A few years ago I found a PostScript file, at an FTP site, that would produce a calendar on a dodecahedron. You just cut and paste it together. The file is deskcal.ps. It's readable text. You just edit the year and print to a PostScript printer.
If you don't have a PostScript printer, there are other options for viewing and printing PostScript files on a variety of computer systems. One possibility is to try the PDF versions of the calendars provided in the table below. Just be aware that you don't want your PDF viewing program to "Fit to page". For instance, from Acrobat 4.0 on a Mac , choose File/Print. Then click on the "General" label on a pull down menu to select "Acrobat 4.0" settings. There you can uncheck the option. Further PDF tips are available.
Not only are they spiffy additions to your own desk, but they can also be used for impromptu gifts (so said a nice lady from Michigan).
I decided to improve the calendar for the year 2000. I made the calendar as large as possible (for 8.5x11 paper). The dodecahedron is now 12.5% larger, and the calendar text is now 25% larger.
| I am aware that the U.S. and Canada are stuck in the past with regard to paper sizes... cf. International Standard Paper Sizes. I will strive to offer solutions for A4 and A3 at or before the next time I update the offerings here. |
2002 and beyond - rotated the comments by 90 degrees and enlarged the layout by another 5 percent.
Note: a few of the tabs might get clipped when printed. This is not a problem, as the tabs don't appear on the outside of the assembled polyhedron. Simply pretend the lines are there when cutting. Also, the Liquid Paper in the picture is just there for size comparison. It's about 2 13/16" or 7.2cm in height.
I have heard of people getting stiff paper jammed in photocopiers. Regular printer or photocopier paper should do fine, unless you'll be playing basketball with the calendar.
Tips: (1) After cutting, I recommend doing all the folding next. (2) To get
accurate edges between faces, try lining up the vertices of the adjacent
pentagons when folding. Holding the paper up to a light source helps.
(3) Wash hands before gluing to avoid gray smudges.
(4) Glue and attach the tabs that match the untabbed face last.
Since this program in PostScript uses a generic polyhedron procedure, it is possible feed it the data necessary to generate all the Platonic solids. You could even do semi-regular polyhedra, such as the cuboctahedron and truncated tetrahedron: PS | PDF, or the truncated octahedron: PS | PDF.
Here's a PostScript file with the remaining 4 Platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube or hexahedron, octahedron, icosahedron): PS | PDF. The edges are the same length as those of the dodecahedron calendar.
Here also is a non-calendar dodecadron.
An interesting enhancement would be to produce regular polyhedra that would all fit inside the same sphere. This could be done by adjusting the side length of each polyhedron (using a bit of geometry and/or trigonometry as a guide). The challenge is in working out the side lengths of such regular polyhedra. The best approach I have found is to focus on a set of faces that share a vertex and their relation to the center of the circumscribed sphere.
Groovy: The original programmer has made the calendar available in different languages, starting a week off on either Monday or Sunday, and a choice of PostScript or PDF output. polyeder.ps and deskcal
While not placed on a dodecahedron, this idea does have the connection of being calendar related and implemented through PostScript: Chinese Zodiac spiral