Making Calendars for Gifts

[Roy]

My Wife wants to give me this project for some gift giving this Christmas (she's good at finding things to keep me busy). Who can take your photos and make a photo for each month if I supply the photo? I like large calendars about 10x13 for the month with days and about the same for the photo above. Is this something I can do myself or is it easier and more cost effective to find someone that can do it? I'd have to have the photo processed anyway because I can only print 8.5x11 on my Canon i960. Any ideas?

[LoungeLizard]

I have a friend who does this every year. Uses the Microsoft imaging software and a template it has.

[brad]

Walmart/Sam's does this, too.

[jeffkohn]

Seems most of the online labs I checked into only offer the 1-page calendar with all 12 months on it. Costco does offer a "real" calendar and I think I may give it a try. The only thing that worries me is that some poster-sized prints I ordered from them came back with absolutely horrible color (greens were MIA, yellows totally overdone). So I'm not sure if I have confidence in getting consistent quality from them.

(Note I'm talking about online orders fullfilled by Shutterfly, as the actual Costco stores can't handle the larger print sizes and probably can't do the calendars either).

[Roy]

Jeff, the ones I see at Shutterfly are 11"x17" open and reasonable but not as large as I wanted. Maybe I need to rethink the size thing. I've had Shutterfly process some photos before and I didn't think they were bad. I'll check out Sams too. Don't have the Costco card. Any others?

[CaptainTom]

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but the quality is fine and the turnaround is really good.

I just had 10 made for xmas presents, and was very pleased.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customiz...ear=true&no=75

[Roy]

Yeah, I probably need to be looking at this size. At least the place you ordered yours from tells you what the paper weight is. Thanks for you input Tom.

[DAPhoto]

lulu.com has "premium calendars"
I had a couple in the past and they are light feeling. The new ones are bigger and on a thicker paper. May be worth checking out.

More info...

[Kar]

I had shutterfly do about 16 calendars last year of about 6 different themes. All of them were awesome. Hopefully they will offer a deal like last year when they were like half off with free shipping for 2 or 3 days. I have one next to me and it is very well made.

[RandySmith]

Last year I gave my whole family 2005 calendars for Christmas ... over the year 2004 I took individual pictures of everybody in the family ... I then used the template below and inserted their picture on the day of their birthday ... and family group photo's were the main large photo for the month ...

It worked out really well, except I was disappointed in the price and quality where I had them printed ... the family loved the calendars and think they are a keepsake too.

Here's a link to the photoshop template I used where you can obtain a 2005 photoshop template:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=10697213

In searching this morning for this link, I saw a few other options some folks might consider:

http://www.pbase.com/455rocket/calendar

http://www.digi-labs.net/


good luck.
Randy

[byarger]

I just ordered fullsize calendars with my pictures as gifts from this location. These calendars were customizable and you can add calendar/date options. This location also had an easy upload of the pictures.

http://www.photogiftplace.com/Produc...e=calendarjump

[jerrykr]

I'm working on mine right now. I did them last year too.

I bought Calendar Creater 10 last year, and print them on my Epson R300 on double side Matt paper from Staples.

Mine are completely custom, with family names on birthdates. 3 versions, One for Us with all birthdates, one for each side of the family, with the revelant birthdates on each set. The pictures vary between families too, as we had a wedding and a graduation from Law school.

I'm using Calendar Creater 10 for the calendar pages, and Qimage to print the photos.

I use the service desk at Staples to bind them.

I'm estimating about $8.00 each, paper, binding, ink.

It is a LOT of time consuming work, but I have complete control, and the result is awesome if I do say so.

-=- Jerry -=-
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[Roy]

Thanks to everybody for the tips!

[CSebesta]

Out of curiosity, do you have to refill the print cartridges on your Epson?

I normally print between 30-40 calanders for $3 to $6 per, on my HP Photosmart. Mine are on 8.5 X 11 double sided Mat paper (double sided color also using an older version of Calender Constructer).

Thanks for the post, looking forward to improve my process.

Charles

[jerrykr]

Charles,

The Epson is new to me. I bought a bunch of 3rd party XPrint ink for the calendars. There is another post about this in another thread.

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=12157

With me the jury is still out as far as using this ink. I printed about 15 of the 8x10 pictures for my calendar this weekend, and so far I am very pleased.

I have tried to refill my carts on my older HP 932C printer, and never had very much success. I finally gave the remaining ink to a friend who claimed he had good luck. I went back to good old HP carts. I won't be trying to refill anytime soon.

Post some pics of your completed calendars.

-=- Jerry -=-
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