Pyxis Calendar - Frequently Asked Questions

What is Pyxis Calendar?

It is a Calendar Maker. Calendar months can be made to your specific dimensions, using your desired grid and colours. And you can add an unlimited number of 'special days' by simply selecting the date and then entering a description. These 'special days' are automatically placed in the relevant day and highlighted with your chosen colour. Special Days can be whatever you like, such as, public holidays, birthdays, religious days, anniversaries, etc.  Making up a calendar grid manually is prone to errors, and can be time-consuming. Pyxis Calendar simplifies this task

Can I Make a Calendar Suitable for Wire Binding?

Yes; there are two options. You could simply export the calendar as Months only as a single PDF file and print and bind that into your final calendar. A more popular option is to place an image above each Month. To do this, simply choose a folder containing 12 images. These images can be of type JPG, PNG, BMP, PSD or TIF (or TIFF). Note that the calendar size you choose will be doubled in height to allow for the image on TOP; so if  you choose and A4 Landscape size, for example, a second A4 Landscape will be imposed above the the month, giving a final calendar size of A3 Portrait.

Do I need to Size images exactly to fit the space?

No, but it is a good idea to use images (or crop them) to the approximate proportion required. Images will be scaled either up or down, in proportion, from the top left corner to fill the available space.

My printer said they need crop marks. Can I include these?

Yes, simply tick the Crop Marks check-box, and marks will be added at the default 2mm offset with 7.5mm space added to each side of your calendar, ideal for commercial printing.

My printer needs high resolution artwork. What is this?

This applies to any images that will be included in your calendar. If you don't have any images, then you don't need to worry about this as the calendar will be made up of vectors, mathematical formula that describe all shapes, fonts, etc. in your calendar, and it will print perfectly at any size.

However, if you include images, these need to be of good quality. If they look pixilated on your monitor then do not use them. If your images are good quality, then you should probably choose the HIGH setting on the quality slider. This is ideal for high quality digital printing. If your calendar will be printed on an offset press, then you should choose the MAX setting. 

By the way, you should also tick the crop-marks check-box, as your printer will usually expect to see these on the print-ready artwork.

Do I need to enter all public holidays one by one?

No, you can import them from a file. Note that this website has pre-prepared special day files for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 

Is there an option to filter the public holidays?

Yes, each 'special day' can be given an optional Job Reference which can be later used to filter days. For example, if you are creating a birthday calendar for your friends, you can assign each birthday for that calendar a Job Reference such as FB1. Then if you enter this Job Reference filed before you click the Create PDF button, only 'special days' with this reference will be included, together with all days that have no reference. It might be a good idea to enter universal 'special days' for your area without any Job Reference, so these will be included in all calendars, and use the Job Reference filter with other custom days. 

What sizes are supported?

A number of pre-defined A-Sizes, in both landscape are available to choose - from A5 to SRA2. You can create any custom size. Note that units are metric. The maximum size is determined by the maximum dimensions of a PDF file, which is a little above 5m square. Max size will also be limited by your computer.

Can I save my calendar?

Yes an unlimited number of calendars can be created and saved and re-opened later.

I note a LOGO option on the user interface. What is this?

You can optionally add a logo, or indeed any other piece of art to your calendar. These can be an image of type JPG, PNG, BMP, PSD or TIF (or TIFF) or a PDF file.  Note that images will be scaled in proportion dictated by the Max Width and Max Height field values entered. However, if you choose a PDF file, it will be placed at the original size. So if the selected file is of type PDF, it will need to be pre-sized to the dimensions required before import.

Note also that if the PDF is a multi-page file, each page will be added in turn. For example, if your PDF has 12 pages, page 1 will be added to January, page 2 to February, and so on . . . This feature enables the adding of sponsor information, for example to each calendar page. If the PDF has six pages for example, these pages will be added from January to June and then repeat from July to December. This feature can also be used to add mini Previous and Next months to a calendar.

Can I add an extra Line of text above the image on my calendar?

Yes, this text will be common to all pages. It can be entered to the desired colour, font, size and alignment as entered on the bottom section of the Images tab. 

Can I Make by a Magazine type Calendar?

Yes, there are two options: with and without images. Note that in order to create a magazine calendar with images, you must have 12 images of suitable type, in your selected image folder. 

Can I make a Year Planner?

Yes, a single page year planner can be created to any size up to 5.75m square!.  The typical year planner will have a single line per month. Note that this option can be used with larger borders, to create a popular sponsor type year planner. In this instance you might create a border of sponsors in a separate application, export this as a PDF and then select this file in Pyxis Calendar via the Logo section. You would set the borders in Pyxis Calendar to allow for the size of this sponsor PDF. We will include a Video of this in the Video Tutorials section.

An alternative option is to create a month year planner, where months are placed side by side to form rows from left to right. With this option, use small or no borders, as you may get un-expected results.

I would like to use custom fonts. Can I use fonts from my system?

We are developing this as an option and it will be available in a future release. In the meantime, if you need to use specific fonts, we can develop a custom version of Pyxis Calendar with your fonts pre-loaded. Note that it is your responsibility to ensure you are licensed to use these fonts. 

How Much does Pyxis Calendar Cost?

At time of writing (13 August 2016) this has not been decided, but like all Pyxis Products, it will be available on a reasonably priced, annual licence basis.

Is there a Free Trial?

Yes, a 30 day fully functional trial is available. 

Free Trial Download

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It is possible to import 'Specail Day' following files into Pyxis Calendar

Note that these are simple text files.

It is possible to import text files with two or three parts of information.

The first part is the date: most date formats will be interpreted correctly.

