Creating a Custom Calendar with Lulu.com

  • S06E12
  • December 11, 2012

Robbie and Hillary show you how to create your very own custom calendar with free software. Perfect for gifts and complete with your own photos.

This video is provided free of charge. If you enjoy what we do, please consider becoming a Patron so we can continue offering more great content.
Support This Free Content
This episode is sponsored in part by: Netflix, Eco Alkalines and Cordery Electric.

Topics Covered:

  • Robbie Ferguson and Hillary Rumball present from the Category5 studios in Barrie, Ontario.
  • Happy birthday to Chrisreich.
  • Viewer Comment: Show us the postcard wall!
  • Presenting Brother's MFC-J4510DW and the new Business Smart Series of printers from Brother Canada—coming next week to Category5 Technology TV, and you can win one!
  • {play 11:21}Having ordered Brent Spiner's CD "Dreamland", autographed, Robbie is impressed that Brent himself delivered it to the post office. Note: The CD is available on Brent's web site: therealbrentspiner.com
  • {play 13:17}Feature: Creating a custom calendar using Lulu.com.
    • Signing up for your free Lulu.com account.
    • Step one to creating your own calendar: finding and organizing 12 or more high-resolution digital photographs.
    • Publishing a calendar with Lulu.com is entirely done through your web browser, with no need for software installation. This means it works perfectly on Windows, Linux and Mac.
    • Choosing the theme for your calendar. Robbie chooses the Modern theme so his photos will fill the entire page without borders.
    • Adding some events to your custom calendar. For example, this could be family birthdays if you're giving the calendar as a gift to a family member.
    • Adding public holidays for your region to your custom calendar, automatically.
    • Navigating the calendar months on Lulu.com Lulu Studio™.
    • Selecting a grid layout for the currently highlighted month.
    • Creating your images to be the correct size for the calendar image (optional).
    • Adding your photos to your custom calendar.
    • Lulu.com has a 10 MB limit per image for your calendar.
    • Using the web interface to add a photo to your calendar, move it and crop it.
    • Using the GIMP to create specifically sized photos for your calendar (optional).
    • Positioning your photograph subject to avoid the pinhole when creating a custom calendar.
    • Creating an attractive photo vignette using the GIMP.
    • Viewer Question: Can these custom calendars be sent anywhere in the world?
    • Saving your custom calendar.
    • How Lulu.com warns you if your photo is not high enough resolution for your calendar.
    • Wrapping up your calendar: previewing and finishing, and ultimately ordering a copy of your custom calendar.
  • {play 37:20}Top Stories from the Category5.TV Newsroom.
    • How Google's calendar outage took down the Category5.TV web site (until Robbie patched the site).
  • {play 45:40}Viewer Questions.
  • Viewer Question: I've installed Linux as my main operating system and find it very easy to use. I'm using VirtualBox, but it doesn't seem to work with the USB ports with a Windows guest. How can I get USB support in the guest OS?
    • Obtaining the "non-free" version of Oracle VirtualBox from virtualbox.org using their provided repositories and Synaptic Package Manager.
    • Installing the GPG key for the VirtualBox repository so you don't get errors when running apt-get update.
    • Downloading the VirtualBox Extension Pack to add non-free features to your virtual machines such as SATA and USB 2.0.
    • Installing guest additions in your virtual machine guest.
    • Ensuring your USB controller and USB 2.0 are active on your virtual machine guest.
  • Hillary's Question: Where do I get some free Christmas music?
    • What SHOUTcast is and where it came from.
    • Accessing an assortment of free Christmas radio stations from around the world via SHOUTcast's Seasonal & Holiday Radio Stations list.
    • Accessing SHOUTcast radios on iOS or Android via free apps.
  • The upcoming Christmas Special will be laden with awesome prizes from Brother Canada, Eco Alkalines, Thermaltake, and more.
  • Happy 121212 at 12:12.
  • Our Facebook page has a lot of behind the scenes photos and video clips.

Links to Relevant Web Sites:

Discussion

Twitter Posts

Login to Category5

Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Forgot your password?

Register on Category5

Error message here!

Error message here!

Hide Error message here!

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Error message here!

Back to log-in

Close