Here's how to use the 2010 Calendar Template PDF
to make a calendar with your own images.

 

Download my 2010 Calendar PDF and Save it somewhere on your hard drive, then start Photoshop. From within Photoshop open the PDF*.

You'll open each month's page in the PDF as an individual Photoshop document. The one-month calendar in your Photoshop document is a single layer. You can’t edit the text, but you can erase whatever you want and add your own special touch. For instance, you might want to select the white area with your Magic Wand Tool and remove it and either let your photo show through, or change the color or opacity. You might want to erase the a date’s number and put in, for instance, a firecracker photo with a big 4 on it on the 4th of July. You can Transform (control/command-t) the shape of the calendar to your heart’s content.


Above are a few samples from a previous year. I used the same image in each, and the same month, and came up with different calendars for different purposes.

To do the one in the lower right, above, which is six pages printed back to back, stitched or stapled in the middle where they fold to reveal the next month, you'll need paper which won't "bleed" through, and you'll need to do the "pagination" below:

So the backs of the pages (indicated in red) will seem to be upside down if you turn them like a normal book, but will look right side up if you "tumble" them, turning top to botom.

Think of ways to make your calendar different from store bought calendars.

 

You might put in special birthdays or anniversaries with some appropriate art in that box. You could make a whole calendar from scans of your childrens' art and give copies to each grandparent (with an inset photo of the "artist"). You could put a favorite poem on each photo. What will you do with the blank space where the begining or end of the month only has a few days? That's another place for a favorite saying or poem.

If you're seen by family friends as a chef as well as a photographer, you could photograph your twelve specialties (maybe to match the month) and either leave room in the photo to superimpose the recipe or put it next to the calendar rectangle on the bottom half of the page.

The possibilities are limitless! Please send me a photo or screen capture of what you do with your calendar!

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* You can click on File>Open and browse to the PDF, or in newer versions you can right (control) click on the PDF in your Photoshop Browser or Adobe Bridge and select Open with Photoshop. You’ll be offered a selection: which of the twelve (month) pages do you want to open? (back to the top)