Note that if the date does not include a year, the current year will be implied.

The second part contains the description.

Keep this as short as possible.

The third part contains an optional job reference.

Each part is separated by a semicolon.

Example of file with two parts of information: 

1st Jan 2017 ; New Year's Day

25 / Dec / 17 ; Christmas Day

Example of file with three parts of information: 

1st Feb ; John's Birthday ; 100

30 March ; Wedding Anniversary ; 100

The third part is a job reference and can be used to filter 'special days' when creating a calendar.

Note: If you do not enter a filter when creating a calendar, all special days will be added to your calendar.

When you do enter a Job Reference Filter, all days with not job reference will be used together with days that match the filter entered. 

Job References can be any alpha-numeric combination, up to a maximum of 30 characters.

DOWNLOADS

Download Special Days Text File England

Download Special Days Text File Scotland

Download Special Days Text File Wales

Download Special Days Text File Ireland

Download Special Days Text File Northern Ireland

Pyxis Calendar is a PC and Apple Mac application that automates the task of creating custom calendars and year planners. 

Pyxis Calendar makes it incredibly easy to make a beautiful looking calendar.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PYXIS CALENDAR FREE 30 DAY TRIAL

Both PC and Apple Mac versions are available

Seven different output options are currently available

1. Create months only - this is the default setting

2. Create a calendar suitable for wire binding, with images on top and months underneath

3. Create an imposed magazine of months only for use with a single back image

4. Create an imposed magazine with images and months combined

5. Create two separate documents, one with months and another with images for use in another application.

6. Create a Year Planner with months as rows

7. Create a Year Planner with months side by side in 4 columns and 3 rows for landscape output or 3 columns and 4 rows, where a portrait output size has been selected. 

FEATURES

Special Days

Import a Special Day file for your region. This is available to download (from the www.pyxis.ie website) for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Or you can manually enter Public Holidays and other Special Days. Note that special days can be assigned an optional Job Reference. If this job reference is entered prior to creating a calendar, only Special Days associated with that job reference will be used, together with Special Days that have no job reference. In this way, you would typically enter common special days without a job reference, and these would be used with each calendar. If no Job Reference is entered, all special days will be merged with the calendar or year planner being created.

Custom Size

Choose any output size up a massive 5.75m x 5.75m. Note that you will need a powerful computer to produce a calendar that incldues images, at this size!

No Proof Reading of Calendar Months

With Pyxis Calendar, you will never need to proof-read your calendar to ensure each month has the correct number of days and that they are in the correct order. This is guaranteed. The only thing you need to make certain is that you choose the correct year to start with!

Custom Colours

You can create an unlimited number of colours that can be applied to fonts and backgrounds as desired.

Alignment Options

Text can be aligned horizontally or vertically. 

Font Options

The first release has just 8 fonts to choose from: Times Roman and Helvetica in each style: plain, italic, bold and bold italic. Any font size can be entered.

Inner and Outer Grid border

Optionally choose to separate days with a grid. Grid lines can be any weight and colour. An outer grid border can also be set independently.

Alternating Row Colours

Optionally choose background colours for each row of days in a month.

Text Case Optons

Choose from Full Uppercase, Lowercase, Initial Capital or Abbreviation for both weekday names and month names. The abbreviation option will shorten the name to three characters, each in uppercase (JAN, FEB, MAR, etc for months and MON, TUE, WED, etc for days . . .)

Border Width Optons

Each border, left, right, top and bottom can be set independently.

Merging Images

Simply select a folder containing images. They need to be set to the correct rotation. The application will automatically scale them in proportion to fill the top image space and then crop off anything outside that area. So it is a good idea to prepare them to the approximate shape / size first and the application will then automatically do the rest. And you can be reassured that every month and image will be positioined exactly the same on each page.

Image Resolution

Four image quality settings are available: Web, Good, High and Max. The High setting should be the correct choice for most digital printers. The Max setting will increase the file size significantly and is best suited for high resolution lithographic printing where line screens of 300lpi or higher are being used. In circumstances where the original image quality is medium or poor, the Good option is likely to provide the best results. We recommend that you do a test of each of the four settings to reassure yourself that the option selected best suits your printing environment. Note that all internal preview images will be displayed at Web Quality, regardless of the PDF output quality selection.

Extra Image or Logo

You place an extra image or logo at any location on the output sheet. Where a logo or image pdf file contains multiple pages, each page will be imposed in order, and then repeated if there are less than 12 pages. This option can be used, for example, to merge mini previous and following months, alongside the current month. Note that if the file type selected is a PDF, it must be pre sized for the space allocated, while other image types will be automatically scaled to fit the space dictated by the max width and max height values entered by the user.

Extra Text Option

Each border, left, right, top and bottom can be set independently.

Save and Re-Open

Each calendar setting can be saved and re-opened. If the latest setting has not been saved, the user will be notified and presented with an option to save the current calendar file during the application exit process.

Customize Default Colour Set

Each custom colour can be added to the default colour set. The user will be notified when exiting if any new colours exist and will be given the option to add those to the default set.

Export with Crop Marks

To add crop marks to your calendar, often required for commercial printing, simply tick the Crop Marks  check-box (located on the PDF Export tab)

Download Example Calendar

Download Example Planner

Wirebound pages Example 210mm x 420mm

Below is a version of the above calendar resized to 210 x 300 with other font and colour settings.

It also shows custom text placed on the image section, in this case copyright information has been placed above the image.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PYXIS CALENDAR FREE 30 DAY TRIAL

Both PC and Apple Mac versions are available

Download Special Day Files to Import into Pyxis Calendar

Both PC and Apple Mac versions are available