A year on a page calendar

year_on_a_page.R

library(tidyverse)
library(lubridate)
library(forcats)

first_date <- "2024-09-01"  # Should work well for any date
first_date <- ymd(first_date)

dates <- tibble(date = first_date + days(-13:372)) %>%
  mutate(dow = weekdays(date))
dates <- dates %>%
  mutate(is_sunday = dow == "Sunday",
         sundays = cumsum(is_sunday)) %>%
  filter(sundays > 0)
dates <- dates %>%
  add_count(sundays) %>%
  filter(n == 7) %>%
  dplyr::select(-n)

dates <- dates %>%
  mutate(dom = day(date),
         to_print = dom,
         alt_print = month(date, label = TRUE, abbr = TRUE),
         to_print = ifelse(dom == 1, as.character(alt_print), as.character(to_print)),
         to_print = ifelse(alt_print == "Jan" & dom == 1, year(date), to_print),
         to_print = ifelse(sundays == 1, as.character(dow), to_print),
         text_col = ifelse(sundays == 1, gray(1/7), gray(6/7)),
         text_col = ifelse(alt_print == "Jan" & dom == 1, gray(1/7), text_col),
         border_col = ifelse(dom == 1, gray(1/7), gray(6/7)),
         border_col = ifelse(sundays == 1, "transparent", border_col),
         border_lwd = ifelse(dom == 1, 7/7, 1/7),
         dow = fct_inorder(dow))

# Not currently used
caption <- with(dates, paste0(year(first_date), "-", year(first_date)+1))

dates %>%
  arrange(-dom) %>%
  ggplot() +
  aes(x = dow, y = sundays, label = to_print, color = border_col) +
  geom_text(aes(colour = text_col),
            family = "mono", fontface = "bold", size = 7) +
  geom_tile(aes(lwd = border_lwd),
            fill = "transparent") +
  scale_colour_identity() +
  scale_linewidth_identity() +
  scale_y_reverse(NULL, breaks = NULL, expand = c(0.01, 0.01)) +
  theme_void() +
  theme(plot.margin = grid::unit(c(0, 0, 0, 0), "in"))

ggsave(plot = last_plot(), h = 17, w = 11, filename = "Year on a page.pdf")

This produces a PDF, which looks like this

and is designed to be printed on tabloid (11" × 17") paper. The idea is to just highlight major events, not specific meetings, etc.

You can change the starting date and all of the cosmetic stuff. It's pretty straightforward.