Printable Graph Paper

How to print graph paper at the right size

1. Pick the grid. Squares for maths, charts and floor plans; a dot grid for bullet journals and sketching; isometric triangles or dots for 3D drawings; hexagons for game maps and chemistry; x-y axes for plotting graphs, with the numbers already on the lines.
2. Pick the spacing. The five buttons are the sizes people print most: 5 mm, 1 cm, 1/8 in, 1/4 in and 1/2 in. Custom takes any value from 2 mm to 50 mm, in millimetres or inches. Choosing a size also sets a sensible heavier line (every 2 lines at 5 mm, so you get centimetres; every 4 lines at 1/4 in, so you get inches); you can change it.
3. Pick the paper. A4, US Letter or A3, portrait or landscape. Browsers set to US or Canadian English start on Letter, everyone else on A4. The grid is never stretched to fill the page: it gets as many whole squares as fit inside the margin and is centred, so the left-over space is shared between the edges.
4. Download the PDF and print it at Actual size (100%). Then lay a ruler on the bar under the grid: it is exactly 5 cm long (2 inches when you chose inches). If it measures 5 cm, every square on the sheet is the size you asked for.

The PDF is vector: every line is placed at an exact multiple of the spacing, written in PDF points (1/72 inch), so 1/4 inch squares are 18 points apart and 5 mm squares 14.173 points apart, and they stay sharp at any zoom. You can put up to 10 identical pages in one PDF, enough for a homework pack or a notebook. The PNG is one sheet at 300 dpi with the resolution written into the file, for GoodNotes, Notability or a print shop. Nothing is uploaded: the paper is drawn by your browser.

Questions

How do I print graph paper true to scale?

In the print dialog choose 100% or “Actual size”: in Adobe Acrobat Reader it is under Page Sizing, in macOS Preview set Scale to 100%, and in Chrome or Edge set Scale to Default (or Custom, 100), never “Fit to printable area”. Also make sure the paper size in the dialog matches the PDF. The usual mistake is an A4 PDF printed “fit” onto US Letter: the printer shrinks it to 94%, the 5 cm bar comes out about 47 mm, and every 5 mm square becomes 4.7 mm. If the bar is wrong at 100%, look for “Shrink oversized pages” or a borderless setting in the printer’s own options.

What is the difference between 1/4 inch and 5 mm graph paper?

1/4 inch is 6.35 mm, so quarter-inch squares are 27% wider than 5 mm squares. Quarter-inch paper (4 squares to the inch) is the American standard for school maths and quad-ruled notebooks; 5 mm squares (2 to the centimetre) are the standard in Europe and most of the world. On US Letter with 10 mm margins you get 30 × 39 quarter-inch squares; on A4 you get 37 × 53 squares of 5 mm, or 18 × 26 squares of 1 cm. Use 1/8 inch or 5 mm for small handwriting and dense charts, 1/2 inch or 1 cm for young children and large diagrams.

Can I make graph paper with x and y axes and numbers?

Choose x-y axes. 4 quadrants puts the axes through the middle with negative numbers left and below, which is what algebra homework asks for (plot y = 2x − 3). 1 quadrant puts 0 in the bottom-left corner, for data that is never negative such as time and distance, and 2 quadrants puts 0 at the bottom centre. “Each square is” sets the scale: 0.5, 1, 2, 5 or 10 per square. Every number sits on its grid line, and when the squares are too small for every number to fit, the tool numbers every 2nd or 5th line instead.

How do I draw a floor plan at 1/4 inch = 1 foot?

Choose Squares at 1/4 in with a heavier line every 4. Each square is then one foot and each heavy square four feet, the usual architect’s scale of 1:48. A Letter sheet in landscape holds 40 × 29 squares, so a room up to 40 by 29 feet fits on one page; for a whole house use A3 (62 × 42 squares in landscape). In metric, 1 cm squares at 1:100 make each square 1 m, and 5 mm squares at 1:50 make each square 25 cm.

Is the dot grid good for a bullet journal?

Yes: 5 mm dot grid in grey or light blue with fine dots is the spacing most bullet journals use. The dots guide lettering, boxes and habit trackers without the clutter of full lines. Print A4 in landscape and cut it down the middle for two A5 pages, or choose a 15 mm margin if the sheets go into a ring binder.

Isometric or hexagon paper: which one do I need?

Isometric paper has vertical lines and lines at 30° either side, so the three edges of a cube follow the grid: it is for drawing 3D objects, LEGO and Minecraft builds, packaging nets and technical sketches. Iso dots give the same lattice with less ink. Hexagons are for board game and wargame maps, organic chemistry rings, patchwork (English paper piecing) and tile layouts. The spacing is the length of one side. Wargames often measure a hexagon across the flats instead, which is the side × 1.732: for 1 inch across the flats, enter a custom side of 0.577 in.

What does the tool not do?

It makes one kind of grid per sheet, with no title block, logarithmic or polar axes, or engineering paper with a ruled header. The PNG is a single sheet; A3 at 300 dpi is a 17-megapixel image that some phones cannot draw, and then the tool saves it at 200 dpi and tells you so.