Desk Calendar Printing
Our desk calendars are as eye-catching and stylish as they are practical. Customise your calendar with your own photos, artwork, logo, and graphics to reflect your personal style, business brand, or organisation’s mission.
Our beautifully made desk calendars offer full flexibility for customisation to suit your specific requirements, while we provide comprehensive, personalised support throughout the design, printing, and packaging process. We use only the highest quality materials to ensure your desk calendar stands out. We guarantee the final product will leave a lasting, professional impression. Whether as a gift or a promotional tool that’s attractive, popular, and functional, our custom printed desk calendars are the solution you’re looking for.
At QinPrinting, we believe that practicality and visual appeal go hand-in-hand with outstanding design and premium materials. That belief—combined with 25 years of success in the offset printing industry, an expert team, state-of-the-art technology, efficient and cost-effective production, and unmatched customer service—has built our world-class reputation among clients in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors worldwide.
Desk Calendar Printing Instant Quote
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QinPrinting Rated Excellent
They produced an excellent product that was printed, shipped and arrived within the expected timescales.
Emails were responded to quickly by Susan.
The whole process was smooth and straightforward.
What a delight!
Whenever I have a creative idea, their team goes above and beyond to help bring it to life. I’ve printed four comic books with them, and each time, they’ve exceeded my expectations. If you’re considering a printer, take a chance on these friendly, reliable folks—they truly value your business. - Chad Townsend, Creator of The Black Phantom.
But working with Nelson was an absolute pleasure. He patiently addressed all my concerns, and my final printed book was just as I would hope it would be.
Common Desk Calendar Sizes
The exact size of your desk calendar depends on its design features, number of pages, quantity of photographs and graphics, and more. While we can produce your calendar in any size you prefer, our experience shows that it’s often better to stick with standard dimensions for most projects. It simplifies production, reduces costs, and ensures your desk calendar will be both practical and well-received.
The most common sizes for promotional desk calendars are:
But you’re not limited to the suggestions above. At QinPrinting, we’re happy to produce custom desk calendars in any size or format you like. Just keep in mind that extensive customisation—such as oversized display calendars, complex multi-page die-cutting, or soft-touch lamination—typically involves higher costs and longer turnaround times due to the extra pre-press work and setup required. For certain projects, the added investment may be worthwhile. The choice is always yours. However, in most cases, selecting a standard size is more cost-effective, easier to mail and distribute, and just as impactful as a marketing tool.
Desk Calendar Paper Options
Most desk calendars feature full-colour photography and graphics alongside the basic dates-and-days grid. For the best results, we recommend printing on gloss or matte art paper. Both gloss and matte provide ideal surfaces for vibrant colour or black-and-white printing that will make your desk calendar visuals stand out.
Gloss paper is typically the best choice for full-colour photographic calendars, while calendars with a simpler look may benefit from matte paper. Matte stock still delivers excellent image reproduction while making the text easier to read.
If you’d like your customers or recipients to write on the calendar, we suggest using uncoated paper stock. Uncoated paper allows for easy writing, annotating, and note-taking with pencils, pens, or markers. So if functionality is a priority, uncoated paper is the most suitable option.
Desk Calendar Frames
A unique feature of desk calendar design is the triangular base or frame that supports it on the desktop. We make our frames from sturdy yet lightweight 2 mm or 2.5 mm grey board, wrapped in laminated 157 gsm art paper.
If preferred, we can also wrap the frame in textured paper, vinyl, cloth, or leatherette for a more distinctive and refined appearance.
Common finishing options include:
Special Finishes, Lamination, and Foil Stamping
Not every calendar includes a cover sheet—but most do. And with good reason: your calendar’s cover is the first thing a client or potential customer sees, so it needs to make a strong and lasting impression.
Some of the most popular finishing options include:
Shiny and reflective, perfect for vibrant graphics and photos.
Glossy highlights on specific areas for a striking contrast.
Smooth and non-reflective for a simple yet professional design.
Similar to matte lamination, but the resulting surface has a delightful, almost velvet feel.
A glossy finish applied to specific areas for a bold and distinct look.
Metallic or pigmented foil for a shiny, eye-catching effect.
Raised designs for added texture and elegance.
Cut a shape out of the paper material
Binding Options for Custom Desk Calendars
We mount your custom desk calendar on a foldable cardboard frame, allowing it to stand upright on a desktop. The most effective and visually appealing binding method for desk calendars is Wire-O binding, which also offers excellent usability.
Wire-O Binding
Wire-O binding is a “punch-and-bind” technique. We punch evenly spaced holes along the top edge of the calendar pages, then insert a flexible wire—formed into a double loop of circular hoops—through the holes. This wire holds the pages securely while allowing them to flip over smoothly.
