Frequently asked questions
Please read though our FAQ's as this may answer a number of questions you may have about the calendars and photos you send us. |
 How do I upload my photos, personalised dates and captions
To upload your photos along with any date and caption information you must have completed the ordering process and have received an order number by email. You can then either click on the link supplied in the email to access our upload site or click on the "click here to upload your photos" graphic. Photos must be in Jpeg format.
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How long does it take to upload my photos
Uploading 13 photos will take some minutes to complete depending on the size of the photos you upload. Your internet UPLOAD speed will also affect how long this takes.
For example if you have 13 photos at 2mb each a total of 26mb will in theory take about 2 minutes, if you have an upload speed of 250k this could take much longer.
If you want to test your upload speed you can use this site www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk which will measure both you down load and upload speed. |
Can I change the pictures I have uploaded
Yes - but only for a short time. You can change you photos by re-entering your order number again and uploading either all or just the ones you need to replace. This needs to be done with 60 minutes of receiving your email of the snapshot of the photos you uploaded.
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 What is a digitally improved picture?
A digitally improved picture is where we use Adobe Photoshop to enhance the look of your pictures.
The pictures on the right show before and after digital improvement.
Our professional digital experts can use advanced features of Adobe Photoshop to significantly enhance the appearance of your pictures.
Each picture will be individually assessed and improvements made, for example:
> Correcting the colour balance
> Correcting the light levels and contrast
> Removing red eye from flash photography pictures
> Sharpening each picture
There is a small charge for this service of £3 but previous customers have been very pleased with the results.
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What is a 'renovated photo'
For the Birthday calendars we offer a special service of renovating your photos prior to producing your calendar for a set fee. This is not a full restoration service but will dramatically improve the photos in your calendar. This could include removing scratches and correcting the colour of a photograph and perhaps some of the aging damage that occurred.
For a full restoration service you need to visit our photo restoration service. Fixphotos.co.uk
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 What are personalised dates?
Your calendar is individually made and your own text can be added to specific dates on your calendar, as shown opposite. For example a birthday, wedding anniversary or special occasion.
You can add up to 4 words per date.
You can now upload your personalised dates or send the text and the relevant dates with your photos either by post or e-mail. For example, 3rd June Mary's Birthday; 19th June Mum & Dad's Wedding Anniversary. All words, except the date, will be placed on your calendar exactly as written. Please separate each entry with a semi-colon (;). Please be careful with the use of capital letters - we will copy exactly what you send !
There is a normally charge made for this service ranging from £1.50 - £8.00 per calendar created.
When ordering your calendar choose the personalised dates option and select up to 3, 5, 10 or 20 dates.
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 Can I have my pictures changed to Black and White or Sepia tone.
All pictures can be converted digitally into Black and White or Sepia tone. This can create a dramatic effect with your pictures and can be produced using any pictures whether they are digital images or actual photographs.
The example on the left shows a single picture in colour and its conversion into black and white and sepia tone.
If your pictures are already black and white or sepia tone you do not need to pay for this service
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 Can I have captions on my pictures?
Your calendar can be created with captions under each picture (see example on the right). A caption can also be added to the front cover picture of your calendar.
You caption can be up to 10 words.
When sending you pictures by email or post state the month and the caption, for example - January - Skiing at Sestriere'. All words except the month will be placed on your calendar exactly as written.
There is a charge of £5.00 for adding captions to pictures for each calendar designed.
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What is a landscape or portrait picture ?
Examples of landscape and portrait shaped pictures are shown below. Some calendar designs are more suited to one shape of picture. |
How do I choose which photos to use in my calendar?
The choice of photos is yours but we have some tips from the calendars we have made over the years.
Please remember if the photo looks poor, it will look poor in the calendar. although if you choose to have your images enhanced we can improve you pictures dramatically.
· Choose pictures taken at different times of the year e.g. Holidays, Birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, New Year, Festivals, Fetes and Weddings. Allocate them to the appropriate month (Christmas picture for December) and then choose photos for the other months.
