David's Free Downloadable Printable 2009 Landscape Calendar

Each year using Photoshop, I create an annual calendar that I make freely available on my website below as a marketing tool using a background of one of the images I captured during the current year. For 2008 that happened to be a 2007 image I made at dawn with my little Coolpix near Mono Lake. For 2009 it is a flatbed scanned and processed 4x5 Provia 100F image I exposed this last summer in August while on a backpacking trip to the Silver Divide in the John Muir Wilderness.

Unlike usual image calendars, I uniquely place the actual calendar text atop the image instead of making it separate below as is usual. Thus I look through my recent collection of yearly images that have large continuous tone areas where the calendar text will stand out well from the background. Images as sunrises, sunsets, and sky on water reflections often work best and the latter type provided the source this holiday season.

Note there are several commercial web sites that have tools for making a personal calendar. However none of them put the calendar text atop the image like I do and instead simply position calendar text below a person's selected image. Something anyone with trivial Photoshop skills could do for themselves.

The 1.4mb print file for my calendar can be freely downloaded from my below website and then printed out on any usual home inkjet printer. Or for higher quality one might bring the file on portable flash media down to any of the national stores that have photo kiosks. See the directions on my link. The intended size is for an 8x10.

From my below homepage website, at upper right, select the Tips, Tools, Information Page ...Free 2009 Calendar that will change to my Information sub-page. Then select the 2009 Calendar field next to the Christmas trees at page top. That will open the calendar information page with simple information about downloading and printing.


David Senesac Photography
http://www.davidsenesac.com

Do you think it's possible, David, that the reason most people/places print the photo separately from the calendar grid is that they actually want to *see* the photo? And not for nuthin' but layering a photo over top a calendar grid or vice versa isn't exactly an advanced PS skill, either.

Kudos to you for doing this and making it freely available; but don't break your arm patting yourself on the back.

You've answered your own question. As I noted, few scenic images have sizeable enough continuous tone areas where an image might adequately stand out to make this work. Choosing an image and laying it out with appropriate fonts and color is a modest creative process. Your sour response shows you miss the point of my creative intent. That is to produce something different and unique that just isn't another typical calendar. And in no way suggest what I'm doing is necessarily better than usual calendar styles but merely a different and fresh approach I chose to share here since many on this board easily have photo editing skills to do something unique also.

I think the problem here is, as is often the case with your posts, your approach seems to be, why say something in 100 words when 1,000 will do? (You've GOT to be an engineer.) Couldn't you have just posted something like, "Hey gang, I've got a free downloadable 2009 calendar on my Web site. Just follow this link and enjoy!" There's nothing particularly unique or challenging about placing a calendar grid on top of a photo, and since the intended size is 8x10, I don't know why you feel the need to tell us it's from a flatbed-scanned 4x5 Provia. And you are being boastful, however unintentionally, when you describe calendars other than yours, where the photo and grid are separate, as "something anyone with trivial Photoshop skills could do for themselves."

Furthermore, given that the calendar is intended to be printed at 8x10, those numbers are gonna be awfully small. If you're going to offer one of these up, why not make it big enough that the photo matters, and the text is usable?

Thanks for that offer, David. I'll check it out. Not really my place to question your motives or personality, just glad you've done this.

It's actually nice for me to have something small enough to lay on my desk but big enough to see just the dates/days so when I'm checking upcoming plans I don't have to flip through the traditional calendar on the wall to get to future months.

Todd >>>"...Furthermore, given that the calendar is intended to be printed at 8x10, those numbers are gonna be awfully small. If you're going to offer one of these up, why not make it big enough that the photo matters, and the text is usable?"

Of course traditional monthly calendars that usually are at least 11x17 format allow those larger phont sizes and longer viewing distance uses as well as a larger size image. The nice thing about a free web calendar that fits on a standard 8.5x11 sheet is that almost all home and office users will be able to print it out on their readily available lower end photo printers than if it were say 11x17. With all your superb material I'd bet you could craft up something nice at that larger size.

The resulting phont size is no smaller than much of the text one reads on a monitor or in a magazine. Of course one doesn't expect to read a magazine from several feet away and obviously the use a small 8x10 calendar is more appropriate for intimate distances like on the wall of office cubes or beside one's computer. Of course there are many small commercial annual calendars available that are much the same and quite readable just as is this one. In fact each year I usually get a few such small free calendars in the mail from real estate and insurance people though they are batch printed by commercial CMYK SWOP printers.