Daily sheet, monthly sheet, table, die-cut and foil calendars in the seven sizes the Sivakasi trade actually names — with the minimum order, the paper, the lead time and the per-piece band published before you enquire.
In short
Calendar printing in Sivakasi starts at a MOQ of 500 pieces. A 12-sheet 15×20 in wall calendar on 100 GSM art paper with a 250 GSM backing runs ₹18–₹32 per piece at 5,000 units, with a 12–18 day production lead time ex-Sivakasi counted from artwork approval and 50% advance.
Reviewed 20 September 2026 · rate bands and the season timeline re-checked every August, before the calendar cycle opens
Eleven calendar formats, five quantity tiers, one table. This is the matrix Surya Offset publishes only as a PDF and iPrintZone answers with two prices. Every figure is 4-colour, ex-factory, on the paper named in the row.
| Calendar type & size | 500 pcs | 1,000 pcs | 5,000 pcs | 10,000 pcs | 50,000 pcs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chutti 5 × 15 inDaily sheet, 365 leaves, 250 GSM backing | ₹34 – 50 | ₹26 – 38 | ₹16 – 26 | ₹13 – 21 | ₹10 – 17 |
| Super 10 × 15 inDaily sheet, the Tamil panchangam standard | ₹46 – 68 | ₹34 – 52 | ₹22 – 34 | ₹18 – 28 | ₹14 – 22 |
| Daily 12 × 18 inLarge daily sheet, shop and office wall | ₹58 – 86 | ₹44 – 66 | ₹28 – 44 | ₹23 – 36 | ₹18 – 29 |
| Regular 11 × 17 in3-sheeter monthly, 100 GSM art paper | ₹22 – 36 | ₹16 – 27 | ₹10 – 17 | ₹8 – 14 | ₹6 – 11 |
| Day-Month 15 × 20 in6-sheeter monthly, 100 GSM art paper | ₹40 – 62 | ₹30 – 47 | ₹19 – 31 | ₹16 – 26 | ₹12 – 20 |
| Day-Month 15 × 20 in12-sheeter, 100 GSM art + 250 GSM backing | ₹38 – 64 | ₹28 – 48 | ₹18 – 32 | ₹15 – 27 | ₹12 – 21 |
| 17 × 27 in12-sheeter, 100–130 GSM art paper | ₹62 – 98 | ₹47 – 74 | ₹30 – 49 | ₹25 – 41 | ₹20 – 33 |
| Realart 20 × 30 inSingle or 3-sheeter, 130 GSM art paper | ₹95 – 150 | ₹72 – 115 | ₹46 – 76 | ₹38 – 63 | ₹30 – 50 |
| Great 14 × 24 inDie-cut shaped calendar, 250 GSM art card | ₹56 – 92 | ₹42 – 70 | ₹27 – 46 | ₹22 – 38 | ₹18 – 30 |
| Giant 14 × 40 in6-sheeter, full-drop wall calendar | ₹78 – 124 | ₹59 – 94 | ₹38 – 62 | ₹31 – 51 | ₹25 – 41 |
| Table A5 / 8 × 10 in13-sheeter, 210–300 GSM art card, wiro | ₹58 – 92 | ₹44 – 70 | ₹28 – 45 | ₹24 – 38 | ₹19 – 31 |
| Mini 6 × 8 inPocket / gift card calendar, 250 GSM art card | ₹14 – 26 | ₹11 – 20 | ₹7 – 13 | ₹6 – 11 | ₹4.50 – 9 |
A calendar order below 500 pieces pays for plates and make-ready across too few sheets. At 200 pieces the plate and setup cost alone is more than the paper and ink, and a digital press or a large-format inkjet shop will beat us on price and beat us on turnaround. Printo, Vistaprint and any local digital shop are the right answer at that quantity. Say what you need and we will tell you honestly which side of 500 you are on before either of us spends an afternoon on it.
Ask a Sivakasi press for a “Super” and nobody blinks. Ask for a “254 × 381 mm daily sheet” and you will be asked what that is in inches. These names are used across the cluster, appear on Rishi Calendars' product page and on nobody else's website, and have never been written out in English with their metric equivalents. Here they are.