· Choose pictures all taken from one event perhaps a holiday, your new house, your garden or a wedding.
· Don't forget the front cover picture as this is quite often in portrait style. See the details in each calendar description for the shape of the pictures that best suits each calendar.
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What size files do I need to send you for digital images?
Digital image sizes ideally need to be 1MB or greater. They can be lower although this may reduce the quality of the picture in your calendar. Please ensure you send your images with the best quality resolution ideally at 300dpi or higher.
As a guide, pictures will a file size of less than 100k will not normally be a good enough quality to use in a calendar. If the pictures you wish to use have file size of around this size we suggest you choose a calendar style which prints a small picture e.g. small photo and notes or 2 month view with notes.
We will always advise you by e-mail or phone if the file size is not large enough to produce a good quality calendar picture.
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How long will my calendar take to arrive?
We make every effort to dispatch calendars as quickly as possible usually within 48 hours this can however take up to 5 working days of receiving your order and pictures at peak times.
Negatives and scanned pictures can take longer as there is additional work involved.
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How do you dispatch the calendars?
We send all our calendars by second class Royal Mail post unless you specify first class when placing your order. |
What are national events?
UK national events shown on the calendar can include:
New Year & Jan 2nd. St Valentine's Day, St David's Day, St Patrick's Day, Good Friday, Easter, Day, St Georges Day, St Andrews Day, Halloween, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Guy Fawkes Day, Burns Night, Battle of Boyne(NI), Remembrance Sunday, Mothers Day, Easter Day, May Bank Holiday, Spring Bank Holiday and August Bank Holiday.
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Will you cut or crop parts of my photos?
We endeavour to print the entire photo you have sent us. We will however contact you if the photos are unworkable for the style of calendar you have selected before we produce the calendar. We have indicated on each calendar design whether that design is better suited to either portrait or landscape pictures. |
Should I label my files or pictures so you can put them in the right month?
Uploading
Just select you images from your computer and upload then directly. There is no need to rename any photos
By email
You need to re-name each of the files you are sending with the month you want this to appear in your calendar.
This means the file with the picture for January should be re-named January, the file for February should be re- named February etc. The front cover picture should be named front cover.
You can either send 13 Images, which would include a separate picture for the front cover or choose to feature one of the 12 pictures again on the cover. If this is the case name the file with the month and the name 'front cover' so it reads 'January and front cover'.
By Post
You need to label each photo you are sending with the month you want this to appear in your calendar.
The best way to achieve this is to write or label the back of the photo with a post-it note showing the month you want the picture to appear in the calendar. The picture for the front cover photo should be named front cover.
You can either send 13 photos, which would include a separate picture for the front cover or choose to feature one of the 12 photos again on the cover.
For negatives or artwork please indicate clearly which item should be used for each month and the front cover.
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 What address do I send all photos, artwork or negatives to?
Please send you photographs, artwork, CD's or memory cards to:
All CD's and memeory cards are returned with your calendar(s). |
I am having trouble with sending you images by email?
There can be a number of issues when trying to e-mail large files across the Internet.
A number of service providers have limits on the size of an e-mail with attachments, which can be typically as little as 3mb.
Please attach only 1 photo per email to avoid any issues with the size of the email. Please remember to put your order number on each email.
If you exceed the limit you will receive a rejection e-mail from your service provider. We suggest you send 2 or more emails with a small number of files attached so that the size of each e-mail is less than the limit of your service provider.
For information on attaching photos to email see the 'Sending Photos by email page listed on the top menu bar.
If you are having problems emailing you can either upload your photos or send your images on a CD or memory card by post
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 How do I open Outlook to email my files/pictures?
When sending your photos by email you must send them as attachments and NOT from the Windows viewer as this may automatically reduce the size of your images making them too small to use as pictures in your calendar.
To send your pictures:
Click directly on the email link to send your photos by email - email links are on:
1. Front page www.fotocalendars.co.uk
2. Or click on this link. pics@fotocalendars.co.uk
Please make sure you add your order number to the Subject box of the email.
