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This page will be updated regularly IY"H throughout the calendars season.
It was last updated on 04/15/2012

Answer: We usually print the generic calendars sometime in Tammuz. Up until then, you can change the quantity of your order as you'd wish. Once the "shells" have been printed, we cannot guarantee that we'll be able to satisfy an increase in your order quantity; We reserve the right to bill you for the cost price of the printing if you decrease the quantity and we cannot find another customer to purchase them by the end of the season.

Any other changes to your order can be made even later, up until the time that your files have been sent to print.

All changes to your orders must be made directly on the customer-service website, and are not considered approved until the confirmation email shows up in your inbox.

You can also make hanges to your shipping options, mailing preferences, and your user profile can all be made online at our customer-service website.

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What if I'm late with submitting my files?

If you miss the weekly submitting deadline, your calendars will still be printed. If the delay is not very substantial, it is still possible that you calendars will be shipped at the scheduled time. Otherwise, your calendars will be printed a week later - essentially being pushed to the next batch.

We do accept all major cards for payment. Our credit-cards are usually processed by "The Printhouse". We reserve the right to add a convenience fee of $2.5% should we have to process the credit cards ourselves (this is usually not an issue until very late in the calendar season).

While our project is geared primarily toward helping Shluchim, we will gladly print calendars for non-Chabad institutions, provided that that this project - as well as their work in general - does not negatively impact the work of the local Chabad-Lubavitch institutions.

If you are not registered in the official Merkos directory of Shluchim, we will require a letter from the regional Shliach endorsing this project.

A letter from the Vaad Rabonei Lubavitch (or your regional Lubavticher Beis-Din) endorsing your institution may also work, if we have no reason to believe this will hurt the offically recognized Shliach.

Small calendar: The ad strip is 2" high and 11" wide. After leaving space for margins etc., you can sell three sizes:

(There can be as many as six empty spaces in a strip. There are no grid lines dividing them. Multiply the width by the number of empty dates on any given month).

Mrs. Ella Vorovich of www.vepgraphics.com (905-918-0515) is available to help you put together the calendar at rates which are usually less than what you'd pay your own graphic designer. Her fees begin at $350 for simple jobs. Mrs. Vorovich is a Shlucha herself and works with many Shluchim throughout the year.

Please note that you would work with her directly - we take no responsibility for that side of the operation.

Most people will be able to provide you with a digital copy of their business card or ad, which is always best. If they can't, and if the business card contains simple text, it's probably best to just retype it yourself, as scanned text never looks as good as the original. If it contains a logo, you still can retype the text portion making it look much better.

If you must scan a business card, it might be wise for you to bring them all to a service such as Kinko's to scan them professionally. If you have to scan it yourself, make sure to scan it at a resolution of 300DPI (Dot Per Inch). In addition to the resolution, there are other settings on your scanner's software that you'll need to play around with to get the best image possible.

Take care to cover edges of your scanned images with white boxes, so that the lines don't show. Check and double-check to make sure they are straight. You can straighten them by rotating them slightly with your software as needed. Tip: Business cards will often have a border, or the scans will often show the edges as lines. Use your software to crop those lines, straighten the image by rotating it as needed, and then create a separete rectangle as a (straight) border. For best results, make all borders at leat 1.5 points thick.

If you're using QuarkXpress or InDesign, you can have your ads sent to you in PDF format. The advantage of this format is that the clarity of the text is never degraded. Make sure they create the PDF using the "Professional" (high-resolution, fonts included) setting.

Microsoft Publisher does not read PDF files, but you can have your advertisers save them in EPS format, which is essentially the same thing and which Publisher can read, too.

If you advertiser does not have that capability, have them save it in TIFF (or if need be, in JPEG) format. In either case, make sure they save as high resolution graphics (300 DPI).

Tip: Do not just copy & paste an image from a PDF file into your desktop Publisher. Quite often you'll be left with a low resolution image which may look good on screen, but will look quite different in print. If you aren't sure, print it on your office printer to check the quality. Alternatively, you can get a sense of the print quality by using the preview function of your Publishing software enlarging it to about 300%.

What tips can you give for preparing my calendar myself with Microsoft Publisher?

(a) Only use fonts which are available on your system! If you are copying files from another computer, of if you have recently upgraded your operating system, first check tools->commercial printing tools->fonts and make sure that no fonts are listed as missing. If you do have missing fonts, you MUST replace them before submitting your files. Publisher 2007 and onward has a replace fonts tool under tools->commercial printing ->fonts.

