If you want to know how to make a photo calendar on iPhone, the short answer is: choose one photo for each month, put them into a calendar layout, then print it or set it as your wallpaper. The photos are usually the easy part, because they're already on your phone. What takes time is picking twelve from a few thousand, and deciding where the calendar will actually go. This guide covers both, and three ways to do the layout.
Step 1: Pick one photo for each month
The calendars people keep looking at are the ones where each month shows something that happened in that month: the March trip on March, the July birthday on July. Your camera roll already has the dates. The quickest way to use them:
- Open Photos and switch the library to the Months view, which groups the library by month.
- Go through the twelve months of the year you want and favorite one photo per month. A favorite is easy to find again later and doesn't move or copy anything.
- For a month with nothing in it, use a photo from the same season, or a detail shot (a window, a plant, the view from your desk). One empty month is fine. Three in a row usually means the calendar should start somewhere else.
- Check the shape. Most calendar layouts put a landscape photo above the dates. Portrait photos work best on a full-bleed page or on a phone wallpaper.
Doing this for the year you just had makes a great gift. Doing it for the year ahead means each month shows the same month a year ago, which is a nice thing to see on the 1st.
Step 2: Decide where the calendar will live
This choice decides the size, the format and the tool, so make it before you start on the layout.
| Where | What you need | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| On the wall | A 12-page print, A4 or Letter, at about 300 dpi | Gifts, the kitchen, grandparents |
| On the Lock Screen | One image per month at your phone's screen resolution, swapped on the 1st | Seeing the photo dozens of times a day |
| On the Home Screen | A widget that shows the month and today's date | A calendar you check without unlocking a print |
You don't have to choose just one. The same twelve photos can go on the wall and on your phone.
Step 3: Put the photos into a calendar layout
There are three realistic ways to do this from an iPhone. They differ mainly in who does the sorting, who does the printing and where your photos go.
Option A: Order a printed calendar from a print service
Apps like Shutterfly (shutterfly.com) and PhotoCalendars (photocalendars.com) let you upload photos, choose a design, add holidays and birthdays, and get a bound, printed calendar delivered. PhotoCalendars lets you start the calendar in any month. This is the best route if you want a spiral-bound calendar without doing any printing yourself. The trade-offs: your photos are uploaded, you pay for each copy plus shipping, and you match photos to months yourself.
Option B: Use a calendar template in a design app
Any general design or document app with a calendar template will work: place a photo above each month's grid and export a PDF. You get full control and it can cost nothing. It's also the slowest route. You do twelve pages by hand, and you have to check every date grid against the right year.
Option C: Let an app sort the year for you
This is what we built Photo Calendar for. Connect your library and it reads the date each photo was taken, sorts a year into twelve months and suggests a cover for each. Tap any month to swap the photo, and the color palette and note change to match. Months you've edited stay as you left them. Choose a layout and a filter, circle the days that matter with one of 15 marks, and the year is done in about a minute. Everything runs on the phone, with no account and nothing uploaded.
It then puts the calendar in all three places from Step 2. The Home Screen widget, which turns to the next month on the 1st by itself, is free. The free version also includes four of the nine layouts, four of the fourteen filters, notes and a standard 1600 px export with a small signature in the corner. Premium adds the full-year print PDF, the Lock Screen wallpaper, HD and Ultra export and every layout and filter. You can try every Premium element before you pay; only saving or printing a page that uses one needs Premium.
To be clear about what it doesn't do: Photo Calendar makes the calendar, but it doesn't print or ship it. For a printed copy, you take the PDF to your own printer or a print shop.
Step 4: Print it at home or at a print shop
If you're making the print file yourself, a few things decide whether it looks like a store-bought calendar or an office printout:
- Resolution. Aim for about 300 pixels per inch. A full A4 page at 300 dpi is about 2480 × 3508 pixels. Any recent iPhone photo is big enough. Screenshots, photos saved from messaging apps and heavily cropped photos are the ones that print soft.
- Paper size. Photo Calendar's print PDF is laid out for A4 or A5. In the US, print A4 on Letter paper with "scale to fit" (it shrinks slightly), or ask a print shop to print it on A4.
- Paper. Heavier matte paper takes ink well and doesn't curl on the wall. Glossy paper reflects light from a window.
- Binding. A print shop can spiral-bind twelve pages for not much money. At home, a binder clip and one nail work too.
Printing it yourself costs one copy at a time. If you want a second copy for the grandparents, just print the PDF again.
Which route should you take?
If you want a bound calendar delivered and don't mind uploading your photos and paying per copy, use a print service. If you enjoy design and have an evening free, a template gives you the most control. If you want the year sorted for you, kept on your phone, and on your Lock Screen as well as the wall, that's what Photo Calendar does. If the calendar is for someone who'll miss a person or a pet, our guide to making a pet memory book covers the same photo-sorting problem in more depth.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a calendar with my own photos on iPhone?
Pick one photo for each month, ideally one taken in that month, then put them into a calendar layout. You can do that in a print service's app and have it shipped, in a general design app using a calendar template, or in an app like Photo Calendar, which reads the date each photo was taken, sorts a year into twelve months and suggests a cover for each, so you only swap the months you want to change.
Can I make a photo calendar for free?
You can design one for free. Print service apps are free to download and charge for the printed calendar and shipping. Photo Calendar is free to download, and the free version includes four layouts, four filters, date marks, notes, the Home Screen widget and a standard 1600 px export with a small corner signature. The full-year print PDF and Lock Screen wallpaper need Premium.
Can I put a photo calendar on my iPhone Lock Screen?
Yes. Save a month as an image sized to your screen and set it as your wallpaper, then change it on the 1st. Photo Calendar can render the month at your screen's exact resolution as a Lock Screen wallpaper (Premium), and its free Home Screen widget switches to the next month on the 1st by itself.
What resolution do photos need for a printed calendar?
For sharp prints, aim for about 300 pixels per inch. A full A4 page at 300 dpi is about 2480 by 3508 pixels, and a photo that fills half of it needs roughly half that. Any recent iPhone photo is large enough. Screenshots, photos saved from messaging apps and heavily cropped photos are the ones that print soft.
Your year, already sorted by month
Photo Calendar reads when each photo was taken and builds the twelve months for you, for your wall, your Lock Screen and your Home Screen.
Download Photo Calendar on the App Store →Related: How to Make a Pet Memory Book · The Story Behind Map Poster. Questions? Email us.