David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Calendars, Cards, and Books

At first, gift-giving is fun. During those first 10, 20, or 40 birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, Valentine's Days, Christmases, and so on, you might actually enjoy picking out a present, buying it, wrapping it, and delivering it.

After a certain point, however, gift-giving becomes exhausting. What the heck do you get your dad after you've already given him birthday and holiday presents for 15 or 35 years?

Now that you have a digital camera, you've got an ironclad, perennial answer: custom photo books.

The Web is filled with companies that let you design and order (via the Internet) gorgeous, professionally bound photo books, printed at a real bindery and shipped to the recipient in a slipcover. Your photos are printed on glossy, acid-free paper, at very high resolution, complete with captions, if you like. It's a handsome, emotionally powerful gift guaranteed never to wind up in the attic, at a garage sale, or on eBay.

These books (about $20 and up) are amazing keepsakes to leave out on your coffee table—the same idea as most families' photo albums, but infinitely classier and longer lasting (and not much more expensive).

You can also create equally great-looking calendars (covering any year, or an arbitrary bunch of months), postcards, and greeting cards.

Picking the Pix

Frankly, the hardest part of the whole book/calendar/card creation process is winnowing ...