own vs shop and gloss vs matt printing calendar for Xmas

[Major Eazy]

I am making a calendar for a friend of mine for Xmas. I am doing a full own design from blank page, not calendar making software where all you do is import your own photos, now before I do printing, I wanted to consider two options...

First is own printing vs shop copy...

As far as I can see, it would be cheaper to buy my own paper, I have printer capable of printing A3, and a box of 20 sheets A3 photo paper from Staples would be about £20 for their own brand, or HP brand but 100 sheets is about £30 ish. But as far as I can see, they may only come in matt but not gloss. Or I could opt for say a printing services, give them the file of my design, let them print A3 for me, they have gloss, but it means turning my designs into PDF format and take it to shop. Well, what are the pros and cons of printing at home or taking to printing services? What would you consider?

By the way, while still on that subject, do anyone knows if we can buy A3 in gloss from shops?

Second option...

Matt vs Glossy....

It is a calendar for a friend, and we all mark or write notes on calendars, so um, wouldn't gloss tend to be usually a problem with trying to write on it? Sometimes ball point pens don't work well on it, sometimes some pens don't mark well, sometimes they do, so I wonder if I should consider matt only. But then again, do a calendar in matt look okay? Wouldn't a gloss calendar be great?

Well, any suggestions? If it was up to you, which way would you go? Or if you were the one to get the gift, which would you have liked?

Thanks.

 

[Nod]

I do a few calendars as gifts (or at least have done so in the past) and do it all in house. I only do A4 ones since they take up less space but A3 glossy (and matt) papers are available from Ilford, I get mine from 7dayshop. I use Sharpies on the ones I've done for us and they are available as double enders with one end being very fine. If you print your own, you have more control over the finished product, especially in terms of the print quality (colour rendition for example) but you will need a spiral binding machine.

 

[Major Eazy]

I do a few calendars as gifts (or at least have done so in the past) and do it all in house. I only do A4 ones since they take up less space but A3 glossy (and matt) papers are available from Ilford, I get mine from 7dayshop. I use Sharpies on the ones I've done for us and they are available as double enders with one end being very fine. If you print your own, you have more control over the finished product, especially in terms of the print quality (colour rendition for example) but you will need a spiral binding machine.

Yeah, but too late anyway, I went and got it printed at Staples, well thankfully the calendar look as right as it could, and I agree with you, printing own means I can always test it, make correctations, then print final design, but at a print shop, once it is printed, it got to be paid for even if I'm not happy with the design. Mind you, on the other hand, easier to just let them print and do that spiral thing since I don't have time to find my own.

Thankfully the guy at Staples let me write on the paper so i can be sure if it is good to write on with ball point pen, before I decided to ask to go ahead with printing.