iPhoto Book

Okay, you’ve taken hundreds of digital photos, what do you do now? Stare at them on your computer screen? Print out faded versions on your ink jet printer (you know, the one with the overpriced ink cartridges)? If you have Mac OS X, Apple provides a great alternative for people that use iPhoto 4.0: you can make a hard cover book that looks better than your high school yearbook.

The idea is pretty cool. You build an album with the pictures you want in Apple’s iPhoto, and then you can select one of seven book styles: Catalog, Classic, Collage, Picture Book, Portfolio, Story Book, and Year Book. Each layout style automatically arranges the photos and pages in a professional way.

When you’re done, you can order the book from Apple. That’s probably the only drawback. You’d better have a high credit limit on your credit card when you order, because at a $3 per page (minimum 10 pages), the book will set you back a bit. Swallow hard and click the “order” button, and in a few days, they’ll ship you a professional-looking hard cover book with glossy, full-bleed pages.

If you don’t want to order a book, you can save the album as a PDF to print on your own printer or email it out to people, if you want to bring down your local mail server with a giant file.

The cost prevents the books from being something you’d want to order every day, but iPhoto books make a great keepsake for special occasions.

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