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 How do I attach my photos/files to the email?
From the 'Insert' drop down menu click on the words 'File Attachment'
See picture on the right.
This then opens up an 'Insert Attachment' box shown in the question below.
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 How do select my file to attach?
You now need to find the location of where your pictures are stored on your computer using this window.
When you have located the file you need to click on the title (ie Flower005 in the example) and then click on the word 'Attach' - in some versions of Outlook the word will be 'Insert'.
You now need to repeat this process starting at the 'Insert' drop down menu to add each picture to your email. To avoid any loss over the internet please send your photos on individual emails.
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 How do I actually send the email?
When you have completed adding the attachments you simply need press the 'Send' button in the top left hand corner of the screen. |
What format should I send the images in?
We can accept images in Jpeg format only .
The upload viewer will only show a preview of your photos for photos uploaded in Jpeg format.
Images should be sent using the best quality resolution set to 300dpi.
Can you use very high quality digital Images?
We can accept large size digital images to ensure you get very high quality pictures. These should be can be sent on a CD or memory stick/card and sent by post. We can accept the images in a variety of formats but Jpeg or TIFF are best.
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Can I send negatives, actual photographs or artwork?
Photographs or artwork can be accepted in any size up to A3. Please remember that a scan of an actual photo will never produce as high quality results as from a digital file or a negative.
We accept negatives and slides from 35mm and 120 roll film.
Calendars using negatives or actual photographs may take a few days longer to produce as each image must be scanned.
We will always advise you if we cannot get an acceptable picture from your photos.
Please ensure you have the copyright for all the pictures you are sending.
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What if the quality of my photographs isn't good enough?
We will always contact you by e-mail if we have difficulties or believe the image quality is not good enough to produce a good calendar. |
What is my Guarantee
All work is guaranteed to the highest standard. If you are not happy with the results simply return the calendar to the address below within 28 days, with an explanation, and we will provide a full refund including standard 2nd class postage.
Please return your calendar to the address opposite:
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What is a landscape or portrait shaped picture
The terms 'landscape' and 'portrait' simply refer to the shape of the picture .
The top example of the London Eye is a portarit shape picture and the lower example is Landscape shape shown are |  |
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I have a question that is not on your list of FAQ's
Please send me an email with your questions to info@fotocalendars.co.uk |
What size are the photos printed in my calendar
The main factor that affects the actual size of the picture is the shape of the image that you send us. This however will depend on the camera on which the picture was taken and the calendar style you decide to choose. The sensors in different makes and types of cameras determine the shape of your image
To give a guide, based on camera sensor that has a ratio of 3:2 (Canon EOS range for example) the photos in the calendar will be printed approximately as in the chart below. Sizes are shown both landscape and portrait shaped pictures.
The sizes apply to the calendar pictures not the front cover. Photo sizes in the calendars for other makes and styles of camera will vary from this. We are unable to give any further information on the exact size that the pictures will be printed.
CALENDAR STYLE ...............LANDSCAPE SHAPE (W/H)............PORTRAIT SHAPE (W/H)
Planner style calendar...........................13 x 8 ................................................9 x 6
New small photo with notes ................11 x 7................................................5 x 7.5
Landscape photo with notes ................20 x 13.............................................11 x 17
Central photo with notes.......... .............8 x 5.5.............................................. 8 x 13
1 month Portrait photo ..........................16 x 10.............................................11 x 17
2 Month with notes................................7.5 x 4.5.............................................3 x 4.5
3 Month view landscape photo ...........18 x 12 ..............................................8 x 12
3 month view portrait with notes ........ ..9 x 14.............................................. 13 x 8
1 year view landscape photo ................17 x 11...............................................n/a
1 year view portrait photo....................... n/a..................................................10 x 16
All sizes are approximate and are in centimetres.
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Why do you show 3 pictures of each calendar example?
