Happy New Year, everyone!

Figured January 1st is the perfect day to post about a great, free calendar making program I just learned about from Martin Burett over at ICT Magic. The program (PC only) is Calme: http://calme.mecoding.com/index.html. It’s a super-simple way to make stunning calendars. It’s incredibly easy to use. Just download the program, choose a calendar layout, then drag and drop some images! See for yourself:

Here is the selection of calendar styles:

This is the basic user interface:

And here is a calendar for January 2012, with a photo and some formatting options tweaked:

The one thing I can’t figure out is how to use the THEMES – basically, collections of 12 photos for a full year’s worth of calendars. I’ve emailed and tweeted the author, hopefully he will respond soon!

The opportunities for this little program are ENDLESS – I’m already planning to use it in my lab. All you need is a collection of 12 images – ponder the possibilities here folks – traditional classroom subjects, famous or current events, books, the weather, space, famous authors, athletes, cars, technology, cyber safety, you name it! All you need is a .JPG image, which can be scaled and positioned as needed to make the calendar look great.

The biggest downside (until I figure out the themes) is that each month will need to be individually saved (printed to a .PDF, ideally). This is only a minor inconvenience however.

It would also be nice if the program would allow you to cite the source of the image – though this could be done with image editing software.

This program is PC only (sorry, iOS folks) … but it’s a FANTASTIC way to make STUNNING, professional looking calendars FOR FREE!

Heck, I could see our PTO or Education Foundation using this program to make some awesome calendars that could be sold as a fundraiser! (Could be a “welcome to our school” or “welcome to X grade” theme.)

Hope this helps!

-kj-