iPhoto: The Missing Manual

Chapter 9. Books, Calendars, and Cards

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 35 years?

If you have iPhoto, you’ve got an ironclad, perennial answer. The program lets you design and order 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 paper, at 300 dots per inch, 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 ($30 and up) are amazing keepsakes—the same idea as most families’ photo albums, but infinitely classier and longer lasting (and not much more expensive).

And you’re not just limited to books. iPhoto also lets you create equally great-looking calendars (covering any year or group of months that works for you)—a fantastic yearly gift—postcards, and even letterpress greeting cards (cards that have inked designs pressed into the paper). Your projects arrive beautifully wrapped in elegant, Apple-logoed envelopes that are a sight to behold in and of themselves.

Fortunately, you use the same designing and ...