(b) Offie 2007 and onward has the capability to save files in PDF format. (In office 2007, a patch has to be downloaded from Microsfot's website). We highly recommend you use this option rather than the Acrobat software as this will make your life much easier.

(c) If you are planning to send the file to us in Publisher format, we will need to have a copy of all those fonts in order to prepare your files properly. This can be done in two ways:

Your best bet is to use only embeddable fonts. Check under commercial printing tools->fonts for a list of fonts being used in your publication and whether or not they are embeddable. Try to use only fonts which say "may embed". When you are ready to send the files to use, embed the fonts (by clicking the checkbox) and save it. Avoid using fonts which are listed as 'preview only'. This will only cause you problems down the road. Also, do not actually embed the fonts until you're ready to send the files to us. There is no need to load all those fonts up every time you open the file.

(d) As any graphic designer will tell you, a publication using fewer fonts will look much neater. Start off by picking several fonts which you think will work best for you , and stick with them throughout your publication. As of Publisher XP, you can use the built in "font schemes", which give you several fonts that work well together as a group.

If you must use some fonts which are non-embeddable or preview only, you'll need to manually make a copy of those fonts and email them to us. You can find the files in the windows->fonts folder on your computer. Make sure you know how to do this before you use any fonts which are not embeddable.

Why can't I open my template?

Our system prepares the templates in Publisher 2007/2010 format. If you are using Publisher 2000, you will not be able to read the files. You can contact us and we'll resave your files in the 2000 format, but WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT FILES IN 2000 FORMAT. We strongly recommend that you upgrade your version. If you are a non-profit, you can get Microsoft Office 2010 for $20.00 at www.techsoup.com as long as you register as a community outreach organization (not a religious and/or educational institution). Other restrictions apply, but it is well worth it.

I'm using Publisher and I'd like to avoid the $100.00 fee. How can I convert my files to PDF format myself?

Registered users of Office 2007 can download a free update from Microsoft which will allow them to save fils in PDF files. Office 2010 has this capability built-in.

Otherwise, you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) installed on your computer. If you do, the process is usually quite straightforward. Here are some basics.

(a) Once your files are 'ready to go', delete all background images of the generic calendar, all instruction boxes, and save the result in a new file. Name the file "Imprint999", the '999' representing your lot number.

(b) With the new file open, click on file->page setup, then choose the 'printer and paper' tab. Under 'printer name' choose your Acrobat printer (probably called 'Adobe PDF' or something similar). If you don't have an Acrobat printer, you will have to print to a PostScript file first. Refer to (e)

(c) With the proper printer selected, click on 'Properties'. A new dialog box will open. Choose 'Adobe PDF settings' first. Under 'Adobe PDF conversion settings' choose 'Press Quality'. (Large Calendar Customers: Under Adobe PDF page size, click on 'add custom page'. In the dialog box that will open, name the new page size, and set the width to 13.5" and the height to9.5". Click on OK then change the page size to the newly created custom page size. )

Important: Back in Publisher's "page setup", you must now change the orientation from landscape to portrait.

(d) Click OK, then print the file. A dialog box should appear asking you what to name the PDF file and where to save it. It will take a few minutes and presto!

(e) Under certain conditions, using the Adobe built-in printer will cause errors. In the event this happens to you, you will have to first print your file as a PostScript (.ps) file, then convert it to PDF using Acrobat Distiller. Here are the steps:

(f) Check if your regular printer is PostScript. (If it is it will allow you to set PostScript options). If it is not, then install the built-in 'MS Publisher Image setter' that comes with Windows. Use the Windows 'Add printer' wizard to find and install this printer.

(g) Using page/printer setup, change the printer to a PostScript printer. Click on properties then on the advanced button. Under page size, click on 'postscript custom page size' and give it the proper page size (Regular letter size for the regular calendar; 13.5" X 9.5" for the larger calendar).

(h) Close all dialog boxes and then print your file to disk. (In the print dialog box, there is a 'print to file' checkbox. If a dialog box appears, give your file a name you'll remember. If it does not, the resulting file will have the same name as the original file.

(I) Open Acrobat Distiller. Change the default setting to 'press quality'. Find the PostScript file you just created and 'drag' it onto the Distiller window. Your PDF file will now be created.

Actual postage rate varies based on the makeup of your mailing list. The rates have have changed for 2012. The following rates are based on a smaller calendar, with an envelope but without any insrts. The weight was 4.2 ounces. This was a year-old calendar; a new calendar weights slightly more.

If you have extra page inserts, the costs go up slightly. Larger calendars cost more.

DSCF rates are significantly cheaper. If you have a larger mailing, it may be worth your while to travel to where those rates will be availabel to you.