Calendars, and the one deadline that does not move
Everything else can be late. A calendar cannot: it is worth nothing on the second of January. That is why the binding, the punching and the delivery window are decided at the start of the job rather than at the end.
EZ Print prints wall and desk calendars in Singapore, and has done since 2017. A wall calendar is usually thirteen leaves — a cover and twelve months — bound with wire-O and punched for hanging, at A4 210 × 297 mm, A3 297 × 420 mm or a custom portrait size. A desk calendar is a set of leaves on a folded easel back, commonly 210 × 100 mm or 148 × 210 mm, wire-O bound along the short edge. Leaves run 157–250 gsm; covers and easel backs run 310–350 gsm so the calendar stands without leaning. Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days, and the punching, the wiring and the easel crease all happen inside it. Express is quoted per job. Public holiday dates are supplied by the customer and checked against the file before printing rather than assumed. EZ Print quotes from the specification and does not publish prices.
Products quoted on this page
Specifications, formats and enquiry details for each product quoted on this service.
Leaf count, leaf size, binding and whether it hangs or stands. Those four decide the whole job. The desk-calendar leaf below is drawn at true physical size, which is the fastest way to see how little space a month grid actually gets.
No calendar leaf is drawn here at true size. The smallest leaf on this page is 210 mm across, which is wider than this column, and a leaf reduced to fit would misstate the one measurement that matters on a calendar — the 15 mm at the bound edge where the wire holes and the hanging punch both sit. That figure is stated below instead, along with the leaf sizes and the binding margin, which is what a designer sets a grid against.
13leaves
A cover and twelve months. The count is what drives the binding, the punching and the weight the wire has to hold.
Wall sizes
A4 210 × 297 mm, A3 297 × 420 mm, and custom portrait sizes cut from the same sheets.
Desk sizes
210 × 100 mm and 148 × 210 mm on a folded easel back, bound along the short edge.
Leaf count
Thirteen is standard — a cover and twelve months. Seven and twenty-five also run.
Leaf stocks
157 gsm gloss art paper, or 310 gsm matt art card where each leaf is written on.
Cover and easel stocks
310–350 gsm matt art card. Creased before folding on a desk easel.
Binding
Wire-O along the top for a wall calendar, along the short edge for a desk set.
Hanging
A punched hole or a hanger loop fitted into the wire. Stated on the specification.
Turnaround
Standard is 7–14 working days including punching and wire-O. Express is quoted per job.
What to ask for
200 wall calendars
13 leaves at A3 297 × 420 mm
157 gsm gloss art paper leaves, 350 gsm matt art card cover
4C/4C
Wire-O bound along the top, punched for hanging
Print-ready PDF as single pages in month order
Needed by — your date
The material
Stocks held for calendars
A calendar is handled twelve times over a year, and the leaf that is showing takes all the wear. Weight decides whether a wall calendar hangs flat or curls forward, and surface decides whether anyone can write on it. The edges below are drawn at the measured caliper of the weight named.
0.13 mmCoating at 8×
Gloss art paper0.13 mm · 157 gsm
Also sold as gloss art, coated text. Held at 128 and 157 gsm.
The standard leaf. Light enough that thirteen of them bind comfortably, coated enough that a photograph carries a month.
Under ink
High chroma and even solids, which matters when a leaf is looked at for four weeks rather than four seconds.
Held. Creased before it is folded into an easel back.
A wall calendar wants a light leaf and a heavy cover; a desk calendar wants the opposite, because the easel back is doing structural work and the leaves only have to turn.The materials library →
The hanging hole is punched through the cover and every leaf at once, after binding. Keep 15 mm clear at the top of every leaf or the punch goes through the artwork.
Binding, punching and the easel crease
Three operations sit between a printed leaf and a calendar. Each is a separate pass over every leaf of every copy, and none of them can be compressed by ordering earlier — only by starting earlier.
Calendar finishing and binding: what each operation needs, and whether its tooling is kept for the reorder
Finish
Tooling
What the reorder pays for
Round-corneringStandard radii, on a die held as stock tooling
None
Nothing to make, so nothing to remake.
Matt or gloss laminationSingle pass, both sides
None
Nothing to make, so nothing to remake.
Spot UVNeeds a screen; reads best over matt film
Made once
Kept on file with your approved artwork. The reorder runs from it.
Die-cuttingA forme is cut once, then kept for the reorder
Made once
Kept on file with your approved artwork. The reorder runs from it.
Wire-O bindingPunched and wired. Opens completely flat and folds back on itself
None
Nothing to make, so nothing to remake.
Hanging punchThrough the cover and every leaf after binding. Needs 15 mm clear at the top
None
Nothing to make, so nothing to remake.
Easel creasing and assemblyThe folded back a desk calendar stands on
None
Nothing to make, so nothing to remake.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Every operation here is quoted inside the standard window. What changes between a first order and a second is the tooling: a die, a block or a screen is made once and then kept on file with your approved artwork, which is why the reorder of a job carrying one is a different job from the first.
A calendar is the only job where being a week late is the same as not printing it at all, so the binding time is quoted before the design is finished.
Pairings that work
+A3 wall calendar, 157 gsm leaves, 350 gsm laminated cover, wire-O along the top. Hangs flat, turns easily, survives a year on a wall.
+210 × 100 mm desk calendar on 300 gsm uncoated with a creased easel back. It stands without leaning and takes a pen.
+A grid printed at 15% tint rather than in a colour. It stays legible under any office lighting and does not fight whatever is written over it.
+Matt lamination on the cover only. The cover takes the handling; the leaves do not need the film and it keeps the block thin.
Combinations that fail
×Artwork running into the top 15 mm of a wall calendar leaf. The binding and the hanging punch both live there, and both go through whatever is printed.
