Calendar

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception & use cases

  • Many commenters like the clean, single-page, year-at-a-glance layout.
  • Popular use cases: habit tracking (gym, reading, diet), family scheduling, “big picture” yearly planning, and even novelty gifts (e.g., highlighting one special date).
  • Some appreciate that it’s deliberately “boring” and minimal, valuing it as a printable analogue complement to digital tools.

Layout, readability, and feature requests

  • Several people find the day cells too small for handwriting and ask for options: 1–3 months per page, quarterly layouts, or multi-page spreads.
  • Requests to align weekends across months are frequent; the layout=aligned-weekdays mode is highlighted as a partial answer.
  • Confusion over single-letter weekday abbreviations (T/T and S/S) leads to suggestions: two-letter abbreviations, using “R” for Thursday, or entirely different naming systems.
  • Some want localization options for month/day names and support for different weekend definitions (sofshavua=1 for Fri–Sat).

Printing behavior & technical issues

  • A recurring complaint: the large info modal cannot be closed in some browsers; users learn it disappears in print preview, which seems unintuitive to some.
  • Reports of margins being off or rows cut off, especially in Firefox and with minimum font-size settings; some suggest SVG or PDF output for more predictable results.
  • Android Chrome printing errors are reported; Firefox on Android works better for at least one user.
  • Several comments spin off into technical discussion of print CSS, browser quirks, and when HTML+CSS is vs. isn’t suitable for precise layout.

Variants, forks, and alternative tools

  • Multiple similar tools are shared: aligned-weekday layouts, “Hallon-almanackan”-style Swedish calendars, Danish/Scandinavian PDF generators, a collaborative web calendar, and an enhanced JavaScript clone with URL parameters and localization presets.
  • Others mention using Google Sheets or large physical dry-erase wall calendars to achieve a similar “big year” overview.
  • A few promote more granular planners (one-page-per-day apps) as a contrasting philosophy.

Analogue vs digital & meta discussion

  • Debate arises over the value of paper vs cloud calendars: some see paper as obsolete, others cite cognitive and focus benefits of handwriting.
  • There’s broader reflection on productivity systems—some rely on detailed planning tools; others describe simplifying routines and abandoning complex systems.
  • One commenter dismisses the tool as unnecessary “YAGNI”; others counter that simple, tangible aids still solve real problems for many people.