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Read through the following FAQ to get more information about
creating custom printable calendars.
About the MyPhoto Calendars Software
Creating my Photo calendar online
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Printing Your Custom 2006 Calendars with Custom Made Calendars
Custom Printable Calendars
Creating my customised 2006 Calendar
Creating your 2006 Calendar - Information about images
What is the Custom Made Calendars Custom Printable Calendars?
The Custom Made Calendars custom printable calendars are
calendars that you create on your Personal Computer with your
own images, texts, and events. After creating this custom
2006 calendar, the software will send it to us for professional
printing. Click here to see an example.
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What is the 2006 calendar size and how will I get it?
Calendars printed at Custom Made
Calendars are printed in three different sizes 12" x
18", 11x17 fold at the middle and 9x12. We bind these
printable calendars and send them to you within two weeks.
We ship using FedEx.
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What should I expect in a customised calendar?
When considering a customised promotional 2006 calendar, you
should look for the following elements:
- Level of customization - can you insert your own
picture or pictures? Can you add your own text messages?
Can you place your specific events on the calendar? Can
you select to use a relevant holidays set?
- Level of design -can you choose one of many ready
2006 calendars templates? Can you change the design of the
2006 calendar? Can you add additional design elements to
the 2006 calendar on top of its original design?
- Output quality - how professional does the final
output look? What is the paper quality and weight? What
is the printing quality?
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Will I need to be a graphic designer to create my own customised
Printable Calendar?
Absolutely not. Our My Photo Calendars calendar creator software
comes with many design templates that were professionally
pre-made for your use. You can get a great custom 2006 calendar
simply by selecting one of our design templates and customizing
its content with your corporate information. If you feel creative,
you can always start changing the design template, adding
your own design touch. Your creativity and ideas are the most
significant limits in creating your promotional item. If you
have difficulty completing the calendar - are missing content
for a month or few - our team will work with you to source
inexpensive royalty free content to "flush out"
your design to ensure that you have a promotional item of
the highest quality.
In the end, our creative people will be happy to give you
a second opinion.
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If I don't have "digital" copies of my images
- can you help me ?
We can scan your images and insert them into your calendar
using the web-based software. You can then complete the customization
by adding text to specific dates.
35mm prints at least 3.5" x 5" or 4" x 6"
on GLOSSY paper work the best. We cannot process slides or
negatives. Pictures scanned from matte paper reproduce out
of focus. Smaller photographs would have to be enlarged and
could lose some clarity in the process. Polaroids are OK although
the clarity and the quality of the color is usually not as
good as 35mm prints.
Put a "stickum" on the back of the photograph telling
us which month you want it. You can edit later if you change
your mind.
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What are some ideas I can use to customize/promote my
calendar?
- Create a "13th Month" - use the last
page to provide information useful anytime during the year
- key product lines, pricing, and any other promotional
information.
- Product Images - With the ability to insert a
photo in any date, you can visually promote items within
a product line on any dates you select. You can provide
a consistent reminder of your goods and services.
- Show Location(s) - You can be proud of your facilities
and show it/them off visually.
- Show Equipment - Use a visual reminder of the
equipment available to serve your customer. You likely have
or can get photographs of delivery vehicles, production
equipment, technology implemented, etc..
- Commemorate an Anniversary - Use an original photograph,
special colors, or unique copy to denote time of service.
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What are the advantages of using the Calendar Software?
The My Photo Calendars calendar creator software gives you
the ultimate flexibility when creating your own 2006 custom
calendar. You can choose from many pre-designed calendars
and customize them to any degree. From inserting images and
events to adding new texts, changing fonts and colors, saving,
and picking your own design, the Calendar Software really
allows you to be the creator of the custom 2006 calendar.
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What do I need in order to create a Custom Printable Calendars?
In order to create the Custom 2006 Calendar you will need
a computer with an Internet connection. Once you have that,
download our program, and using your own personal digital
images and dates you will be able to set up and produce your
own professional looking Personal 2006 Calendar.
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What is your turnaround time for my Custom Printable Calendars?
In most cases, your calendar will be printed within two
weeks or less. In some cases, especially as we get closer
to the holidays, it might take an extra day or two. Your calendar
will be shipped out the same day it is printed. Actual shipping
time will vary based on your selected
shipping method.
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What is the quality of the printed 2006 calendar?
The hp Indigo liquid ElectroInk technology produces deep,
rich, offset-quality printing that is uniform and vibrant.
By using breakthrough image tracking technology, it delivers
uncompromising image quality. The hp indigo offers an 800
dpi output resolution. Learn
more about our printing solutions.
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What is so special about your printers?
Endless opportunities are now available to the patrons
of Custom Made Calendars thanks to the groundbreaking technology
offered by the digital printing equipment of the hp Indigo
press. Through our services, customers are not only able to
exercise innovative applications which were previously unavailable
with conventional presses (such as professional customised
printing in short runs), but can also do so relatively inexpensively.