| Trade name | Inches | Millimetres | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 6 × 8 in | 152 × 203 mm | Gift, pocket and counter-top card calendars; often a single sheet with a stand |
| ChuttiTamil: “small” | 5 × 15 in | 127 × 381 mm | The narrow daily sheet. Cheapest full-year calendar in the trade; 365 tear-off leaves |
| Super | 10 × 15 in | 254 × 381 mm | The Tamil daily panchangam standard — the size most South Indian homes hang |
| Regular | 11 × 17 in | 279 × 432 mm | Three and four-sheeter monthly wall calendars; the corporate entry size |
| Day-Month | 15 × 20 in | 381 × 508 mm | Six and twelve-sheeter monthly calendars. Biggest single seller for bank and co-operative gifting |
| Great | 14 × 24 in | 356 × 610 mm | Die-cut and shaped calendars; the size Sivakasi cuts deities, vehicles and product shapes from |
| Giant | 14 × 40 in | 356 × 1,016 mm | Full-drop 6-sheeter. Needs a 20 × 30 in press sheet plus a second pass — priced accordingly |
Format decides the plate count and the finishing line, which is what actually moves your per-piece price. Size only decides how many pieces fit on a 20 × 30 in press sheet.
365 dated leaves glued on a printed header and mounted on a 250–300 GSM backing card. The Tamil panchangam calendar is this format — Super 10×15 or Chutti 5×15. Leaves print 1 or 2 colours on 42–50 GSM newsprint or maplitho; only the header panel carries your 4-colour branding.
The corporate wall calendar. A 12-sheeter gives one month per leaf and twelve images; a 6-sheeter puts two months on a leaf and halves your paper. 100 GSM art paper is standard, 130 GSM if the images matter, on a 250 GSM backing with a metal rim or a rope hanger.
13-sheeter wiro-bound on 210–300 GSM art card with an easel back, A5 or 8×10 in. The highest-margin calendar per piece and the one corporates reorder, because it sits on a desk for twelve months at eye level.
Great 14×24 is the Sivakasi die-cut size — deities, vehicles, bottles, product silhouettes cut on a steel-rule die. Add ₹0.40–₹1.20 per piece for the die itself, amortised across the run, plus a one-time die-making charge of ₹3,500–₹9,000 depending on the shape.
Foil-laminated board printed and embossed for a metallic finish — Rishi's Regular, Great, Diamond and Platinum foil grades are the trade's names for it. Realart means a heavier 130 GSM art paper with fuller ink coverage, usually 20×30 in.
A printed sheet mounted on PVC foam board, 3 mm or 5 mm. Rigid, does not curl in humidity, lasts the year in a workshop or a godown. Priced by board area, not by sheet count, and it does not travel cheaply — freight is a real line on a foam calendar order.
Three different papers go into one wall calendar and buyers routinely specify only one of them. Here is what each part is, and what happens if you go lighter.
| Part | Standard spec | Lighter option | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly calendar leaf | 100 GSM art paper | 80 GSM art paper | Saves roughly 6–9% of the per-piece cost. Below 100 GSM the image on the next leaf shows through on a light-coloured month panel |
| Daily calendar leaf | 45–50 GSM maplitho | 42 GSM newsprint | Saves 4–7%. Newsprint yellows by October and tears when the leaf is pulled off in humid weather |
| Backing card | 250 GSM art card | 210 GSM art card | Saves 3–5%. Below 250 GSM a 15 × 20 in calendar bows on the nail within a month |
| Table calendar leaf | 250 GSM art card | 210 GSM art card | Saves 5–8%. Below 210 GSM the leaf will not stand up on the easel by itself |
| Die-cut calendar | 250–300 GSM art card | — | Die-cutting below 250 GSM tears at the corners on the stripping station |
| Foil / realart | Foil-laminated 250 GSM board | — | Foil board is bought in, so the price tracks the board rate rather than our press time |
Calendar season is not a preference, it is a queue. The month you place the order decides both what you pay and whether the finishing line can take it.
| You order in | What is realistic | Price effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April – June 2027 | Any size, any finish, any quantity | Bottom of the band | Paper booked at the pre-season rate, presses idle, die-making unhurried. This is the correct month |
| July 2027 | Any size, most finishes | Bottom to middle | Last comfortable window for foil, die-cut and 50,000+ runs |
| August 2027 | Standard sizes and finishes | Middle of the band | Peak begins. Foil and die-cut slots start closing |
| September 2027 | Standard sizes, plain finishes | Middle to top | Delivery before 15 December still safe for runs up to 25,000 |
| October 2027 | Daily sheet and plain monthly only | Top of the band | Overtime rates. Die-cut and foil realistically closed |
| November 2027 | Reprints and house-stock overprints | Top, plus freight premium | We will usually decline new 4-colour work rather than miss your date |
| December 2027 | Nothing new | — | Honest answer: buy house-stock calendars with an overprinted header panel, or plan for 2028 |
A calendar is a local product pretending to be a national one. The date grid is universal; almost nothing else on the sheet is. We set Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English editions from the same base artwork, and the work is not translation — it is re-typesetting, because a Tamil month panel needs roughly 18% more vertical space than the English equivalent at the same point size, and Malayalam conjuncts need more again.
