A wall calendar is the only printed thing you buy that has to keep working for twelve months. Four decisions decide whether it does.

Ask how it hangs

A twin-loop coil with a formed hook spreads the load; a bare punched hole concentrates it.

Most calendar failures are this, and they happen by March.

Ask what the grid paper does to a biro

Half the page is a writing surface. Gloss stock beads ink and refuses pencil.

A supplier who has never tested it with a pen has not specified it.

Size the figures to the room

Arm’s length in an office; three or four metres in a workshop.

A giant photo over a tiny grid is a poster with dates on it.

Order against the wall, not the press

In the post through October, print early autumn, artwork late summer.

Two-week print turnaround does not help you in December.

Then choose the cover

Photography, illustration, brand imagery — all safely secondary to the four above.