The high-tech printing technology used by Custom Made Calendars
offers our clientele affordable short-run printing while guaranteeing
high quality performance and customize print. Through the
usage of advanced digital solutions, Custom Made Calendars
is able to meet the needs of its clients by allowing complete
personalization of individual print jobs--making each piece
unique and custom-made, yet professional and economical.
Since costs of traditional methods of printing hardly depended
on job size, but rather on standard setup expenses (time,
film/plate creation etc.) producing a low numbered short-run
was previously very pricey and impracticable for an individual
or a company. However, as a result of its flexible and efficient
characteristics, this digital press now allows our customers
to produce as few as one print, in a very high quality and
for a reasonable price.
The technological advantages provided to our customers and
us by the digital press could be explained by the usage of
liquid ink, the manner in which the ink is applied to the
paper, and by the high dpi (dots per inch--the usual measure
of printed image quality on paper) capabilities of the presses.
Using liquid ink for printed images is very helpful to the
creation of images of high resolution and brilliant color.
The unique electronic printing process used by Indigo is a
combination of high performance digital imaging technology
and liquid ink offset printing quality, promising to present
beautiful and professional results every time. While the Indigo
press first uses a "plate" to carry the image, it
then employs an offset printing technique to get that representation
from the plate and onto the paper. This method begins when
ink is smeared on the plate and the image is transferred onto
a rubber "blanket," which will then carry the image
onto the paper as the final product. In conventional presses,
each individual plate is only able to hold a single image
for the duration of an entire run. Therefore, in order to
generate a new piece, an additional plate must also be created.
However, in digital presses, such as the Indigo press, the
plate can be changed during the actual run, so that custom
and personalized printing become possible. The superior and
premium printing choices that Custom Made Calendars is able
to provide to its customers is related to the high dpi and
press technology, which the Indigo press uses.
Learn more about our printing solutions.
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What is dpi, image size, and why is it important?
When sending a job to be printed, whether at home or at
a professional printer, it is important to remember that the
quality of the printed image will always be only as good as
the quality of the images used in the creation process.
Generally, a computer monitor will present an image using
a screen resolution of approximately 72-96 dots-per-inch (dpi).
That is, any inch on the screen is divided into 72 dots vertically
and 72 dots horizontally, and those dots, also known as Pixels,
generate the presentation for this inch on the screen.
Printing on paper, however, requires a higher dots-per-inch
resolution to achieve photo quality output. The quality will
depend on the image resolution as well as an array of other
factors, such as the color range that can be applied to a
dot by the printer, the printer technology (Inkjet, Toner,
Ink), and the paper quality. Typically the DPI of a printable
image should be at least 150 (DPI), 200 DPI will be better,
and a 300 DPI image will insure the high quality of the printed
output.
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How do I figure out what is the dpi of the image?
The Image size in measured in pixels. The quality of the
printed output is measured in dots-per-inch. For simplicity,
lets treat a pixel as a dot. In other words, the quality of
the printed output will be measured by the number of pixels/dots
we can print per inch. The more dots the printer can access
the higher the quality of the picture can be. So if an image
is 600 pixels per side, and it is printed at 600 dots-per-inch
(DPI), it will print out as an image 1 inch wide and high.
If we would like to enlarge that image to be 2 inches the
DPI will drop to 300, and if the image will be enlarged to
6 inch the DPI will drop to 100.
If you divide the number of pixels of an image by the DPI
you seek the printable image to be (typically 150-300) the
result will be the appropriate size of that image.
Pixels / DPI= Size of
image (in Inches)
For example: If image size is 1,280 x 1,024 pixels and you
want to the printed output to be of 200 DPI quality, divide
the pixels (1,280 x 1,024) by the DPI you seek (200). That
will result in a 6.40 x 5.12 inch image with 200 DPI quality
on the printed output, or 4.27 x 3.41 inch 300 DPI image (1,280:300=4.27
inch. 1,024:300=3.41 inch)
To calculate the image print DPI, you divide the image size
in pixels with the image size in inch (as will appear on paper)
.
DPI = Pixels / Size
of image (in Inches)
For example, a 640 x 480 pixel image displayed as an 8 7/8
x 6 2/3 inch image has a 72 dpi resolution. When printed at
this size, this image will suffer from low quality, as it
has a 72 dots-per-inch resolution. If this image would be
used to print a 2.1 x 1.6 inch image (representing a 300 dots-per-inch
resolution), its quality will be excellent.
Important to note: In our Calendar Software
you can easily view the actual used image dpi. Right click
on the image, second item on the menu will be "picture
setting", click on it and a dialog box called "object
setting" will open, Look under the top right hand side
box (titled Location) it will read "image is XYZ dpi".