We can also laminate the pages to enhance durability and make them water-resistant. For added impact, we offer a range of finishing options including foil stamping, embossing, debossing, and die-cutting.
On request, we’ll pre-package each calendar in an individual plastic sleeve or bubble mailer, ready for posting.
Have a particular feature in mind for your desk calendar that we haven’t mentioned here? No worries—just let us know. If it’s doable, we’ll make it happen.
Custom Desk Calendar Design and Artwork Tips
Whether you’re preparing your artwork in-house or commissioning a professional third-party artist or graphic designer, it’s important to understand how to set up both the artwork and text correctly for printing. You’ll need to account for bleed zones, safety areas, trim lines, and borders, and ensure that both resolution and colour space are correctly configured.
For best results, export your files as vector-based PDFs. We recommend using Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign to design your calendar. These programs also allow you to convert your colour space from RGB to CMYK, which is essential for offset printing.
If you're unable to supply vector files—such as when exporting bitmap images from Photoshop—please ensure your resolution is at least 300 dpi. With vector artwork, resolution isn't an issue, but for raster images, high definition is crucial to avoid fuzziness or pixelation when resizing.
Add a 3 mm bleed around all edges of each page. The bleed is an extended zone beyond the final page size, ensuring that images or backgrounds reach the very edge after trimming. Once printed, we cut the pages to the final size of your chosen calendar format, and the excess is trimmed away. Bleed zones should be marked clearly—preferably with red lines.
For Wire-O bound desk calendars, always allow for an extra binding margin of at least 5 mm on the edge to be punched. For instance, if your general page margin is 10 mm, ensure the binding side has 15 mm to accommodate the wire binding holes.
A competent graphic designer should be familiar with these technical specifications, and rest assured—we manually check all files before going to press. However, it remains your responsibility to provide print-ready files. That said, don’t stress—we’re more than happy to guide you through the process, explain what’s required, and liaise with your designer to make sure everything goes smoothly and your desk calendar turns out perfectly.
Can’t find what you want? Contact us!
Custom Desk Calendar Printing Costs
At QinPrinting, we produce high-quality desk calendars tailored to our clients’ specifications every day. We also understand the importance of working within your budget and maximising your return on investment—especially for start-ups, small to medium-sized businesses, self-publishers, and independent creatives. That’s why we continuously refine our production processes to ensure we deliver exceptional desk calendars at prices you can afford.
So, how much does it cost to print a desk calendar with us? You can get a quick estimate by checking our at-a-glance pricing chart.
Unlike many offset printing providers—who require a minimum order of 500 or even 1,000 units—we offer a minimum offset print run of just 100 units, and still at a competitive rate. As you’ll see in the pricing chart, the more calendars you order in a single batch, the lower your unit price becomes.
How much does it cost to print a desk calendar calendar?
Desk Calendar Printing Price Chart (246 x 170mm)
| Quantity | 100 copies | 500 copies | 1000 copies | 2000 copies | 5000 copies | 10000 copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12pp + cover | Unit: A$10.34 Total: A$1034 |
Unit: A$2.97 Total: A$1486 |
Unit: A$2.38 Total: A$2382 |
Unit: A$2.10 Total: A$4192 |
Unit: A$1.95 Total: A$9765 |
Unit: A$1.89 Total: A$18864 |
| 24pp + cover | Unit: A$11.75 Total: A$1175 |
Unit: A$3.31 Total: A$1657 |
Unit: A$2.59 Total: A$2592 |
Unit: A$2.25 Total: A$4496 |
Unit: A$2.05 Total: A$10273 |
Unit: A$2.00 Total: A$19979 |
- Please note: All prices are EXW from our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 200 gsm coated cover paper
- Interior: 128 gsm coated text paper, full colour printing
- Frame: 2.5 mm thick grey board wrapped with 157 gsm coated text paper, matte laminated outside
- Inside wrapped paper: 80 gsm uncoated text paper
- Cover and inner: Full colour printing
- Binding: Wire-O binding
- Packaging: Individually packed in plastic bags
For a more detailed quote, try our easy and convenient online Printing Cost Calculator. Simply follow the link, enter your specifications into the fields, and receive an instant quote!
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch—one of our friendly team members will be more than happy to assist.
Let's Talk!
If you’re a business, a not-for-profit, or an independent creative looking for a top-quality custom desk calendar at an unbeatable price, let’s talk. Get in touch today to discuss your requirements or to request a no-obligation quote. We can’t wait to help you create your next desk calendar!
