Calendar Paper

Just wondering if anybody can recommend a good, economical inkjet paper on which to print calendars. I've been wanting to do one for several years now, and have finally built up a good enough collection of work to do it.

Now that I think about it, seems like someone at the spring gathering mentioned doing a CSNP calendar with contributions from members (though I'm sure images from freeloaders like Tim E. would be considered) Any interest? I've already done the hard part, which is formatting the months.

Actually you're right Bill, I did mention it to several people at the Spring Gathering. It would be fun to create a CSNP calendar with proceeds from the sales going to some as yet undetermined benefit or photo scholarship.

But I'm sensitive to those who do this for a living and wouldn't want to errode their sales no matter how small the CSNP calendar might cut into them. If it's something everyone is interested in doing and we have a consensus it would be fun to do.

Can't help you with the paper though. I'd think you'd want them printed in quantity by a quality printing lab though and not one at a time.

If you guys are thinking about printing these one at a time on an inkjet printer, there won't be much (if any) profit left over for benefit or scholarship - very few calendars ever make any money until you reach the 2-3 thousand unit sale point, and that is really tough to do. If you just want to do them as fun for members that is another story. I assume you are talking about printing on one side of the sheet - if so that would be an odd calendar to have around - you would have to have 12 individual pages for the year, plus a cover. Printing double-side is really a mess and cuts way down on what papers you can use. What most folks do is head to Kinkos (also other online short-run printers, but selling a quantity of them is a bear) - those sorts of calendars would never cut into any of my business so don't pay any mind to me...

I hope I didn't offend anyone with the "freeloader" reference in my first post. I thought it was pretty funny when I saw Tim reference himself as such in the Roll Call thread, but there are probably quite a few people that never saw that, or have forgotten it. I apologize for any hard feelings I might have caused.

I can't help with a paper suggestion Bill. I have thought about a calender to give to some family members as Christmas gifts. I would have to use an online print lab such as Mpix. I looked at their prices for calanders and they run from $14-$20 depending on quantity ordered for 12x18 sized calanders. Which as a gift is no big deal.
I'm not really up on all the paper options for printing different type of products on, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Brad

I would have to agree with Tim and Brad. I think I would stay away from printing them yourself.

You can get small quantities lab printed and bound for much cheaper than you can do with inkjet prints. I have used bayphoto.com as well as mpix.com. Both are really good to work with. Personally I have found bayphoto.com a little better with color management so I always use them for larger prints.

For large quantities most I have talked to have gone to Korea or China but that is a totally different ball game.

Here's the bottom line on what I've learned about calendars. My Canon 5000 tells me that an average 7x10 color print consumes about 0.1 mL of ink, which should be fairly accurate. Heavyweight 8.5x11 (180 g/sq m) HP brochure/flyer paper works very well printing on both sides and runs about 20 cents a sheet. Staples will spiral bind it for $1.99. Unless I'm missing something here, I can do a custom calendar for about $5.35.

I haven't done a lot of research on the internet, but for a monthly calendar, Bayphoto wants $39.00 for the first one and $23.88 for the second. What a deal! The only place that comes close to my cost is Staples, which runs $9.99 if ordered online. Their quality doesn't compare to the heavyweight HP paper, and there is no customization (full moons, holidays, etc.). It would appear that they use a standard weight copy paper run through a laserjet printer...not something I would want my name on.

Bill, I've been printing small quantities of photo calendars the last few years using the Office Depot generic version of HP brochure/flyer paper and have had pretty good results. My biggest problem is my printer. I have an HP Photosmart 8250. When I first got it, it worked like a snap. Now it will barely feed a sheet of paper through without me "coaxing" it (actually, SHOVING it) into the feeder. This makes printing time very slow. I found the HP paper to be a bit heavier and my printer picked it up a little better so I'll probably use HP paper this year (unless I decide to spring for a new printer!) I've checked with local printers including the biggies (Office Max, Office Depot, Kinkos, etc.) and several on line services and like you, found them to be prohibitively expensive for the small number of calendars I wanted to print and no customization was available. In fact, someone at Kinko's told me outright "It would be cheaper for you to print it at home." I bought my own binding machine last year from Office Depot. Last year I also discovered binders called "Zip Bind" that don't look as cheap as regular plastic comb binders. They come in either clear or black. They are a bit more expensive but IMO they look a lot nicer. Keep me posted on your project. It's about time for me to start on mine. I'm a paralegal and I like to photograph Kansas courthouses. I've made a courthouse calendar for several years and a number of friends and co-workers are good customers and buy them as Christmas gifts for their lawyer bosses.