×Thirteen leaves of 350 gsm at A3. The block is too thick for a comfortable wire, and the calendar hangs away from the wall at the bottom.
×A dark full-bleed month grid. Anything written on it disappears, which is the one thing a calendar has to allow.
×Public holiday dates taken from last year’s file. They move. Supply the dates for the year being printed and they are checked against the file before it prints.
Formats, and what each one is for
A wall calendar is read across a room; a desk calendar is read at arm’s length and written on. That difference decides the size, the grid and the stock, and it is worth settling before the design starts.
A4 wall · 210 × 297 mm
The compact wall calendar. Fits a partition or a narrow wall between desks.
A3 wall · 297 × 420 mm
The standard. Readable across an office, with room for a photograph above the grid.
Desk · 210 × 100 mm
The landscape desk strip. A month per leaf, bound on the short edge, on a folded easel.
Desk · 148 × 210 mm
A5 portrait on an easel. Room for notes beside the grid.
Thirteen leaves
A cover and twelve months. The standard, and what the wire is sized against.
Seven or twenty-five leaves
A half-year set, or a fortnightly planner. Both bind the same way; the wire diameter changes.
Month order, dates, and the fifteen millimetres at the top
Calendars fail on two things, and neither is design: a date grid that is wrong for the year, and artwork that runs into the binding. Both are checked against the file before printing, and both are cheaper to fix in the file than after thirteen leaves have been wired together.
The file
Format
PDF/X-4 as single pages in month order, cover first.
Artboard
Leaf trim plus 3 mm bleed on all four sides.
Binding margin
15 mm clear at the bound edge on every leaf, including the cover.
Safe margin
8 mm from every other trim edge.
Dates
Supplied for the year being printed, including public holidays. They are checked, not assumed.
Easel back
Supplied flat with the crease positions marked on a separate unprinted layer.
The colour, and the detail
Colour mode
CMYK. A house colour used across twelve leaves is worth naming as a Pantone reference.
Grid tint
Keep the grid under 20% where the calendar will be written on.
Rich black
C60 M40 Y40 K100 for large solids, total ink 240%.
Date numerals
K100, 9 pt minimum on a wall calendar, 7 pt on a desk one.
Weekend and holiday marking
Distinguished by weight or a rule, not by colour alone.
Images
300 dpi at final size on a desk leaf, 200 dpi on an A3 wall leaf.
Send the year and the leaf size and the grid template comes back with the binding margin and the punch position already drawn, so nothing has to be moved after the first proof.
Turnaround
The deadline that does not move, and the queue that does not either
Standard
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
Standard orders. The schedule for specialist finishing is confirmed in your quotation.
Express
Same-day printing available.
Subject to artwork, stock and production capacity confirmation. Timing is agreed for each job.
What sets the date
A calendar is punched, wired and assembled after it is printed, and each of those is a separate pass over the whole block — thirteen leaves of every copy. A laminated cover, a die-cut leaf or a custom easel is another. All of it is quoted inside the standard window.
What a reorder skips
The grid. The leaf template with its binding margin and punch position, the approved imposition and the checked holiday dates are kept, so next year is new artwork on a proved sheet rather than a new set of decisions.
If the date is tight
Say the leaf count, the leaf size, the binding and the date the calendars have to be in hand, and ask for an express quotation. We confirm the specification, production schedule and next steps in the quotation.
Calendars are a seasonal job and the binding queue is the constraint rather than the press — which is why the whole market is trying to bind in the same six weeks. The specification and the dates settled early are worth more than any amount of speed later, and a calendar delivered on the second of January is worth nothing at all.
Every answer here is in the page source at full opacity, open or closed. An answer engine has to be able to read it without executing anything.
Questions asked about calendars
How many pages does a wall calendar have?
Thirteen leaves is standard — a cover and twelve months. Seven-leaf half-year sets and twenty-five-leaf fortnightly planners also run. The leaf count sets the wire diameter, so it is one of the first things a quote needs.
What is wire-O binding?
A row of punched holes along one edge with a formed wire threaded through them. It lets a calendar open completely flat and fold back on itself, which is why every wall calendar uses it. It is a separate pass over the whole block, done after printing.
What gsm should calendar pages be?
157 gsm gloss art paper for photographic leaves, 310 gsm matt art card where each month is written on, and 310–350 gsm for the cover or the easel back. Heavier leaves make a thicker block, which changes the wire and can make an A3 calendar hang away from the wall.
Can you print a desk calendar with our own dates?
Yes. Supply the dates for the year being printed, including public holidays, and they are checked against the file before printing rather than assumed from a previous year. Holiday dates move, and a calendar with last year’s dates is a reprint.
How much clear space is needed at the binding edge?
15 mm on every leaf including the cover. The wire holes and the hanging punch both sit in that band, and both go through whatever is printed there.
How long does calendar printing take in Singapore?
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Printing is one pass, punching is another, wiring is a third and an easel has to be creased and assembled — physical operations on every leaf of every copy, all of them inside that window. Calendars are also seasonal, so the binding queue rather than the press is the real constraint in the last quarter. Where a date is tighter, ask for an express quotation with the leaf count, the size and the binding on it.
Should the calendar cover be laminated?
Usually yes, and usually only the cover. It takes a year of handling while the leaves are turned past. Laminating every leaf makes the block thicker without making the calendar last longer.
Trading since 2017 — EZ PRINT PRIVATE LIMITED, UEN 201706183R.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. For urgent orders or express schedules, please check with EZ Print.
Artwork is checked before production.
Island-wide courier delivery within Singapore.
Collection can be arranged on request.
Ask for a quote on this calendar
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
Quantity
Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
