It depends on the wall, not the budget. A4 suits a kitchen, a fridge side, an office door — places you stand close to. A3 suits a wall you read from across a room, and it is the one that makes the photos feel like photographs rather than thumbnails.

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A 2027 calendar with your dog's or cat's photos

Q: How do I choose twelve photos out of three hundred?

Sort by month first, quality second. Take the best photo you have from each month of the year: you have twelve in ten minutes, and the calendar becomes the story of a year rather than a random gallery. If a month has nothing usable, borrow from the month next to it — nobody checks.

Q: Are my portrait photos a problem?

They need cropping. The photo area is landscape, roughly 210 × 166 mm on A4, and most phone photos of animals are portrait. Prefer photos where the animal has some room to its left and right; a tight vertical shot of a sitting dog will lose its head or its paws.

Q: Can I use two animals across the twelve months?

Yes, and alternating them month by month works better than trying to get both into every photo. Six and six, or by month if one of them is more photogenic in summer than in winter.

Q: When is the deadline for Christmas 2026?

Order by Thursday 10 December 2026 for the European Union, and by Thursday 3 December for the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland. Those dates already include a margin for December carrier loads.

Lade dein Foto hoch: Es erscheint sofort auf dem Produkt, mit Preis.

Mein Foto hochladen ✦Oder beschreib dein Motiv, die KI zeichnet es

Kalender ab inkl. Versand

Published 20 September 2026 · about 6 min read

Upload your photosYou see them on the calendar before you confirm. From , shipping included.

Printed to order, shipping included.

The short answerThe hard part is choosing twelve photos out of three hundred. The method that works: sort by month first, quality second — the best photo from each month of the year. You have twelve in ten minutes, and the calendar becomes the story of a year instead of a random gallery. The photo area is landscape (about 210 × 166 mm on A4) while most phone photos of animals are portrait, so prefer shots where the animal has room to its left and right. A4 for a kitchen or an office door, A3 for a wall read from across a room. It is a 14-page wall calendar on 250 gsm silk paper, ring bound, printed to order, shipping included. For Christmas 2026: order by 10 December in the EU, 3 December elsewhere.

1. The real problem: twelve photos out of three hundred

Everyone who owns an animal has hundreds of photos and no way to rank them. Trying to pick "the twelve best" is how this project stalls for three weeks, because every photo is the best one for a different reason.

Do it the other way round. Sort by month, not by quality. Open your camera roll, go to January, pick the best photo taken in January. Then February. Then March.

Two things happen. You are done in ten minutes, because each decision is between five photos instead of three hundred. And the calendar becomes a story: the snow in January, the first walk in the sun in April, the collapsed heap on the tiles in August. That is what makes people stop at each page, and it is something a random selection of twelve good photos never does.

If a month has nothing usable, borrow from the month beside it. Nobody checks.

2. Matching photos to months

Once you have twelve, spend two minutes on the order. A few pairings do most of the work: something snowy or indoors for January, something muddy for autumn, something asleep in a patch of light for July or August, and — if the animal arrived this year — the arrival photo on its actual month.

The December page is worth a thought too: it is the one that will still be on the wall when the calendar is taken down, so it is not the place for the weakest photo.

3. The photo area is landscape. Your photos are not.

This is the practical surprise. On the A4 calendar the photo sits above the dates, in a landscape area of roughly 210 × 166 mm. Phone photos of animals are almost always portrait, because that is how a phone is held.

So expect to crop, and choose accordingly:

Prefer photos where the animal has room to its left and right — lying down, walking past, sitting with something beside it.
A tight vertical shot of a sitting dog will lose either the head or the paws when cropped to landscape.
Photos taken in landscape from the start are the easiest, and they are usually the ones of the animal doing something rather than posing.

The preview shows the real crop for each month before you order, so there is no guessing.

