Custom Father's Day Gifts Made From A Photo

He buys his own tools, replaces his own socks, and has a strong opinion about which brand of anything is correct. Ask what he wants and the answer is nothing, which he means.

So Father's Day collapses into the same aisle every June. A mug with a joke on it. A tie. A bottle of something he already has two of. All of it is fine and none of it is remembered by July.

The one category left

Once somebody owns what they want, the only presents that land are the ones that cannot be bought. A photograph of his children, or of the dog that follows him around the house, is not on any shelf in any shop, and no other relative can accidentally buy the same one.

It has to come from the children

This is the framing that gets past the objection. A gift from a partner invites an argument about spending money. A gift from a four year old, printed with the drawing that four year old made, does not. He will say it is too much and then keep it on the chair he sits in.

Nothing here needs charging, pairing, updating or a password, which matters more for this recipient than for any other.

The children, cut to their outline

One child or two, cut around them rather than left square. It sits on the sofa he uses and it is visible from across the room, which is the whole point for anyone who works away or travels.

A drawing one of them made

Cut to the shape of whatever they drew, wobbly lines kept exactly as they are. Fathers who would refuse an expensive present accept this one without argument, because it obviously came from the child rather than from a shop.

First Father's Day

A photograph of the baby, usually bought by a partner. This is the only Father's Day where the gift is genuinely about the day itself rather than about the person, and it tends to get kept for decades.

The joke one

His own face, cut around the head, printed larger than anybody expected. Every family has one father this is correct for and the rest of the family already knows which one.

A grandfather

The grandchildren on one cushion, as a collage of up to nine photographs. Grandfathers are even harder to buy for than fathers, for the same reasons and with thirty more years of practice at wanting nothing.

A father who is not there

Father's Day is difficult for a lot of people. If you are ordering a memorial piece, say so in the notes and it is handled personally rather than through the usual queue, at no extra cost.

Two minutes here decides most of the result, and there is one trap specific to this occasion.

Fathers are rarely in the photographs

He is usually the one holding the camera, which means the family albums are full of everyone except him. If you want a picture of him, ask around. Somebody has one from a wedding, a holiday or a birthday that nobody has looked at in years.

Send the original

Not a screenshot, not something forwarded through a messaging app, not an image saved from social media. Each of those compresses the file and throws detail away permanently. Go to the camera roll of whoever took it.

Old prints

A photograph from the eighties, rephotographed on a phone, usually works well as long as the phone was held flat above it in daylight. Reflections and shadows cause more problems than age does.

For the dog

Crouch until the camera is level with their eyes. Photographs taken from standing height enlarge the nose and shrink the head, which is the most common problem on animal orders and the easiest to avoid.

Father's Day falls in June in the United States and on different dates elsewhere, so work back from your own date rather than from a banner.

Production takes three days, counted from when you approve the preview rather than from when you order. Approving is usually same day. Shipping is added after that.

• Two weeks ahead is comfortable for any destination
• Inside a week usually still lands, but the courier is the variable
• Late is survivable. A present clearly made for somebody does not expire on a Sunday

Send it straight to him

Put his address at checkout instead of yours. For anyone who lives in a different city or country from their father, this removes a second leg of postage and several days.

If siblings are splitting it

There is no bulk tier, so the arithmetic is simple. One person orders, everyone sends their share, and the photograph can come from whoever has the best one rather than whoever is paying.

• Cut to an outline. The shape follows the subject. This is what makes it read as his children or his dog rather than as a cushion, and it is the version that gets a reaction.
• Square cushion. Quieter, sits on a sofa without explaining itself, and the right choice for a collage of several photographs.
• A drawing. Cut to whatever a child drew. The version fathers accept without protesting about cost.

Size changes the gift

For the joke, go bigger than feels sensible, because the size is the joke. For anything sincere, the middle size sits on a chair and gets used, where the largest dominates a room and ends up moved.

The back is free

Both sides print at no extra cost on every format. The children on one side and the dog on the other is the most common pairing for this occasion, and it costs the same as printing one thing twice.

• Custom gifts for him, the year round version of this page
• Custom grandparents gifts, if you are buying for a grandfather as well
• Custom family gifts, for fitting several people onto one layout
• Custom dog pillows, including how to photograph a dark coated dog
• Custom shaped pillows, for turning a child's drawing into the shape they drew