Graph Paper Generator

How to make your graph paper

1. Choose the square size. Tap a preset such as 1/4 in, 1/5 in or 5 mm, or type any size from 1 mm to 6 in. Fractions (3/16), mixed numbers (1 1/4) and values with their own unit (6 mm in an inch box) all work.
2. Choose the page. Letter, Legal, Tabloid, A3, A4, A5 or a custom size, portrait or landscape, and the margins. Only whole squares are drawn, and the grid is centred in the space the margins leave.
3. Style the lines. Light blue or grey lines stay out of the way of pencil; black copies better. Add a heavier line every few squares to mark inches or centimetres, a medium line between them, a border, or x and y axes with numbers.
4. Add what the page is for. A header with Name, Date and Class lines; a lined notes column beside the grid; or a page that is half lined and half graph, like a lab notebook.
5. Download or print. The PDF holds up to 50 identical pages. Print it at 100% and check the ruler at the foot of the sheet. Copy link puts every setting in a link you can save or send to a class.

Which square size?

Graph paper is named by its squares per inch in the US and by the square size in millimetres almost everywhere else. The counts below are what the generator fits on a portrait sheet with its starting margins (1/2 in on Letter, 10 mm on A4), drawn by the same code as the PDF:

Squares across × down, with no heavier lines. With "Whole heavy squares only" on, the grid is trimmed to whole heavy blocks, so 1/4 in squares with a heavy line every inch give 28 × 40 on Letter.

There is no single standard square. Quad ruling (1/4 in) is the most common US school pad, 1/5 in is the ruling of engineering computation pads, and 5 mm is the squared paper of European exercise books. The graph paper sizes guide explains where each comes from and when the near misses, such as 1/5 in against 5 mm, matter.

What people use it for

• Maths class. Graphing functions, plotting points and drawing shapes for area and perimeter. The coordinate-plane setup (axes through the centre, numbered) gives 30 × 40 squares of 1/4 in on Letter, so x runs from −15 to 15 and y from −20 to 20.
• Floor plans and scale drawings. At the common architectural scale of 1/4 in = 1 ft (1:48), each 1/4 in square is a foot, so one Letter sheet holds a 30 × 40 ft plan. At 1/8 in = 1 ft (1:96) the 1/8 in grid covers 60 × 80 ft. In metric, 1 cm squares at 1:100 are a metre each: 19 × 27 m on A4.
• Engineering and science. Calculations, free-body diagrams and lab plots on 1/5 in or 1/10 in squares, usually in light green or blue with a heavier line every inch. Plotting on 2 mm or 1 mm paper with centimetre lines is the metric equivalent.
• Crafts. Quilt blocks drafted at 1/4 in or 1/8 in per square, cross-stitch and needlepoint charts on 1/10 in squares with a heavy line every 10 for counting, and pixel art, mosaics and perler-bead patterns square by square. Knitters should note that a knit stitch is usually wider than it is tall, so a colourwork motif charted on square paper comes out a little squat when knitted.
• Planning and journaling. Garden beds, room layouts, game maps and bullet-journal spreads. For a lighter page that still keeps you straight, try dot grid paper.

Lines, colours and weights

The default is a 0.5 pt light blue line, which is visible but fades behind pencil and ink. Grey suits photocopied worksheets; black at 0.25 to 0.35 pt suits fine grids that have to survive a scanner; engineering green imitates the classic computation pad. On 1/8 in and finer grids, keep the minor lines thin (0.3 pt or so) and let the heavier inch or centimetre lines carry the structure, or the page turns grey. Non-photo blue is the pale blue artists use for guidelines they don't want to show when line work is scanned in black and white.

Two patterns on one page

Under Layout, choose two parts side by side or top and bottom. Graph paper with a lined column for notes beside it suits problem sets and lab write-ups; a page that is lined above and graph below suits science notebooks; a blank part gives room for a sketch. Each part gets whole cells of its own pattern, and the header, if you add one, runs across the top of both.

Printing it at true size

A PDF is only true to scale if the printer doesn't resize it. In the print dialog, set the scale to Actual size or 100% and load paper the same size as the sheet. Then measure the bar at the foot of the sheet: it is exactly 4 in on inch paper and 10 cm on metric paper. The bar checks the width; to check the other direction, measure a long run of squares down the page. On the starting Letter sheet the 40 rows of 1/4 in squares should measure 10 in from the top line to the bottom line; on A4, 54 rows of 5 mm squares should measure 270 mm.

If the bar comes out around 3 3/4 in, the page was shrunk to fit the printer's margins. If it is within about 1/32 in, that is the printer's own small error. The guide to printing at actual size covers both, with settings for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Adobe Acrobat.