How the photos are placed
Each month page has the photo at the top and the month below it. The frame spans the width of the page inside the margins and takes 46% of the height on a portrait page. Your photo fills the frame and is cropped evenly from both sides or from top and bottom when its shape is different, so the middle of the picture is always kept.
Most phone and camera photos are 4:3 or 3:2, a little taller than the frame on Letter paper (about 1.6:1). Expect a thin strip to be cropped from the top and bottom. Photos taken in portrait orientation lose much more, so choose landscape photos where you can, or crop them first so the subject sits in the middle.
| Paper | Frame | Shape | Pixels for 300 dpi | Pixels for 200 dpi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Letter | 7.67 × 4.68 in | 1.64 : 1 | 2,300 × 1,403 | 1,533 × 935 |
| A4 | 189 × 127 mm | 1.49 : 1 | 2,230 × 1,499 | 1,487 × 999 |
| Tabloid | 10.17 × 7.44 in | 1.37 : 1 | 3,050 × 2,231 | 2,033 × 1,487 |
| A3 | 276 × 183 mm | 1.50 : 1 | 3,258 × 2,167 | 2,172 × 1,445 |
| 12 × 12 in | 11.17 × 5.14 in | 2.17 : 1 | 3,350 × 1,541 | 2,233 × 1,027 |
300 pixels per inch is the usual target for photo prints; 200 still looks sharp at arm’s length on a wall. A landscape page has a much wider frame (about 3.2 : 1 on Letter), which suits panoramas, so the photo maker starts in portrait.
A cover page and a 13-month calendar
With the cover ticked, the first photo fills the top of a separate first page, with your title or the calendar’s span underneath, such as “2027” or “July 2026 – June 2027”. A 12-month calendar then has 13 pages, the same count as most shop-bought wall calendars. For a gift that starts when it is given, set the first month to the next month and the length to 12 or 13.
Printing a photo calendar at home
- Download the PDF and open it in your PDF reader rather than the browser, which sometimes ignores paper settings.
- Use heavier paper so the photos do not show through and the pages hang flat: a matte photo or presentation paper, or card stock of 65 to 80 lb cover (about 176 to 216 g/m²) if your printer’s rear or manual feed takes it.
- Print at 100% (“Actual size”), single-sided, with the printer’s photo or best quality setting.
- Bind it at the top with two binder rings, ribbon or a coil from a copy shop, and punch a hanging hole in the middle of the top margin. See binding a calendar.
Questions
Are my photos uploaded?
No. The photos are read from your device by your browser and placed into the PDF on your device. They are not sent anywhere, and they are forgotten when you close the page.
Which photos go with which month?
The photos are used in the order you choose them, one per month starting with the first month of the calendar. With “Use the first photo for a cover page” ticked, the first photo becomes the cover and the second goes with the first month. To change the order, choose the photos again in the order you want.
My iPhone photos are HEIC files. What do I do?
The maker reads JPEG, PNG and WebP photos. On an iPhone or iPad, photos chosen from the photo library are usually converted to JPEG as you pick them. If a photo is refused, save or share it as a JPEG first, or set Settings → Camera → Formats to “Most Compatible” for future photos.
Will the photos look sharp?
The PDF stores each photo at up to 300 pixels per inch of print, and at most 3,600 pixels on its longer side, as a high-quality JPEG; that gives the full 300 for every portrait frame in the table above. A photo from a phone camera (12 megapixels is 4,032 × 3,024 pixels) is more than enough for every paper size here.
Can I make the photo larger?
The photo takes the top 46% of a portrait page and the grid the rest, so that every day still has room to write. For a bigger picture, use larger paper such as Tabloid or A3, where the frame is about 10 × 7.4 inches.
Can a print shop print it as a photo calendar?
Staples, FedEx Office and Walgreens make their photo calendars in their own online designers (checked October 2026). Your PDF is printed as a document instead; ask for card stock and coil binding. See printing a calendar.