October 23, 2004

Hello again,

Our nice Indian Summer weather seems to have ended with a cold, rainy spell here in "sunny California." It is a reminder that the holiday season is approaching, and with that comes the search for the perfect holiday gifts. We all have people in our lives for whom it is just about impossible to shop for. However, I discovered a great, inexpensive holiday gift that can be tailored to the recipient: a photo calendar.

Photo calendars are 12-or 18-month, wall-hanging calendars that you can create using your own digital photos and captions. Because you customize your own photo calendar, you can start the calendar on whatever month and year you wish. Most photo calendars are printed on white heavy-weight glossy or matte card stock that you can write on, and they are spiral-bound in the middle.

Custom photo calendars make terrific gifts, whether for Christmas, Hanukkah, birthdays, Mother's Day, etc. Got an avid golfer in the family? What about custom golf photo calendars featuring photos of your golfer teeing off on his or her favorite courses? Sometimes it is hard to come up with a good gift idea for elderly parents or grandparents. A photo calendar with pictures of your children makes a great gift that grandma and grandpa will enjoy anew each time they turn over a new month. Don't have kids? What about 12 months of your favorite pet photos? I did this for my aunt, who has a softt spot for our dog, Molly, and she loved it. The ideas are endless.

Creating Personalized Photo Calendars

Most online digital photo printing services, such as Shutterfly (my favorite), Snapfish and Ofoto.com, offer custom photo calendars. The process of creating personalized photo calendars usually involves:

Picking a starting month and year for your calendar
Selecting a page design from a variety of templates
Choosing your photos from those you have uploaded to the photo service's website and selecting which photo you want for a specific month
Writing brief photo captions to accompany each page of your photo calendar (usually optional)
Adding a cover photo for your personalized photo calendar
Placing your photo calendar order with the web site

Templates for Personalized Photo Calendars

Most photo printing services like Shutterfly and Snapfish offer a selection of photo calendar templates to choose from.

There are also several software programs that include free photo calendar templates. FotoFinish offers several photo calendar templates with its FotoFinish Suite software version, and you can download a variety of additional free photo calendar templates from its website. Click here to get a 30-day Free trial of FotoFinish.

Adobe Photoshop Album 2 and Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 Deluxe also feature photo calendar templates.

Printing Photo Calendars

If you design your custom photo calendar using an online photo service, to print it simply add your photo calendar to your online shopping account and check out. You'll have your printed photo calendar in a few days. The average cost is about $20 per calendar. If you are using your own software to create your photo calendar, you can print your calendar pages using your own color printer and have your pages spiral bound into a calendar at a local copy store.

Check Your Photo Resolution

Remember that the images in your photo calendar will most likely be 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10, with a single 8x10 per page being the most common format. For best results, your photos should be at least 1024 x 768 pixels for 4"x6" photos, 1152 x 864 pixels for 5"x7" photos and 1600 x 1200 pixels for 8"x10" photos.

The holiday season will be here before you know it. Now is the time to start collecting your pictures for your photo calendars