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What is the "right" dpi?
You can get photo quality results when using as few as
150-200 dots-per-inch (dpi) images. The basic rule to keep
in mind is that in order to maintain image quality, the number
of pixels in the image bitmap file must increase as the size
of the printed picture increases. Otherwise, individual pixels
will become larger in the print and the picture will get a
jagged and grainy texture.
Important to note: In our Calendar Software you
can easily view the actual used image dpi. Right click on
the image, second item on the menu will be "picture setting",
click on it and a dialog box called "object setting"
will open, Look under the top right hand side box (titled
Location) it will read "image is XYZ dpi".
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What are the suggested guidelines for image quality?
Below are a few rules of thumb to use when using images
for print:
- Start with the largest images you can get out of your
digital camera or scanner.
- The original image as viewed on screen in 72 dpi should
be 2 to 4 times bigger than its size on paper.
- Try to maintain a resolution of not less than 150 dots-per-inch
for the image. (In our program you can tell the dpi of your
image by right-clicking a picture and going to 'picture
setting').
- Don't overshoot! Most people will not be able to see
the difference without searching for it.
The following table will sum the common image sizes and
their recommended printed size:
| Digital
Camera Image Size |
Good
Quality (150 DPI) |
Better
(200 DPI) |
Best
Quality (300 DPI) |
| (Pixels) |
(Inch) |
| Width |
Height |
Width |
Height |
Width |
Height |
Width |
Height |
| 1,280 |
1,024 |
8.53 |
6.83 |
6.40 |
5.12 |
4.27 |
3.41 |
| 1,600 |
1,200 |
10.67 |
8.00 |
8.00 |
6.00 |
5.33 |
4.00 |
| 2,260 |
1,440 |
15.07 |
9.60 |
11.30 |
7.20 |
7.53 |
4.80 |
| 2,560 |
1,920 |
17.07 |
12.80 |
12.80 |
9.60 |
8.53 |
6.40 |
| 3,072 |
2,048 |
20.48 |
13.65 |
15.36 |
10.24 |
10.24 |
6.83 |
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What are the drawbacks of too much dpi?
For printing, more dpi is better. However, too much information
will require more memory and time to print, as well as a larger
output file that will take much longer to upload. On the other
hand, in most cases, the difference in quality between a 200
dpi image and 400 dpi image will not be noticeable to the
human eye.
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What is image compression and why should I care about
it?
Images tend to be quite large in size. For example, a
4"x6" image in a 300 DPI and 24 bit color will be
more than 6 MB in size. This requires large storage space
and is very slow to transmit on the network.
JPEG is a compression technique designed for compressing
images of natural, real-world scenes. It works well on photographs,
naturalistic artwork, and similar material. JPEG is "lossy,"
meaning that the decompressed image is not quite the same
as the one with which you started. JPEG is designed to exploit
known limitations of the human eye, notably the fact that
small color changes are perceived less accurately than small
changes in brightness. Most changes in the image are invisible
to the eye.
JPEG can achieve a 20:1 compression ratio without any visible
loss, and up to 50:1 ratio with small to moderate defects.
That is, the above 6 MB image can be compressed to a 300 KB
image with no visible change to the image.
Keep in mind that in most cases, you can achieve great compression
ratio without any visible differences to the image.
In summation, if you are using reasonable quality images
and reasonable compression, your images are expected to be
of high quality when printed. If the images you start with
are either of low quality or too compressed, the final printed
results will be as good (or bad) as the images you used. However,
keep in mind that too much is not always better. A 4"x6"
300 DPI non-compressed image and a 200 DPI JPEG compressed
images will probably produce similar results. However, transferring
it to print over the network using a 56KBps modem will take
approximately 18 minutes with a high DPI image that is non-compressed
on oppose to 25 seconds of a moderate DPI image that is slightly
compressed.
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Is your software MAC compatible?
Unfortunately not, however MAC uses can create and print
with us customised calendars using our online service. Click
here to get to our online calendar software.
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Were can I get a User Guide for the software?
When downloading the software you will be automatically
downloading a PDF user guide, this guide includes all information
and instructions related to the software.
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What are the system requirements I need for calendar software?
To download the calendar software, you will need: Windows
98 or higher. 30 MB of free disk space, 128 MB or RAM; 256
MB RAM recommended. Internet connection
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Can I get the software on a CD?
Yes. You can download
the software now or order
the software on a CD and we will ship it to you in three
to five days. Check out our software.
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Can I try out the software before buying it?
Yes, the software is fully operational; the only limitation
is that you can only print sample pages and not the entire
calendar before buying the software.
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What is special about your calendar software?
Our software is not a time management product neither will
it work with your Palm OS handheld organizer. Our software
is designed to do only one thing: help you easily create and
print your fully customised photo calendar, for the years
2006, 2006, 2007. I is the best tool for this task.
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