4. A4 or A3: the question is the wall

Size	Where it works	Price
A4 — 21 × 29.7 cm (8.3 × 11.7 in)	A kitchen, the side of a fridge, an office door, a study. Places you stand within a metre of.
A3 — 29.7 × 42 cm (11.7 × 16.5 in)	A wall read from across a room. The photos become photographs rather than thumbnails — this is the version people notice.

If it is a gift and you do not know the wall, A3 is the safer choice: an A3 calendar in a small kitchen still works, whereas an A4 on a large living-room wall looks lost.

5. Resolution, in one sentence

Use the originals from the camera roll, not images pulled out of a chat. At A4 the photo area is about 21 cm wide, which needs roughly 2480 pixels across at 300 dpi — any recent phone clears it easily. What does not clear it is a photo that has been through a messaging app, a screenshot, or a download from a social platform. The site checks each photo on upload and tells you if one is too weak, before you pay.

6. Two animals, twelve months

Alternate them. Six months each, or arrange it by season if one of them is more photogenic in the snow and the other on a lawn. It works far better than hunting for twelve photos in which both happen to appear — those photos exist, but they are rarely the good ones.

7. The calendar of an animal that is no longer there

It is a common and often good idea, with one caveat worth saying plainly: a calendar is a year-long object. Twelve months of photos of an animal you have lost is a lot to commit to, and some people find in March that they cannot turn the page.

A single framed print is the gentler version — you look at it when you want to. If you are unsure, there is a separate page on keeping a trace of an animal that is no longer there.

8. What you receive, and when

A 2027 wall calendar, 14 pages, printed on 250 gsm silk coated paper, ring bound, with your photo above and the dates below. A4 is 21 × 29.7 cm (8.3 × 11.7 in), A3 is 29.7 × 42 cm (11.7 × 16.5 in).

It is printed to order by Gelato, as close as possible to the delivery address — an order delivered in Europe is printed in Europe. Count 5 to 10 working days in the UK, Europe and the US, up to 15 elsewhere, shipping included in the price shown.

For Christmas 2026, which falls on a Friday: order by Thursday 10 December for the European Union, and by Thursday 3 December for the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland. Those dates already include a margin — December is when carriers are most loaded.

In short

Choose by month, not by quality: twelve decisions instead of one impossible one.
The photo area is landscape — pick photos with room left and right.
A4 for close-up walls, A3 for a room. If unsure, A3.
Use the originals from the camera roll.
Two animals: alternate the months.
Christmas: 10 December in the EU, 3 December elsewhere.

Before you order, the preview is computed in your own browser and nothing is transmitted; the print file goes to the printer at payment and is deleted after dispatch. Personalised items are exempt from the standard European right of withdrawal (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 16(c)), and anything that arrives damaged is reprinted at no charge. You must hold the rights to the photos you upload.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose twelve photos out of three hundred?

Sort by month first, quality second: the best photo from each month of the year. You have twelve in ten minutes, and the calendar becomes the story of a year rather than a random gallery. If a month has nothing usable, borrow from the month next to it.

Are my portrait photos a problem?

They need cropping. The photo area is landscape, about 210 × 166 mm on A4, and most phone photos of animals are portrait. Prefer photos where the animal has room to its left and right.

A4 or A3?

It depends on the wall. A4 for a kitchen, a fridge side, an office door. A3 for a wall read from across a room — that is the one that makes the photos feel like photographs. If it is a gift and you do not know the wall, choose A3.

What exactly do I receive?

A 2027 wall calendar, 14 pages, on 250 gsm silk coated paper, ring bound, photo above and dates below. A4 is 21 × 29.7 cm (8.3 × 11.7 in), A3 is 29.7 × 42 cm (11.7 × 16.5 in). Printed to order, shipping included.

Can I use two animals across the twelve months?

Yes — alternating them month by month works better than trying to get both into every photo.

When is the deadline for Christmas 2026?

Thursday 10 December 2026 for the European Union, Thursday 3 December for the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland. Those dates already include a margin.

Upload your photos: you see each month before you confirm.

From , shipping included. Nothing is sent before you order.

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