Custom Calendar by Figma & Google Sheets Sync

Available in Figma Community

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Introduction

In Feb 2022, I suddenly realised I was too late to buy a calendar, so I decided to do it myself. Creating a calendar is nothing difficult, but I wish to have something reusable and easy to update. In this project, I use Figma for its genetic components structure and a plug-in from the Figma community: Google sheets sync by Dave Williams to input date and personal notes.

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Define the issue(s)

Days counting

Thanks to the auto-layout and components function in Figma, changing day of the week can be done in a few click. Yet creating all the days in a year still a messy cluster. Sometimes I misplaced wrong days in a month etc.. To decrease such human mistake, I wish to maximise the automation by importing Google Sheets data.

Special events and lunar calendar

Dates such as birthdays, bank holidays, and the lunar calendar don't always match the general calendar. The first thing people do each year when they buy a new calendar is to write down those days they feel personally meaningful. So I hope I can pass down those notes in the coming years.

The lunar calendar is the other thing that doesn't always match the usual calendar. It's easy to find a calendar with both systems noted in Taiwan but not outside Asia. I like to know when the solar terms are because it gives me a pleasant feeling of following the season's rhyme. Yet obvious the numbers of days in the lunar calendar are not the same each year. So it's just painful to match days one by one.

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Problem solving

With Google sheets sync by Dave Williams I can edit the special events on google sheets, automatically creating all the days in the year in the lunar calendar. I leave the bottom right corner for the particular date. It will show nothing when the column remains blank in google sheets(shown as Off mode).

Imposition

After the whole calendar content is set, I start to plan how to make it print and bind. Considering that I wish to make a calendar in A5 and binded by saddler stitch, I plan the imposition accordingly.

If you look closely into the imposition work area in the Figma file, you will find the upper part of the calendar doesn't match its lower part on some pages. That's because those pages are supposed to be stitched together, so the upper part of page 3 should match with the lower part of page 17 etc..

post printing process

User Interface

I designed a tutorial about how to use my template to create a customised calendar from 0 to print(and post-print). Users only need to have basic knowledge of Figma and Google sheets. I have hidden all the work that spinning around from the user. It's a file that is ready for mass production.

Check it out in Figma Community