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by Bill Chambers on Sat Dec 15, 2018 11:19 am
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I've been thinking about producing a calendar for 2020 and I would like to know who are some of the better calendar manufacturers, preferably USA or Canadian manufacturers.  Thanks in advance.
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by SantaFeJoe on Sat Dec 15, 2018 11:29 am
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Here’s a recent thread on this same subject:

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=280602

Joe
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by Bill Chambers on Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:16 pm
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Thanks Joe!
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by merlinator on Sat Dec 15, 2018 6:52 pm
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I’m awaiting some from Vistaprint. First time doing calendars. Should be here in a few days. If you like I can let you know how they look. I ordered when they had a 50% sale on.
Roy
 

by Bill Chambers on Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:04 pm
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merlinator wrote:I’m awaiting some from Vistaprint.  First time doing calendars.  Should be here in a few days.  If you like I can let you know how they look.  I ordered when they had a 50% sale on.
Yes, Roy, please do let me know how you like them.
Please visit my web site, simply nature - Photographic Art by Bill Chambers
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by merlinator on Sat Dec 15, 2018 9:33 pm
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Bill, will do.
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by Primus on Mon Dec 24, 2018 10:14 am
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I've been doing a family calendar for about six years now. I used to make it in Photos on my Mac then send it to Apple. Last year I tried an alternative and went with Mixbook. Horrible experience. I wanted a color profile that was more accurate than Apple's and Mixbook has controls on the webapp that allow you to control the contrast, color etc. I had ordered one sample and when that was poor I changed the color/contrast and sent off the final order. Sadly, the new batch was even worse, with poor contrast and faded colors. They sent the 20 plus calendars in an ordinary brown paper pack such that the corners all got damaged. Plus they were more expensive than Apple.

So this year, back to Apple. However, with their stopping all print services, I had to pick other options again. Tried Motif, but they do not allow individual events to be input on specific dates which is a deal-breaker for me as I like to put in the family birthdays/wedding anniversaries etc. So tried Mimeo. Must say it is absolutely great.

Mimeo allows a lot more customization than is possible even within the Photos app, although you access it through that. You can add/remove individual events, annotating with text input or even inserting a graphic file on any given date. Plus you can easily edit your list of custom holidays in a separate table which is extremely helpful and time-saving.

The final print quality is outstanding with a couple of caveats. The paper is very nice, slightly more matte than Apple, but with the same sleeve packaging for each calendar (unlike Mixbook which has no individual sleeves). The fonts are user definable and you have a lot of choice. They do put their logo on the back and on the cover sleeve which is not a problem for me.

The only thing is that the colors are not entirely accurate, the oranges tend to be more red and if you have a deep blue sky with gradations say in a blue-hour photo, there is slight posterization, However, I am told it is very difficult for most printing presses to get these blues accurate. I can happily live with the final product though. It cannot compare with my own prints at home on my big Epson P9000, but that's alright.

The price is exactly the same as Apple, $19.50 per calendar IIRC and standard shipping for $9.99 gets it to you within 5 business days. Their turnaround is less than two days which is great.

Overall very happy with Mimeo.

Pradeep
 

by merlinator on Mon Dec 24, 2018 2:11 pm
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I received my calendars a couple of days ago from Vistaprint. Overall I am very happy. Easy interface and was shipped the next day, I went with the upgrade on the paper and it turned out to be a great choice. They had a sale of 50% off when I bought mine and I'm pretty sure they have the same kind of sale every year. I will be using them again next year.
Roy
 

by Bill Chambers on Mon Dec 24, 2018 7:31 pm
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Thanks Roy for the update.
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by Methodical on Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:24 am
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I've used AdoramaPix
 

by Dan Brown on Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:18 am
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I've used Vistaprint and they do a good job. This year, I used Lulu.com and am pleased with the quality, pricing and the fact that I do not have to purchase any inventory or ship the calendars to customers if I don't want to. All you have to do is produce the calendar on the website and they distribute a link to the calendar to potential customers. Then the customers just follows the link that I supply and purchase the product from Lulu, who then ship. The base price for a 8.5x11 calendar is $9.99, so I was able to keep the total cost below $20 per unit, including shipping. Payment to me is then through Paypal. 

One issue that Lulu currently has is that because "flash" software is required to view the calendar "preview", iphone/mac users cannot view them. They can view the cover page only. Lulu is in the process of trying to correct this with a new platform of some sort that won't require flash.

That being all said above, not many folks really want physical calendars any more :-( . I assume this is because they use their cell phone calendars. Good luck, Dan
 

by Primus on Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:00 pm
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We have a small calendar posted in the den, and my wife lists all the forthcoming family events in it. Despite all the Apple and Google calendars, with sharing etc, nothing beats looking it up in something like a wall calendar. I use my iPhone for my work schedule and keep a copy of the home events on it too, but somehow the wall calendar is still indispensable. Perhaps we are just not completely integrated with the digital world :-)

Pradeep
 

by signgrap on Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:35 am
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Primus wrote:We have a small calendar posted in the den, and my wife lists all the forthcoming family events in it. Despite all the Apple and Google calendars, with sharing etc, nothing beats looking it up in something like a wall calendar. I use my iPhone for my work schedule and keep a copy of the home events on it too, but somehow the wall calendar is still indispensable. Perhaps we are just not completely integrated with the digital world :-)

Pradeep
Same here.
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by Tom Reichner on Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:09 pm
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Dan Brown wrote: One issue that Lulu currently has is that because "flash" software is required to view the calendar "preview", iphone/mac users cannot view them. They can view the cover page only. Lulu is in the process of trying to correct this with a new platform of some sort that won't require flash.
I've used Lulu every year for the past 9 years, and have always used their website with my iMac.  I have never had any trouble viewing the full previews for anything I have created on Lulu. 
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by Pete Zwiers on Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:15 pm
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I'm kind of surprised nobody has used a local source in their area. I owned a commercial printing business until 2015, and we had digital presses that could produce wonderful quality for calendars. The best thing about local is that they can show you a press proof of what your calendar will look like (on the paper best suited for calendars) ... so you can do an image quality check IN PERSON. If one month's image is off, you can go back to reprocess it and fix it almost immediately - before the print run is started. There is absolutely no substitute for doing a physical press proof!

Look for the commercial printing business locally with the most recent equipment and you'll find a source of calendars which is probably way easier to deal with than anything online. The company I owned still is very competitive price wise with Vistaprint or any other online source. 
 

by Bill Chambers on Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:02 pm
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Pete Zwiers wrote:I'm kind of surprised nobody has used a local source in their area. I owned a commercial printing business until 2015, and we had digital presses that could produce wonderful quality for calendars. The best thing about local is that they can show you a press proof of what your calendar will look like (on the paper best suited for calendars) ... so you can do an image quality check IN PERSON. If one month's image is off, you can go back to reprocess it and fix it almost immediately - before the print run is started. There is absolutely no substitute for doing a physical press proof!

Look for the commercial printing business locally with the most recent equipment and you'll find a source of calendars which is probably way easier to deal with than anything online. The company I owned still is very competitive price wise with Vistaprint or any other online source. 
Thanks, Pete for your input!

Bill
Please visit my web site, simply nature - Photographic Art by Bill Chambers
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by SLONINA PHOTOGRAPHY on Thu May 02, 2019 10:10 pm
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i recommend you invest you money in a book then you have no deadline to sell it
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