We show 3 pictures of each calendar to allow you to see the effect of having either a landscape or portrait shaped picture in your calendar. We always state in the text which is shape is recommended but show the alternative as we understand that not all the pictures you wish to use will be in the recommended shape. |
Sending photos by email
You can also email your 13 photos (including the front cover).
Please attach only 1 photo per email to avoid any issues with the size of the email. Please remember to put your order number on each email.
To send your digital photo files by e-mail click on the e-mail link at the bottom of this section, which will open an e-mail to enable you to send your photos.
In the e-mail type your ORDER NUMBER as the subject, which you will have received as confirmation when you placed your order. Click on the link below and add the order number to the title and then add your photos as attachments to the email.
Click on this link.pics@fotocalendars.co.uk
Please send the pictures in Jpeg format naming each file with the month you want the picture to appear in the calendar e.g. the photo for January should be re-named January, the front cover photo should be named front cover.
Please save you pictures at the best quality you can ideally at 300dpi. Please DO NOT compress your files as this will reduce the quality of the calendar we can produce.
For personalised dates, state the text and the relevant dates on a separate sheet being clear about names and dates.. For example, 3rd June Mary's Birthday; 19th June Mum & Dad's Wedding Anniversary. All words, except the date, will be placed on your calendar. Separate each entry with a semi-colon (;) and be careful with the use of capital letters - we will copy exactly what you send !
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How should I label my files or photos when sending by email
Uploading
Just select you images form your computer and upload then directly, no need to rename any photos.
By email
You need to name each of the files you are sending with the month you want this to appear in your calendar.
This means the file with the picture for January should be re-named January, the file for February should be re- named February etc. The front cover photo should be named front cover.
You can either send 13 Images, which would include a separate picture for the front cover or choose to feature one of the 12 photos again on the cover. If this is the case name the file with the month and the name 'front cover' so it reads 'January and front cover'.
By Post
You need to label each photo you are sending with the month you want this to appear in your calendar.
The best way to achieve this is to write the month you want the picture to appear on the back of each picture. The picture for the front cover photo should be named front cover.
You can either send 13 photos, which would include a separate picture for the front cover or choose to feature one of the 12 photos again on the cover. If this is the case write the name of the month and the word 'front cover' so it reads 'January and front cover'. |
How do I open Outlook to email my files/pictures?
When sending your photos by email you must send them as attachments and NOT from the Microsoft Windows viewer as this may automatically reduce the size of your images making them too small to use as pictures in your calendar.
To send your pictures:
Click directly on the email link below which will open your email application.
Click on this link. pics@fotocalendars.co.uk
Please make sure you add your order number to the Subject box of the email.
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How do I attach my photos/files to the email ?
From the 'Insert' drop down menu click on the words 'File Attachment'
See picture on the right.
This then opens up an 'Insert Attachment' box shown in the question below.
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How do select my file to attach?
You now need to find the location of where your pictures are stored on your computer using this window.
When you have located the file you need to click on the title (ie Flower005 in the example) and then click on the word 'Attach' - in some versions of Outlook the word will be 'Insert'.
You now need to repeat this process starting at the 'Insert' drop down menu to add each picture to your email. Please only add 1 photo per email to avoid any internet transfer issues.
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How do I actually send the email ?
When you have completed adding the attachments you simply need press the 'Send' button in the top left hand corner of the screen. |
E-mail potential problems
There can be a number of issues when trying to e-mail large files across the Internet.
A number of service providers have limits on the size of an e-mail with attachments, which can be typically as little as 3mb.
Please attach only 1 photo per email to avoid any issues with the size of the email. Please remember to put your order number on each email.
If you exceed the limit you will receive a rejection e-mail from your service provider.
If you are having problems emailing you can either upload your photos or send your images on a CD or memory card by post ,
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How do I send the information on personalised dates or captions by email.
If you have uploaded your photos you simply need to email this information to us including the order number in the tile of the email. This should be emailed to pics@fotocalendars.co.uk |
