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Chapter 1: Presenting the iPhoto’09 Interface
work you put into your photos, you don’t want to shortchange yourself
on the print.
✓ Ordering photo books and prints: You can use a service available
through iPhoto to order a professional, bound book filled with your
photographs.
✓ Turning your photos into greeting cards: iPhoto gives you a choice of
several greeting card sizes and styles for just about any occasion. Just
drag your photo into the card format, add your message, and then either
print it yourself or send it out directly from iPhoto for professional
production.
✓ Creating a calendar with your photos: This can be a great birthday
or holiday gift. Choose a theme and then begin customizing. You can
choose the month the calendar begins, the number of months (up to 24),
and which holidays you want to appear. Then just drag in your photos,
add or change special dates as you wish, and you’re done. You can
order a professionally printed calendar or print it yourself, all through
iPhoto.
iPhoto’s Technical Specifications
iPhoto is very easy to use and gives you wide latitude in how you accomplish
your photographic goals. Like with all things in life, you need to have some
items in order to use even this very forgiving application. Here’s a list:
✓ A compatible digital camera: Although, strictly speaking, a camera isn’t
required to import photos into iPhoto, you’re going to want one if you
intend to do much in the way of photography. I cover the various ways
for importing photos into iPhoto in Chapter 3.
✓ A Mac with Mac OS X and iPhoto: This requirement kind of goes with-
out saying, seeing as how iPhoto runs only on a Mac, but I put it in for
completeness. I wrote this book for the latest version of iPhoto (iPhoto
’09) available at the time of this book’s printing.
✓ Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports: You’ll need one port on your camera
and one (at least) on your Mac. These ports allow you to connect your
camera to your computer and import your photos into the iPhoto
Library.
✓ An A-to-B USB cable: This cable connects your camera to your com-
puter (using the USB ports): hence, to iPhoto. This cable probably came
with your camera, but if it didn’t, you’ll have to buy one. Make sure the
cable you get has the proper connector on the camera end: They do vary.
The USB connector for the Mac is a standard 6-pin USB connector — it’s
the same for all computers.