Pages file.page


I have also tried using different extensions:no extension, txt, rtf, doc, but Pages.app cannot open the file.

How do I do it?
A Pages document is not a simple file, but a Zip archive.
A Pages document contains much more than just plain text. A blank document is still based on a template, with a set page size and other metadata.


Creating a blank document in Pages creates this structure:



To create a Pages document programatically, use AppleScript to tell Pages to do it for you.

tell application "Pages" to ¬
  save (make new document) in file "Macintosh HD:path:to:folder:Blank.pages"


To run AppleScript from the command line, use osascript.

osascript -e 'tell application "Pages" to save (make new document) in file "Macintosh HD:path:to:folder:Blank.pages"'