iPhoto 6: The Missing Manual, 5th Edition

Chapter 10. Books, Calendars, & Cards

At first, gift-giving is fun. During those first 20, 30, 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?

If you have iPhoto, you’ve got an ironclad, perennial answer. The program’s Book feature lets you design and order (via the Internet) a gorgeous, professionally bound photo book, printed at a real bindery and shipped to the recipient in a slipcover. Your photos are printed on glossy, acid-free, single-sided pages, complete with captions, if you like. It’s a handsome, emotionally powerful gift guaranteed never to wind up in an attic, at a garage sale, or on eBay.

These books ($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).

In iPhoto 6, in fact, the self-publishing business has expanded. Not only is the quality better (300 dpi instead of 150), but you can now create equally great-looking calendars (covering any year, or an arbitrary bunch of months), postcards, and greeting cards.

Fortunately for you, the designing-and-ordering tools are the same for all of these photo-publishing categories. This chapter ...