golf digest

Creating Personalized Photo Calendars
By Valerie Goettsch, Fri Dec 9th

About Photo Calendars:

Photo Calendars are 12-month, wall-hanging calendars that youcan create using your own digital photos and captions. As youcustomize your own photo calendar, you can start the calendar onwhatever month and year you wish. Most photo calendars areprinted on white heavy-weight glossy card stock that you canwrite on, and they are spiral-bound in the middle.

Creating Personalized Photo Calendars:

Most online digital photo printing services, such as Shutterfly(my favorite), Snapfish and Kodak EasyShare Gallery, offercustom photo calendars. The process of creating personalizedphoto calendars usually involves:

1. Picking a starting month and year for your calendar

2. Selecting a page design from a variety of templates

3. Choosing your photos from those you have uploaded to thephoto service's website and selecting which photo you want for aspecific month

4. Writing brief photo captions to accompany each page of yourphoto calendar (usually optional)

5. Adding a cover photo for your personalized photo calendar

6. Placing your photo calendar order with the web site

Templates for Personalized Photo Calendars:

Most photo printing services like Shutterfly and Snapfish offera selection of photo calendar templates to choose from. Thereare also several software programs that include free photocalendar templates. FotoFinish offers

several photo calendartemplates with its FotoFinish Suite software version, and youcan download a variety of additional free photo calendartemplates from its website. Adobe Photoshop Album and Jasc PaintShop Photo Album 5 Deluxe also feature photo calendar templates.

Printing Photo Calendars:

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

Customized Photo Calendars Make Great Gifts:

Custom photo calendars make terrific gifts, whether forbirthdays, Mother's Day, etc. Got an avid golfer in the family?What about custom golf photo calendars featuring photos of yourgolfer teeing off? Sometimes it is hard to come up with a goodgift idea for elderly parents or grandparents. A photo calendarwith pictures of your children makes a great gift that grandmaand grandpa will enjoy anew each time they turn over a newmonth. Don't have kids? What about 12 months of your favoritepet photos? The ideas are endless.