How To Make a Custom Calendar for Your Wall

With Lulu’s print-on-demand, you can create a calendar with ease. I’ll walk through it today, but it’s so easy now, that you don’t even need instructions!

Creating A Calendar

Our calendars use 100# paper and Premium Color ink. The binding is a ‘wire-o’ wound through the top of the page, with a hole pre-punched 0.25 in from the top. 

You’ve got two options for creating your calendar. The simplest method is to gather images for each month (and the front cover) and upload them. Or you can download one of our templates and use InDesign or your favorite design software to create a unique design.

Getting Started

I’m going to go through the steps to create and print your calendar, but if you’re more of a video person, we have this great 3:00-minute tutorial:

Then sign in to your Lulu account and create a new project. Select our Calendar Product and give your project a name, and select the language and category. If you plan to sell your calendar, it’s important to find the right category. Shoppers will be able to sort by ‘calendar’ so the category you pick will be key in helping them find your work!

If you’re selling on the Lulu Bookstore, you’ll need to complete all the steps for copyright, details for your calendar, and assigning a payee.

On the Design step, you’ll build your calendar in one of two ways:

1. Create A Calendar
2. Upload A Calendar

Create A Calendar

Our calendar design tool makes it easy to create your calendar using only images.

You’ll start by selecting 12 or 18 months and the start date.

Next, you’ll add some events. These can be standard national holidays or custom days (like birthdays). To make that easy, you can download events from your favorite calendar tool (like Outlook, Google Calendar, or iCalendar) and upload them here as an ICS file. 

Once you have the events ready, upload your images for the front and back cover, as well as one image for each month.

With all your photos uploaded, you will select from one of our four themes.

And that’s it! Hit that ‘Create Calendar’ button to review the preview and download your print-ready files. You should review those files too.

Upload a Calendar

Your other option is to upload a calendar you designed, using our templates to get the page size and month grid set correctly. 

We offer preformatted templates for 12 and 18-month calendars including files for InDesign, Photoshop, and a PDF. Just select the option to upload your calendar, download the template, and design your calendar.

This option is perfect if you want to create a custom grid or add unique elements to your design. Just be sure to respect the specifications and bleed/safety areas so none of your content is trimmed or misaligned when we print your calendar.

Preview And Review Print-Ready Files

Once you’re done using either method to create your calendar, you can use our preview tool to make certain your calendar is ready to print. 

The preview is terrific for catching errors, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to order a printed copy to review too. If you’re planning to sell your calendar, this is even more important. You wouldn’t want customers buying an item you’ve never seen yourself! 

Uploading Your Images

You’ll need to bring all the images for your cover and each month. For a 12-month calendar, you need 14 total: 12 for the months and 2 for the front/back cover. I recommend getting your images together, resizing them, and checking the resolution before you create your calendar on Lulu.

Image Specifications

The image frame is 11.25″ wide x 8.75″ high (with the bleed included). That equals 3375 x 2625 pixels. To ensure high-quality printing, your image’s resolution needs to be between 300 and 600 pixels per inch (PPI). The minimum size for your image is 1688 x 1313 pixels, so be sure your images are at least that size.

Review our Image FAQ on the Lulu Help Center for more detailed information and answers to common questions regarding images.

Fall Is Calendar Time

With the holidays fast approaching, now is the perfect time to create a calendar for next year. They make amazing gifts for friends and family. Or you could fill a calendar with your own art to sell alongside your other books this year. 

Paul H

Paul is the Content Marketing Manager at Lulu. When he's not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat tolerant.