More Printing Options

If you have a photo-inkjet printer, take advantage of itdon't just restrict yourself to producing ordinary prints. I like to create photo greeting cards with my printer. Yes, I can (and often do) create iPhoto greeting cards, but when I don't want to wait several days for a card to arrive in the mail, I fire up my printer and get out my cutting board.

Here's a step-by-step look at how I do it, along with a few more photo-related gift ideas.

Step 1.	Print the Card Select your photo (click it once), then choose Print from the File menu. In the Print dialog box, choose Greeting Card from the Style menu, then be sure the Single-Fold button is active. I like to use heavyweight matte-finish paper for greeting cards. Its reverse sidewhere you'll write your greetingaccepts ink nicely and doesn't contain any company logos, unlike most plastic resin-coated papers. For this example, I scanned an old black-and-white photo of yours truly sitting on Santa's lap. Trivia tidbit: That isn't really Santait's my dad. He was a TV and radio personality in my home town of Pittsburgh, and every year he'd don a Santa suit and play the role at local charity events and children's TV shows. All the other kids were confused and just a little jealous when I told them my dad was Santa.
Step 2.	Fold the Card Be sure your print is dry and your hands are clean. Then, using a sharp, straight edge, crease the side of the card where you want the fold to be. (For a vertically oriented card like this one, that will be the left edge of the photo.) Carefully fold the card along that crease.
Step 3.	Trim the Card With the card folded, cut off the white edges around the photo. A cutting board works best, but a pair of sharp scissors will do.

Picture the Perfect Present

Photos make fabulous gifts. Here are a few of the many ways to give some pixels to someone you love.

Enlargements. Order an enlargement of a favorite photo, and then have it framed. You can use iPhoto to order prints as large as 20 by 30 inches, although you'll need a high-resolution file to get sharp results at large sizes. For even bigger prints, check out JumboGiant (www.jumbogiant.com), which uses special resolution-enhancing software to create spectacularly huge prints.

Books, calendars, and cards. With iPhoto's publishing features, you can create gorgeous photo books, calendars, and yes, greeting cards, all in a variety of sizes and styles. If you're creating a book or calendar for someone, consider including a DVD of it, too. Create a DVD containing a slide show of the same photos you've used in print, and include the DVD along with the hard copy.

Photo gifts. Think beyond paperhave a photo printed on a mug, tote bag, apron, jigsaw puzzle, mousepad, T-shirt, or even a batch of cookies.

You can't order photo gifts like these through iPhoto. But you can order them from Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com), Club Photo (www.clubphoto.com), and Signature Color (www.signaturecolor.com).

When ordering a photo gift, you'll have to transfer your photo to the online service. Just drag the photo from the iPhoto window out to your desktop; this makes a copy of the photo on your desktop. Upload this copy, then delete it.