Comparisons
How to Choose Next Year's Calendar
Calendars go on sale in October and most of them are chosen in about ninety seconds, usually by picking something similar to last year's. That is how a system nobody liked gets renewed annually. Five questions, answered honestly before you commit, do most of the work.
What Do You Actually Use It For?
There is a real difference between a calendar you consult and one you write on. A reference calendar needs dates legible from across the room and almost no writing space. A working calendar needs large day cells and will look cluttered by February no matter what you do. Trying to buy one object that does both produces something mediocre at each.
Where Will It Live?
The answer determines the format more than any other factor. A wall calendar is read at distance by several people; a desk calendar is read by one person at arm's length. Our comparison of wall and desk calendars covers the trade-off in detail, and the desk calendar generator prints the compact strip format if that is the shape you need.
How Far Ahead Do You Need to See?
If your planning horizon is days, a month per page is right. If you routinely need to know what is happening in five months -- teachers, event organizers, anyone with a project cycle -- a yearly calendar on the wall beside the monthly one solves a problem that flipping pages does not. Our note on the yearly versus monthly view makes the case for keeping both.
Who Else Reads It?
A shared calendar has requirements a personal one does not: it must be legible to someone who did not write on it, and it needs enough room per day for several people's entries. This is usually the argument for a larger format than you would choose for yourself.
Buy, or Print?
A printed calendar starts the year you want, in the layout you want, at the size you want, and costs a sheet of paper to replace when it is wrong. A bought one looks better and cannot be adjusted. Printing a monthly calendar for a trial month is the cheapest way to find out which layout you will still be using in March -- and if it does not work, you have lost a page rather than a year.