This tutorial was originally published in June 2010 as a Tuts+ Premium tutorial. It is now available free to view. Although this tutorial does not use the latest version of Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator, its techniques and process are still relevant.
A calendar is a great way to make something appealing and practical from your creations. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a print-ready 12-month calendar using grunge text, the Linked Text tool, parent pages, and layers.
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1. How to Set Up the Calendar Document
Step 1
Open Illustrator and create a New Document, set the number of Artboards to 12, Spacing to 20 pt, Width: 234 pt, Height: 522 pt. The size of the calendar will be 3.25" by 7.25". This way we can print two calendar pages out on one Letter sized paper. Set 9 pt for the Bleed.
Step 2
Click OK, and this is what you will get: 12 artboards, one for each month.
Step 3
The color palette is up to personal preference. I thought of the months and the seasons and wanted to reflect a pastel feel. Adobe Kuler is a great resource if you don't know where to start. Below I outlined the colors and set the Color Mode to CMYK. The first color on the left will be used as the background color for the calendar pages. The other colors are for the months.
Step 4
Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle onto the artboards, including bleed. Fill the shapes with the green color. Copy and paste the shape onto each artboard.
2. How to Add Text to the Artboards
Step 1
I kept the font simple. Please feel free to pick your own. I chose Arial Black. Select the Text Tool (T) and start typing the alphabet. Then Copy and Paste the rows of text underneath each other (nine times) and offset them to the left. Leave a little space.
Step 2
Select all the text and outline it using Command-Shift-O.
Step 3
Group the text (Command-G) and place it onto the first artboard. Align the "A" towards the top left.
Step 4
Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a rectangle as big as the artboard (without the bleed) and place it above the text.
Step 5
Select the rectangle and open the Pathfinder palette. Click the Crop button. This will crop the extra text.
Step 6
Copy the text and paste it onto the remaining artboards. Once that is done, go back to the first artboard and start coloring your letters. I picked the colors according to the seasons: a cold blue for January, a warmer green for April, etc. Select the letters of the month (pick the letters for January, for example) and color them with the Swatch palette.
3. How to Change the Colors for the Seasons
Step 1
Here are February and March. Please feel free to choose any color or font.
Step 2
April and May. I selected the letters of each month and colored them.
Step 3
June and July. I tried to stick to colors that would represent the month. For example, a warm pink for June and an orange for July.
Step 4
August and September received subdued colors.
Step 5
October and November.
Step 6
Here are all of the months completed. If you wanted to leave it at this, that's cool. The next step will have a cool tip on how to grunge things up.
4. How to Add Texture to the Text
Step 1
I've created a simple texture in Photoshop. Below you can see the image on the left.
Step 2
Open Photoshop and create a New Document the same size as the calendar (no bleed).
Step 3
Fill your document with white and open the Fibers Filter under Filters > Render > Fibers. Set the Variance to 23 and the Strength to 8. Click OK.
Step 4
You should have something similar to what you see in the image below. Save this image as a Tiff.
Step 5
Go back to Illustrator and place your texture file onto the artboard (File > Place). Make sure that the Tiff file is placed above the text. As an example, I placed the texture file over half over the text, but it should cover all of the text.
Tip: Make sure that you place all the background shapes onto one locked layer. It is better to select the text and the tiff. Select the tiff file and the cropped text, go to the Transparency palette, and from the small arrow on the top right, select Make Opacity Mask.
Step 6
The tiff file will only be visible where the text outline is.
Step 7
Here is a full image of the tiff grunge file applied to the text.
Step 8
To give the text a dramatic look, make a copy of the Opacity Mask (Command-C then Command-F) and set the Layer Mode to Multiply. This will give the text a darker grunge look. Repeat this with each artboard/calendar month.
Step 9
We are almost at the end of the Illustrator setup. You now need to Export the artboards as individual EPS files ready for import into InDesign.
5. How to Create the Calendar
Step 1
Select Save As under File in Illustrator and create a folder called "links". Call the file whatever you like and set the file type to EPS. Underneath the file type, you will find a checkbox "Use Artboards". Click it and select "All". Click OK and the artboards will be saved individually.
Step 2
Open InDesign and create a New Document with the following settings: 12 Pages, 19p6 Width, 43p6 Height, 9pt Bleed.
Step 3
Create four layers and name them as you see in the image below.