Religious editions matter more than language for daily sheet calendars. A Hindu panchangam sheet carries tithi, nakshatra, rahu kalam, yamagandam and the muhurtham marks for the day; a Christian edition carries the liturgical calendar and feast days; a Muslim edition runs the Hijri date alongside the Gregorian. These are different data sets, not different fonts, and they are supplied by the almanac source you nominate. We print what you approve on the proof — we do not author panchangam data, and any press that says it does is overstating what happens on a press floor.
For corporate buyers the practical consequence is this: if you are gifting across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, you are buying three editions, not one. Plates are per edition. Below roughly 1,500 pieces per edition the plate cost stops amortising and the total lands above what a single-language run of the same total quantity would cost. Say so at the enquiry stage and we will tell you whether to split the run or standardise on English.
Size, sheeter count, GSM, language edition, hanger type, quantity and delivery pincode. Per-piece band back within 1 working day.
We preflight for 3 mm bleed, 300 dpi and CMYK, then send a digital proof of every leaf. A hard proof or a paper dummy goes by courier in 2–3 days if the images matter.
Written proof approval plus 50% advance. Thermal CTP plates are made the same day; paper is drawn from stock or ordered against your GSM.
4-colour run, then collating, punching, eyelet or rim fitting, backing card mounting and hanger. Die-cut and foil add 2–4 days at this stage.
Bundles of 25 or 50, shrink-wrapped, in 5-ply cartons. Balance 50% before loading. Transport across India 2–7 days.
500 pieces per design and per language edition. Below 500 the plate and make-ready cost does not amortise and digital printing is genuinely cheaper — we will tell you so rather than quote. Surya Offset publishes a 100-piece minimum; at that quantity you are paying a setup charge dressed up as a unit price.
A 12-sheeter at 15 × 20 in on 100 GSM art paper with a 250 GSM backing runs ₹38–₹64 at 500 pieces, ₹18–₹32 at 5,000 and ₹12–₹21 at 50,000. The fall between 500 and 5,000 is plate and make-ready cost spreading across more sheets, not a discount.
Mini 6 × 8 in, Chutti 5 × 15 in, Super 10 × 15 in, Regular 11 × 17 in, Great 14 × 24 in, Giant 14 × 40 in and Day-Month 15 × 20 in. Table calendars run A5 or 8 × 10 in and daily sheets also come in 12 × 18 in. Those seven trade names are used across the cluster and are listed in full on this page.
By 1 June 2027 for the bottom of the price band and a free choice of finish. Between 60% and 70% of the cluster's annual enquiries land between August and November, and foil and die-cut slots close first. An October order can still be delivered before 15 December for plain monthly calendars up to 25,000 pieces, but at the top of the band.
Yes, but they are separate plates and separate runs. Tamil needs about 18% more vertical space in the month panel than English at the same point size, so the grid is re-typeset rather than translated. Below roughly 1,500 pieces per edition the plate cost stops amortising and a single-language run works out cheaper.
No. Tithi, nakshatra, rahu kalam and muhurtham marks come from the almanac source you nominate, and we print exactly what you approve on the proof. Any press claiming to author panchangam data is overstating what happens on a press floor. We will typeset it, lay it out and proof it leaf by leaf.
₹0.40–₹1.20 per piece for the cutting itself, plus a one-time steel-rule die charge of ₹3,500–₹9,000 depending on shape complexity. The die is yours and is stored for repeat orders, so a second-year reprint carries only the per-piece cost. Die-cutting needs 250 GSM board or heavier.
Yes, and it is a large part of what Sivakasi ships. House-stock daily sheet and monthly calendars leave the header panel blank for your own screen or offset overprint. It is the only sensible route in October and November, when a fresh 4-colour run cannot make a December date.
Bundles of 25 or 50, shrink-wrapped, in 5-ply corrugated cartons, palletised for export. A 15 × 20 in 12-sheeter carton of 100 pieces weighs roughly 22–26 kg. Foam and PVC calendars are bulky rather than heavy and are freighted on volume, which is why they cost more to ship than to print.
Bands on this page are ex-factory Sivakasi and exclude GST and freight. Printed calendars are classified under HSN 4911 in chapter 49, and GST is shown as its own line on the invoice so corporate and institutional buyers can claim input credit. Terms are 50% advance, 50% before dispatch.
Product, quantity, size and GSM. A person who has stood at the press replies within 1 working day — WhatsApp or email, in Tamil, English or Hindi.