# Apple iPhoto calendar Ordering - Printing Quality?



## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

I'm thinking of doing a custom calendar for a Christmas Gift.
The iphoto tools look pretty easy and the templates are pretty slick.


I'm curious if anyone has ordered one and if you would care to comment on the quality.

Thanks


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## FlaminWiz (Feb 18, 2008)

Never even used iPhoto but a question about the quality of the prints. 
And is there a website for the costs or something ?
What is the best resolution they can print. I think I worded that awkwardly ...


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

I've ordered them before, and they've been SUPERB. A 12-month calendar costs $19.99 plus $5 shipping (Canadian orders appear to get "express" shipping instead at no additional cost!).

I hadn't ordered one for quite a while, but should be getting one in Monday's mail, so I'll let you know.

As for "dpi" I believe it's 600dpi print quality, basically meaning your picture should be from a 3MP or higher camera to be used in most spots, and higher resolution for the larger (cover) type shots. iPhoto will "flag" any photo that doesn't pass resolution muster and let you know.


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

I've produced/ordered iPhoto calendars for the past few years and continue to be very satisfied with the quality, both black & white and colour.


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## FlaminWiz (Feb 18, 2008)

chas_m said:


> As for "dpi" I believe it's 600dpi print quality, basically meaning your picture should be from a 3MP or higher camera to be used in most spots, and higher resolution for the larger (cover) type shots. *iPhoto will "flag" any photo that doesn't pass resolution muster and let you know*.


That's good then.


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

My spouse has done an annual calendar the last couple of years as an xmas special as well as a couple of specials. Always the printing is great. Also they have a big impact on recipients.


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## l84toff (Jul 27, 2008)

Ordered a calendar last year for Christmas for my father and the quality was awesome. iPhoto does in fact flag pics that do not meet the min quality specs. If I recall correctly, you can still print those pics that are lower resolution. 

Either way I was impressed with the service overall and my father was even more impressed than me. 

We spent 3 weeks in Hawaii earlier this year & I'm looking forward to doing up some more calendars for the family this year.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Thanks guys., I'm going to put one together for sure.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Follow-up: received my calendar today. I had never ordered one before (had othered other things before). It's HUGE. And it's AWESOME.

VERY impressed. For $25 (total cost, includes shipping), uploaded late in the afternoon of 26-Oct and arrived on the morning of the 31st (wasn't home, so I just got it today), this thing can't be beat.

PS. First time ordering the wire-bound books too -- again, WOW.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

excited to hear that.
I'd like to order a book as well.


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## doubles87 (Jul 15, 2008)

FlaminWiz said:


> Never even used iPhoto but a question about the quality of the prints.
> And is there a website for the costs or something ?
> What is the best resolution they can print. I think I worded that awkwardly ...


How do you use a mac and not we iphoto lol unless you don't take pics. Do you have a better app for it? Or straight folders.


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## FlaminWiz (Feb 18, 2008)

Actually, ummm... I was importing about 2.5 GB of photo from my camera because the cards were full. I just copy, pasted it into separate folders, then deleted it from the card. The separate folders was an issue because on the camera there were folders that ended with numbers (Ex. 110, 120, etc) and most of the images/videos were mixed. 

Are you saying there was an easier way of doing this ? (But I imported direct from the card with an SD adapter because for some reason the camera was not recognized, maybe that was one of them...)


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## JCCanuck (Apr 17, 2005)

*Never done a calendar but the books are awesome!*

Each page was photo print quality. The calendar is a great Idea and I think I'll do that this year. I am amazed at the cost too!


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## MacMaster (Jan 22, 2006)

*iPhoto Books & Calendars*

If you choose to export your iPhoto project as a PDF, you will find that it is 200 DPI. 

Based on the quality of photo books that I've seen from Apple, I believe they are being done on an Indigo Printer. My only complaint would be inconsistency in the B/W images. They tend to shift blue, green or magenta from time to time.

Photo Books and Calendars are not true photographic quality - but they are not meant to be. They are considered a gifting item or a novelty item.

The binding on the iPhoto books adds a really nice touch.


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## nick24 (Jul 11, 2006)

I made a number of books as gifts for relatives after my wedding - none of them disappointed and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

MacMaster said:


> If you choose to export your iPhoto project as a PDF, you will find that it is 200 DPI.
> 
> Based on the quality of photo books that I've seen from Apple, I believe they are being done on an Indigo Printer. My only complaint would be inconsistency in the B/W images. They tend to shift blue, green or magenta from time to time.
> 
> ...


From what I read this was something in iphoto 6 - and there was a hack to bump to 300dpi but now in iphoto 8 - all printing is done in 300 dpi?


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

There was an update to iPhoto just last week specifically to "improve quality of items ordered from the iPhoto store" -- the day AFTER I sent off my order! 

My most recent order was a set of the three "mini" books (you can only get them in lots of three at a time), one of the "wire-bound" medium books and one calendar. These were all "test runs" to prepare for xmas ordering.

Simply put, I couldn't be more pleased. I still let Costco do my prints and card type jobs, but these products are very high-quality at a great price IMHO.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Got my calendar today.
Didn't have too much time to look since it's a gift and my wife was coming home.
I did take a quick breeze though and it looks pretty awesome.

I'm very impressed.
$25 bucks.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

doubles87 said:


> How do you use a mac and not we iphoto lol unless you don't take pics. Do you have a better app for it? Or straight folders.


I guess I fall into this catagory as well, I've been using Photoshop since the IIfx and v1. I only used iPhoto last week because we wanted to do a calendar. I use CS 3 at work currently.

We hit one glitch, if you have multiple photos added to the date grid and add captions the layout will drop a caption when you close and open iPhoto. But if you create a PDF through the print command the captions are still there. Not sure how our calendars will look as we sent the order in last night but it is good to hear that they look great....

Kevin


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