Step 4
Double-click on the first page, make sure you are on the eps layer, and select the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) and draw a rectangle as big as the page with bleed. Press Command-D and place the first calendar eps (January). Repeat this step with the rest of the pages and place all the eps files.
Step 5
This is how the page with the placed file should look.
6. How to Create the Calendar Background
Step 1
Lock the eps layer and then click on the "bg" layer to make it active. Double-click on the A parent. We will create a background for the months. We want the same look for each month, so the background will need to be placed on the A-parent. Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a small rectangle and fill it with light green.
Step 2
Then draw a smaller longer rectangle and fill it with brown. We will place the month name on it.
7. How to Add the Calendar Months
Step 1
Next, select the Text Tool (T), set the Columns to 7 and the Gutter Width to 0. Add the first letter of each day of the week in each of the columns. To jump to the next column, press the Enter button on your Number Pad.
Step 2
Create another text box with the Text Tool (T) and Rotate it Counter-Clockwise. Set the text to a really small, 3.75pt. Then type the rest of the day, for example "onday". Repeat that with each letter.
Step 3
Play around with the size, color, and character attributes. You might need to squeeze it, stretch it, or choose an even tighter font. This part is really up to you.
Step 4
This is how the setup on the A-Parent should look.
Step 5
Go back to the pages by double-clicking the first page. Select the text layer. We want to add the month names, and we need to do that on each page individually. Create another text box and add the name for the month on top of the brown background we created on the parent.
8. How to Add the Calendar Month Dates
Step 1
Now let's have some fun with the monthly dates. Create another text box with 7 Columns and a Gutter Width of 0 pt. This will be the setup for our dynamic monthly dates.
Step 2
Make five more copies and place then underneath each other.
Step 3
I created a text file with numbers from 1 to 31. They are each on their own line. Click with the Text Tool on the first column and press Command-D to place the text file.
Once you click OK, the numbers will be placed in each column, but only in one text box. On the end, you can see a red plus sign. This means that we have more text than fits in the text box. We want to link up each text box so all numbers will be placed. Click on the red plus sign and you will see a "link" sign appearing next to your cursor.
Step 4
With this "link" cursor, click on the next text box on the left. A red arrow will appear, and the next numbers will be placed. Repeat this until the numbers from 1 to 31 are in the columns.
Step 5
Highlight all the numbers with the Text Tool (T) and choose a smaller font (Arial) and set the color to white.
Step 6
Press Command-B and within the Text Frame Options set the Vertical Justification Alignment to Center.
Step 7
Here are the monthly numbers. If you place the Text Tool (T) in the first column (day one) and press the Tab key on your keyboard, the numbers will be pushed to the next column. Neat trick, since not every month will start on the same day.
Lock the text layer for now and select the circles layer. Start drawing a small circle behind each day with the Ellipse Tool (L). I chose two colors, brown with a green stroke, for Saturday and Sunday. Set the Stroke to align on the outside.
Step 8
I chose a gray Circle with a green Stroke for the rest of the days.
Step 9
Copy and paste the circles to fill up the month. Below is our first month, January.
Step 10
Repeat this with each month. Make sure you look up the starting day for the first of the month, and make sure that you delete day 31 if the month only has 30 days. And don't forget February!
9. How to Add the Calendar Year
Step 1
Double-click the A-Parent again. We need to add the year 2011. Create another green rectangle. On top, create a Text Box and add the year in a white font.
Step 2
Now your calendar is done. These are your calendar pages, 12 in total.
10. How to Save Your Calendar
Step 1
Now let's export the pages to a PDF so we can print the calendar. Click Command-E (or go to File > Export > Save as File type, PDF). Check the settings you see below.
Step 2
Select the Compression settings and set all to Do Not Downsample.
Step 3
Then click on the Marks and Bleeds and check Crop Marks, and under Bleed and Slug check the box next to Use Document Bleed Settings.
Step 4
Click Export and voilà, here is our PDF calendar.
Conclusion
I printed my calendar using an inkjet printer and some linen paper. I placed two calendar pages per 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.
You may have noticed that the creative process is broken up into two distinct tasks: making the calendar image and designing the months. You can add your own images to the calendar using the same import techniques you learnt here. You can even change the page dimensions and export your images as JPGs to make a wallpaper calendar for your computer. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
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