Calendar backing boards

A backboard is the rigid, printed background of a wall calendar. It is what the date pad and the header are mounted onto during further finishing.

We sell them as a semi-finished product in plano sheets, with no binding and no calendar parts fitted. The sheets are ready for bindery work on the customer's side.

Who this is for

Calendar backboards are ordered mainly by advertising agencies, design studios and companies that assemble calendars themselves.

The usual workflow: you order backboards with your own artwork, mount the date pad on them, add the slider with the window marking the current date, and in this way prepare a complete calendar for your client. You keep control over the look of the finished product, the way it is assembled and the margin, while the printing of the backboards is left to us.

This also works when the date pad comes from another supplier, when calendars are assembled gradually through the season, or when one background design is to be used with several date pad variants.

Sheet formats

Choose the backboard format to match the type of calendar you plan to assemble.

The calculator offers five variants in two widths.

PLANO sheets at full width, 330 mm:

• Three-block PLANO backboards - 330×700 mm, print area 320×690 mm. For a classic wall calendar with three date pads arranged one below the other.
• Single-block PLANO backboards - 330×480 mm, print area 320×470 mm.

Narrower sheets at 305 mm, in versions with a header:

• Three-block economy backboards with header - 305×680 mm.
• Three-block backboards with a raised header - 305×635 mm.
• Single-block economy backboards with header - 305×465 mm.

Within each group the sheet width stays the same and only the height changes. The height is what decides how much room is left for the individual date pads.

The print area is slightly smaller than the whole sheet, so logos, texts and other important elements should sit safely inside it.

Board and printing

Backboards are printed on Arktika 300 gsm board.

Here the weight matters mainly for practical reasons. The backboard has to carry the date pad and the slider, stay rigid, and hang as flat as possible all year. The board should also make the structure less prone to waving as humidity in the room changes.

Artwork is printed in full CMYK colour. Graphic material should be prepared at 300 dpi.

The available construction and finishing options are shown directly in the calculator. The list depends on the type of calendar you choose.

What to know before ordering

Backboards are the background of a calendar, not a finished wall calendar. The date pad, the slider and the remaining parts are fitted by you.

Calendar headers are printed by us as a separate product as well, also as plano sheets.

If you are assembling a calendar for the first time, start by establishing the exact height of the date pad and only then prepare the background artwork. That avoids a situation where important parts of the graphics, the logo or the slogan end up hidden behind the date blocks after assembly.

Allow, too, for the fact that the lower part of the backboard will be covered by the date pad and the upper part may be partly covered by the header. Important content placed there may stop being visible once the calendar is assembled.

The safest space for advertising, a logo or company details is the middle of the sheet and the areas beside the date pad.

Preparing the file

Supply the artwork as a PDF in CMYK, with graphics at 300 dpi. Convert fonts to outlines and keep texts and other important elements away from the edges, inside the print area for the format you have chosen.

Save the file in CMYK. Colours prepared in RGB are converted automatically during production, so their shade may differ from what you saw on screen.

Detailed technical requirements are described in the file preparation guide.