To figure out how to make a calendar in Photoshop, you need to at least imagine how it will look, and the rest, in essence, is a matter of technology. However, provided that the user has at least basic skills to work with the basic tools of the editor.
Any calendar is essentially a calendar grid on some background, which is used as a variety of images, including photographs and inscriptions. Therefore, imagining your future masterpiece, it remains only to select the necessary materials (photographs, drawings, etc.), and you can begin to work.
Preparing a document in Photoshop
The size and resolution of the created document (File> Create) will depend on the purpose of making the future calendar (a picture on a website / blog, a “live” calendar on a wall or table, a gift postcard calendar, pocket calendar, etc.). For printing, for example, the resolution of 72 pixels per inch, set by default by the program, will not be enough, and for a calendar, A4 size with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch is most often used, but you can use any other size.
Having decided on these parameters, we turn to the technical part of the question of how to create a calendar for Photoshop in “Photoshop” for a year, and consider several typical options for creating it using a ready-made calendar grid.
Choose a calendar grid
You can, of course, try to reinvent the wheel again and make the calendar grid yourself using the standard "Photoshop" modular grid (View> Show> Grids). If necessary, you can also configure its parameters as you wish (Edit> Settings> General> Guide grid and fragments). But on the Web you can easily find calendar markups for every taste. For example, here: centrprazdnika.ru/calendars/the-calendar-grid/ or here: photoshop-expert.ru/calendars/. Files are presented in PNG and PSD formats, so adjust as you want.
In addition, on the Internet you can download actions (Action) to create calendar grids. After loading in "Photoshop", you will find them in the menu "Window> Operations". You can even find scripts that create calendars in this program (more on this later).
With such templates, customizing the grid, fonts, styles and figuring out how to make a calendar in Photoshop will be very simple.
And finally, you can follow the path of least resistance and download ready-made calendars, for example, from the resource photoshop-help.ru/2430-psd-ishodnik-krasivaya-kalendarnaya-setka-na-2014-god-po-mesyacam.html in PSD format and then replace their design with your own composition.
Create a calendar
As an example, let's create the simplest version of the calendar using a ready-made grid in PNG format or a PSD template against the background of some image.
For example, if we are interested in how to make a New Year’s calendar in Photoshop, you can download the corresponding (winter) wallpapers. Firstly, they are not numerous on the Web, and secondly, as a rule, these are high-quality, high-resolution images.
Open the background image of the calendar and the selected calendar grid in Photoshop (File> Open). Double-click to unlock the background layers, then, capturing the entire grid with the "Move" tool, transfer it to the background.
We make the necessary adjustments (if you need, for example, to stretch / compress the markup, reduce the opacity of the background or slightly blur it, etc.). We add art elements and (or) pictures at will (anticipating the question: “how to make a calendar with photos in Photoshop”), save the document - and our creation is “usable”.
If you don’t like the location of the monthly blocks, you can cut out calendar fragments by month, then use the Move tool to transfer them to the background image and arrange them as you wish. For example, 3 rows of 4 months, 4 rows of 3 months, 2 rows of 5 months with one row for 2 months in the middle, etc.
To select these fragments, we use the Rectangular Region tool, selecting Style: Preset Dimensions in the settings panel , and cut them out using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + J, which creates a duplicate of the selected fragment on a new layer.
If among the calendar grids in PNG format you do not find a font and text style that would suit you, you can use templates in the PSD format, which can be edited to your taste.
Calendar based on the action function in Photoshop
Let's see how to create a calendar using the action, which can be downloaded here: yadi.sk/d/GOA8Q9P5syDc7.
It is a Calendar Designer 2016+ file with the .atn extension and is packaged in an archive. There you will find a template file in PSD format and two pdf instructions (for installing an action and an example of creating a calendar page).
Double-clicking on the Calendar Designer 2016+ file will automatically launch Photoshop. There we go to the “Window” menu, select “Actions”, find our Calendar Designer 2016+ folder, open it and launch the action, fulfilling the requirements, recommendations and conditions of the prompts.
Having made some spectacular “gestures”, “Photoshop” will give us a ready-made calendar with our image and corrections.
Script Calendar
Someone is probably wondering how to make a calendar in Photoshop using JavaScript.
Just download from here: regex.info/blog/photo-tech/calendar Jeffrey's Calendar Builder.jsx file. Then double-click it to open it in Photoshop.
The result of the script execution is a Photoshop document with half a dozen or so layers that you can adjust, edit, add your own images, etc. Running the script calls up a dialog box in which calendar settings are set, including page size, resolution and style.
The script can build calendars in 56 languages, including Russian, supports personal annotations (holidays, birthdays, etc.), has two background image orientation modes (landscape and portrait), allows you to include week numbers, select the start day of the week, etc.
Having completed all the settings, click OK. After a few seconds, we meticulously admire the result and sigh of relief, as it turned out to be quite simple to make a calendar in Photoshop.
The script leaves image components on separate layers, so you can do anything with them.
Note: the script works only in the English version of the program. If you have Russian, you just need to change the file with a digital name and the extension .dat, which you will find in the folder C: \ Program Files \ Adobe \ Adobe Photoshop CS6 (your version) \ Locales \ ru_RU \ Support Files.
Desk calendar
The proposed scheme for creating a calendar, in principle, is universal, so it should suit those who have thought how to make an appointment desk calendar in Photoshop.
If we are talking about this printed product, we should only recall that the resolution of the document in Photoshop should be at least 300 pixels / inch. The size can be any, depending on what option it will be - desktop, wall or some other. A separate template is compiled for each month.
If the flip calendar should decorate the web page, then its drawing in Photoshop should be in such a way that one of the ends (better than the bottom) could be seen to be a stack of leaflets.
To do this, select the tool "Rectangle with rounded corners" - so, probably, it will be prettier. Against a dark background, we draw a white rectangle with the dimensions and shape of the future calendar and rasterize the layer.
Then we stylize it (the "Add Layer Style" icon) with a shadow with such parameters that it is visible at the bottom (you can add a stroke and an internal glow for an amateur), and duplicate the result (Ctrl + J), creating at least 2 copies.
Now it remains, by clicking on the "Move" button, to shift the copies relative to each other with the up arrow key on the keyboard. In this case, we activate alternately the corresponding layers. If two duplicates were made, then the top copy in the layer panel can be moved by clicking on the arrow 4 times, and the next 2 times, thus creating a semblance of pages stacked in a stack.
Well, the “title page” of this design will be the image of the calendar for a specific month. We considered his creation methodology when we discussed how to create a calendar with photos in Photoshop.
We work online
The easiest, fastest and most rational way to create a calendar is to use one of the many resources on the Web that offer their services for free, for example, here: calendarum.ru/ or here: effectfree.ru/photoeffects/result/74729235/1f51a.
The manufacturing process is fully automatic, and the result is almost instant. All that is required of us is to upload your photo, select an effect and add text.
But what if the craving for creativity requires exactly "Photoshop"? After all, not everyone has it installed on a computer. You can go to the website "Photoshop-online", making a calendar in which is as simple as in a stationary program, which we already talked about above.
Calendar Design Program
This wonderful utility (fotocalendar.su/hand-made-calendar.php) creates spectacular calendars of any style and format and can work with all versions of Windows, including Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 and Vista.
It’s never easier. Choose your favorite calendar template for any year, including the last century (or maybe someone will need it), upload your photo or picture, create font compositions and select color schemes. You can create a calendar on a blank canvas from scratch with your own unique design.
Everything is fine, but you will have to pay for the full version of the program.