CalendarMaker-MAUI

CalendarMaker-MAUI is a cross-platform desktop application built with .NET MAUI that allows users to create beautiful, customizable photo calendars. Design professional monthly calendars with your photos, customize layouts, and export high-quality PDFs ready for printing.

Version 0.4 Features

Calendar Creation

• Monthly Calendar Generation: Create calendars with 12 customizable monthly pages
• Flexible Start Month: Begin your calendar from any month of the year
• First Day of Week: Choose between Sunday or Monday as the first day
• Year Selection: Create calendars for any year (1900-2100)
• Double-Sided Calendars: Yearly calendars that will print front and back (current version always starts in January and also shows the previous year December)

Photo Management

• Multiple Photo Layouts: Choose from 6 different photo arrangements per page:
  • Single photo (full photo area)
  • Two photos (vertical split)
  • Four photos (2×2 grid)
  • Two photos (horizontal stack)
  • Three photos (2 left, 1 right)
  • Three photos (1 left, 2 right)
• Cover Pages: Front and back cover support with multi-photo layouts
• Photo Slots: Assign different photos to each slot in multi-photo layouts
• Pan & Zoom: Adjust photo positioning and zoom level (0.5× to 3×) independently for each photo
• Smart Photo Management: Reuse photos across multiple months and slots
• Photo Import: Easily import multiple photos at once

Layout Customization

• Flexible Page Layouts: Four layout configurations:
  • Photo Top / Calendar Bottom
  • Photo Bottom / Calendar Top
  • Photo Left / Calendar Right
  • Photo Right / Calendar Left
• Adjustable Split Ratio: Control the space allocation between photos and calendar (30%-70%)
• Visual Designer: Interactive canvas with live preview of your calendar pages
• Page Navigation: Easily navigate between cover pages and all 12 months

Page Sizes & Export

• Multiple Page Sizes:
  • 5×7 inches
  • Letter (8.5×11 inches)
  • Tabloid/Ledger (11×17 inches)
  • Super B (13×19 inches)
• High-Quality PDF Export: Export at 300 DPI for professional printing
• Flexible Export Options:
  • Export individual months
  • Export front cover only
  • Export back cover only
  • Export complete year (all pages)
• Progress Tracking: Visual progress indicator for multi-page exports
• Parallel Rendering: Fast export using optimized parallel processing

Project Management

• Multiple Projects: Create and manage multiple calendar projects
• Project Persistence: All projects saved locally using SQLite.
• Asset Management: Photos organized per-project with efficient storage.

Advanced Features

• Slot-Based Photo Assignment: Assign different photos to specific slots in multi-photo layouts
• Independent Photo Controls: Each photo slot has its own pan and zoom settings
• Interactive Slot Selection: Click to select active slot, double-click to assign photos
• Visual Slot Indicators: Blue borders highlight the currently selected slot
• Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows): Arrow keys to adjust pan position
• Responsive UI: Smooth canvas rendering with touch and mouse support

Privacy First

• Completely Offline: No internet connection required
• Local Storage: All data and photos stored locally on your device. 100% privacy.
• No Telemetry: Your privacy is respected - no data collection

Getting Started

Prerequisites

To build and run CalendarMaker-MAUI, you'll need:

1. .NET 10 SDK

   • Download and install from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/10.0
   • Verify installation: dotnet --version (should show 10.0.x)

2. Visual Studio 2022 (17.13 or later)

   • Download from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/
   • Required for Windows development

3. .NET MAUI Workload

   • Install via Visual Studio Installer:

     • Open Visual Studio Installer
     • Click "Modify" on your Visual Studio installation
     • Under "Workloads" tab, check ".NET Multi-platform App UI development"
     • Click "Modify" to install

   • Or install via command line:

     dotnet workload install maui

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/SpeakingInBits/CalendarMaker-MAUI.git
   cd CalendarMaker-MAUI

2. Open in Visual Studio

   • Open CalendarMaker-MAUI.sln in Visual Studio 2022
   • Build project to restore NuGet packages for NuGet packages

3. Select target platform

   • In the toolbar, select your target platform:
     • Windows: net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0 (Only supported platform currently)
     • Android: net10.0-android
     • iOS: net10.0-ios
     • Mac Catalyst: net10.0-maccatalyst

4. Build and run

   • Press F5 or click the "Start" button
     • Or build from command line:

     dotnet build
     dotnet run --framework net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0

Platform-Specific Notes

• Windows: Fully supported and tested. Primary development platform.
• Android: Not tested yet; build should succeed but functionality may be limited.
• iOS/Mac: Not tested.

Project Structure

CalendarMaker-MAUI/
├── CalendarMaker-MAUI/
│   ├── Models/          # Data models
│   ├── Services/        # Business logic and rendering
│   ├── Views/           # UI pages and components
│   ├── Resources/       # Images, fonts, styles
│   └── MauiProgram.cs   # App configuration and DI
├── README.md

Dependencies

• Microsoft.Maui.Controls: Cross-platform UI framework
• CommunityToolkit.Maui: Additional MAUI controls and helpers
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm: MVVM infrastructure
• SkiaSharp.Views.Maui: Canvas rendering for live preview
• QuestPDF: High-quality PDF generation

Usage

1. Create a New Project

   • Launch the app and click "Create New Project"
   • Set your calendar year and start month
   • Choose page size and orientation
   • Select default layout preferences

2. Add Photos

   • Click "Add Photo" to import photos into your project
   • Navigate between months using Previous/Next buttons
   • Navigate to covers using the page navigation

3. Customize Layouts

   • Choose photo layout for each page (single, 2-photo, 4-photo, etc.)
   • Select active photo slot by clicking on it
   • Double-click a slot to assign a photo
   • Adjust split ratio between photo and calendar areas
   • Use zoom slider to adjust each photo independently

4. Export Your Calendar

   • Export individual months or covers
   • Export complete year with all pages
   • Choose export location
   • PDFs are generated at 300 DPI for professional printing

Roadmap

Future enhancements planned:

• Event management (single and recurring events)
• US federal holidays overlay
• Additional photo layouts and collages
• Drag-and-drop photo import
• Project import/export as ZIP
• Custom fonts per project
• Theming options per project
• Possible multi-platform support (Mac, iOS, Android)
• WYSIWYG designer improvements

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Whether it's bug reports, feature requests, or code contributions, your help is appreciated.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Contributors

Thanks to all the amazing people who have contributed to this project!

Made with contrib.rocks.