DIY Calendars on a Mac

Since we are in the last month of 2014, many of us may be looking for 2015 calendars either for personal use or to gift to a friend or family member.  While many companies allow you to upload your photos and customize your own calendars, there are do-it-yourself options that can save you a lot of money.  Additionally, given that many online calendar services have very clunky tools, the do-it-yourself options may also save you a lot of time.  In this post, I will discuss 2 different options for making your own calendar on a Mac and a budget (note the application of zeugma here).

Option #1: Calendar with Photos

Assuming that you bought your Mac within that last several years, you likely already have iPhoto installed.  If you don't, then you can probably find the installer on your backup/installation disc.  And if that option fails, then you should be able to download iPhoto from the App Store for free (or possibly for a small price, depending on which version of Mac OS X came with your Mac--I have not verified this recently, as Apple's policies may have changed and they may be offering free downloads for any version of Mac OS X).

Making photo calendars in iPhoto is very simple and intuitive, so at the risk of overstating the obvious, I'll briefly walk you through the process.  Start by making sure you have imported photos into your iPhoto library if you don't already have them stored there.  If importing photos exclusively for making a calendar (eg, you store your photo originals somewhere other than iPhoto), make sure you import at least 13 photos--that's one photo for each month, plus one for the front cover.  Import more photos if you want to put one on the back cover and/or if you want to insert multiple photos per month and/or if you want your calendar to have more than 12 months.

Once you have your photos imported, make sure they are all stored in the same event, select the event, and then select File > New Calendar.  That's really the hardest part.  From there, you enter a calendar wizard that guides you through selecting a theme, inserting national holidays and/or personal calendar events/birthdays, editing layouts, dragging and dropping photos onto existing layouts, etc. While Apple gives you an option to buy the calendar (they will print, bind, and ship to you), I prefer to print out my calendars on regular letter-sized paper using my laser printer, and I get great results.

If you prefer to print your calendar at your local print shop, just "print" your calendar to a PDF file.  All versions of Mac OS X have PDF technology (Quartz) built in, so you can select File > Print, and from the Print dialog box, select PDF > Save as PDF.  From there, copy your PDF file to a USB drive (or upload it to your local print shop if that's an option) and off you go.

Option #2: Calendar Only (No Photos)

Again, assuming that you bought your Mac within the last several years, you likely already have the Calendar or iCal application.  Simply launch Calendar (or iCal) and select File > Print.  From there, simply configure all the options you want such as View (eg, month, week, day), Paper (eg, US Letter), time range, etc. and print.  There you have it--a no-frills, no-cost (well, except for the minimal price of paper and ink/toner) calendar.