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.