Click on the image to view the full size photo.
For this tutorial, I'm using a photo of fall leaves I downloaded from the internet. The license for the photo allows me to use it for any non-commercial purpose. There are many wonderful sites offering high-res photos that can be used quite freely. I got this one from yotophoto.com.
To me the hardest part in creating a calendar is developing the calendar grids. I've made it easy for you. Click here to download a PhotoImpact library file of calendar objects. In the zipped file, you will find a folder containing a UOL (Ulead Object Library) file and a series of UFO objects. There are 16 objects included: a set of 7 objects of just dates arranged in a weekly format, each one beginning with a different day of the week. They have no background. There is also a set of 7 related objects, but with the dates laid on top of grid. Also included are 2 objects of grids without dates. You will find these to be timesavers.
Let's start by importing our calendar objects into PhotoImpact. If you've never done it before, here's now. (I'm using PhotoImpact 12.)
Show the EasyPallete Library and go into the Object Library Manager. Select Load from the menu. In the file menu that opens, select the 'Calendar Objects.UOL' you downloaded through the link above. It will now be available in the Libraries group list under the name of 'Calendar Objects'.
Let's begin making our calendar now by loading our background into PhotoImpact. To use the same background I'm using, click on the image above to download the 1024x768 version. If you'd like a higher resolution photo, go to yotophoto.com and do a search for 'autumn leaves'.
The next thing to do is add our dates. I'm going to make a calendar for November 2007. There are days in the month beginning on a Thursday. I'm going to use the version without the grid. It's titled 'Thursday' in the calendar objects thumbnails. Click on it and drag it to your background. It won't show up very good because the background is so busy, but well fix that.
There are several approaches we can take to fix this. For this tutorial, I'm going to add an object from the shape library. I'm using shape B09 from the Library.
Drag it onto your calendar background and move it over the calendar. Resize it and move it toward the background with Alt-down arrow. The Transform tool is in your toolbox panel. The icon looks like this: 
. By default, PhotoImpact will keep the same height to width ratio when you resize it. If you don't want to do that, click on the lock icon at the top of the screen. It looks like this: 
, but it won't be available unless you've got the Transform tool selected. When you click on it, the icon will change showing the ratio is now unlocked: 
The shape is too dark. I'm going to select a color from the background to fill it with. Holding down the 'C' key on my keyboard, I'll click on a color I want to use. I chose an orange color from the leaves. The color code is #F6704B. I clicked on the shape to select it and used the keyboard shortcut of cntl-f to bring up the fill dialog. I selected the orange color and clicked OK.
I still want the background to show through so I'm going to adjust the transparency. Right click on the shape and set the transparency to 30.
Our shape look awfully plain though doesn't it? Let's dress it up a bit. I'm going to use one of the photo frames from the Gallery to improve on it's looks. You'll have to click on the Galleries tab in the EasyPallete and go to Image Enhancements. You'll find the Photo Frame thumbnails there. I'm going to use Edge 4. Photo frames only work with certain types of objects. In this case, if you double click on the Edge 4 thumbnail to apply it, you'll get an error message saying, "Unable to apply the selected thumbnail's properties to the image." No problem. Right click on the object and select 'From Text/Path to Image'. Whenever you get an error, just change the object type from a path to an image or visa versa.
Now double click on the Photo Frame and it will apply the frame to our shape. Use the Transform tool again to make the shape the size you want.
Now let's add some text to indicate the month. I'm going to use a yellow color I selected from the background. I used the Transform tool to size it about the width of the calendar dates.
Now, let's line everything up. Holding down the cntl key, click on the month heading, the dates and the shape. Right click and select Align/Center Horizontally.
Again right click and Group the objects together so that we can move them as one object.
Move the calendar where you want it on the page and save it. Your calendar is ready to use. Here's my final image. Click on it to see it full size.
Click on the image to view the full size final calendar.