CUSTOM COUPLE GIFTS MADE FROM YOUR PHOTO

Most gifts aimed at a couple are really a gift for one of them with the other standing nearby. A candle is for whoever likes candles. A cookbook is for whoever cooks. A bottle is for whoever drinks it.

A genuine couple gift has to belong to both of them equally, which narrows the field sharply. There are only a few things two people own jointly in a way neither would claim: their animal, their home, the day they got together, and each other.

That is the whole shortlist and it is why this works. A printed photograph of something jointly theirs cannot be quietly claimed by one half of the household.

When this is the right page

This one is for buying for a couple as a unit: an engagement, a housewarming, a move, a milestone. If you are half of the couple and buying for the other half, the calculation is different and lives on custom anniversary gifts or custom boyfriend gifts instead.

Their pet

The single most reliable choice. An animal a couple share is jointly owned in a way nothing else in the house is, and both of them will be pleased. Cut to the animal's outline so it reads as the dog rather than as a cushion, which also removes the background and with it any argument about whether it matches the room.

Their house, for a housewarming

The front door of a first place together, cut to its outline, is a better housewarming gift than anything on a registry, because it stops being relevant to anybody else the moment it is printed.

Both of them, one on each side

Printing runs on both sides at no extra cost, which enables something slightly ridiculous and very popular: one of them on each face of the same pillow, so it reads correctly from either side of a bed. Send two photos and say which goes where.

The engagement photo

For a newly engaged couple, the photograph from that day is the obvious one and it is obvious for a reason. A collage of the relationship is the alternative, which suits a longer history. Four images stay readable at 40 cm and nine at 60 cm.

Getting a photo of somebody else's couple is the awkward part. Friends usually have better photographs of them than you do, and asking one of them directly for a picture of the dog raises no suspicion at all.

Send the original file rather than a screenshot or an image forwarded through a messaging app. Compression is the most common reason a print comes out softer than the photo looked on a phone.

Shipping straight to them saves a leg of postage. Enter their address at checkout rather than yours.

Formats worth reading first

For their animal, see custom pet pillow. For a house, an object or anything with an outline, see custom shaped pillows. For several photographs at once, see custom photo pillow. The full range is at custom pillows.

• Custom wedding gifts, for the day itself and for the bridal party
• Custom anniversary gifts, marking a specific year together
• Custom family gifts, when it is more than two people
• Custom Christmas gifts, including when to order in December
• Custom pillows, every shape and size we print