The header row
Every PrintCalendars monthly grid opens with a dark slate header bar listing the seven days of the week. In the default Sunday-start layout, the row reads Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat. In the Monday-start layout, it reads Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun. The header is intentionally high-contrast so it remains legible on grayscale printers.
Date numbers and dim cells
Each cell shows the day-of-month number in the top-left corner. Cells that belong to the previous or following month — used to fill in the partial first and last weeks — are shown in a lighter gray ("dim" in our CSS) so they remain visible without competing with the current month's dates. Day-of-week assignments for the dim cells are correct, so you can use them as look-ahead context.
Federal-holiday shading
Federal holidays are shaded in a soft amber gradient (light at the top, slightly deeper at the bottom). The cell name and the holiday name appear inside the cell. The shading is the same color across all eleven federal holidays so the visual language is consistent.
Observance shading
Common school observances (back-to-school night, conferences, picture day, end of quarter) are shaded in a lighter wheat tone — softer than the federal-holiday amber, but still distinguishable from a regular weekday. Observances are not federal closures; they are scheduling reference points only.
The print rules
The print stylesheet hides the site header, the site footer, and any "no-print" controls (the layout switcher, the print button, the next/previous navigation). What remains is the date header, the calendar grid, and any prose annotations underneath. The result is a clean printable surface with no chrome — exactly what you'd see if a calendar publisher had typeset the page for paper.
Layout variants
Three layout variants are available for every month: portrait Sunday-start (the default), portrait Monday-start, and landscape (Sunday-start, with wider day cells suited to writing assignments). The variants are visually different but all use the same federal-holiday shading and the same observance shading, so users can switch layouts without re-learning the visual conventions.