Printable Graph Paper

Print graph paper in square, isometric, dot or hexagonal grids. Any spacing in mm or inches, A4 or Letter, drawn in millimetres so it prints true to size.


38 by 55 cells at 5 mm spacing. Print at 100 percent for true size.

Four grids, four jobs

A square grid is the everyday one: plotting graphs, working in coordinates, keeping arithmetic in neat columns. Isometric replaces it with a triangular lattice so you can draw solid objects in three dimensions without any perspective construction. A dot grid keeps the same lattice but shows only the intersections, which guides your hand without leaving printed lines behind your drawing, and is why bullet journals use it. Hexagonal paper suits organic chemistry rings, tile based games and anything that needs six neighbours instead of four.

Choosing a square size

Metric school paper is almost always 5 mm, which gives 38 by 55 squares on an A4 sheet, with 10 mm used for younger pupils who need the room. Imperial paper is sold by fractions of an inch: 1/4 inch is the common quad ruled size, 1/5 inch is the usual choice for graphs, and 1/10 inch is the engineering standard because it maps straight onto decimal readings. Below about 2 mm the lines start to compete with your pencil, so drop the spacing only when the drawing really needs it.

How isometric paper works

The grid is built from equilateral triangles, drawn as vertical lines crossed by two sets of diagonals at 30 degrees to the horizontal. Those three directions stand in for the three axes of a solid object, so a cube becomes three rhombuses meeting at a point and every edge stays the same length as it would in reality. Nothing shrinks with distance, which is exactly the trade: measurements survive, but the drawing never looks the way an eye or a camera sees. That is why it is the standard for engineering and product sketches rather than for pictures.

Printing at true size

The sheet is drawn in millimetres and printed as vector artwork, so a 5 mm square measures 5 mm on paper as long as you print at 100 percent. In the print dialog turn off fit to page or shrink oversized pages, since both quietly scale the sheet down by a few percent and ruin the measurement. Picking the paper size here that matches what is in the tray avoids the problem entirely. If you are checking, measure ten squares rather than one, because a small error is far easier to see multiplied by ten.

Worth knowing

  • Print at 100 percent, not fit to page, or the squares will not be the size shown.
  • A heavier line every 5 or 10 squares makes counting across a large graph much faster.
  • Grey lines photocopy more cleanly than blue and use less ink.
  • Dot grid leaves no lines behind your drawing, so it suits ink work and journals.
  • Nothing is stored. The sheet is drawn on our server and discarded as soon as it is sent.

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on the spacing. On A4 portrait with a 10 mm margin, this tool fits 38 by 55 squares at 5 mm, 19 by 27 at 10 mm, and 95 by 138 at 2 mm. The exact count for whatever you have chosen appears under the options every time you change a setting, so there is no need to work it out.

In metric countries 5 mm is the school standard, with 10 mm for younger children. Paper sold in inches uses fractions instead: 1/4 inch is the common quad ruled size, 1/5 inch is usual for graphs, and 1/10 inch is the engineering standard. This tool takes either unit, so you can ask for 5 mm or 0.25 in and get exactly that.

Drawing three dimensional objects without perspective. The triangular grid gives you three drawing axes at 120 degrees to each other, so cubes, pipework and product shapes can be sketched with every edge kept to scale. Engineers, architecture students and technical drawing classes use it, and so do people mapping dungeons or building in voxel games.

It marks the intersections of a square grid without drawing the lines. You still get the alignment help when you want it, but the finished page shows your drawing rather than a cage around it. That is why bullet journals, hand lettering and ink sketching favour it. Any spacing that works as squares works as dots, and 5 mm is the usual journal size.

Yes, and that is the point of drawing it in millimetres. Choose the paper size that matches your printer tray, set scale to 100 percent, and turn off fit to page. A 5 mm square will then measure 5 mm with a ruler. If it does not, the print dialog scaled it, which is nearly always the fit to page setting rather than the printer.

Chemistry, mostly. Benzene rings and other cyclic structures are hexagons, so the grid draws them for you at a consistent size. It is also the standard for board and tabletop game maps, where hexagons are preferred because every neighbour is the same distance away, unlike a square grid where diagonals are further than edges.

To let you count without counting. Emphasising every 5th or 10th line turns a wall of identical squares into blocks you can read at a glance, which matters when you are reading a value off a plotted curve or measuring a long distance across the page. Set it to none if you want a plain grid, which is often better for tracing or overlays.

Whichever is in your printer. A4 is 210 by 297 mm and is standard nearly everywhere outside North America. Letter is 8.5 by 11 inches, or 215.9 by 279.4 mm, slightly wider and shorter. The grid is centred on the sheet either way, so the only visible difference is how many rows and columns fit.

How do you print graph paper?

Pick a grid and print at 100 percent scale. This tool draws square, isometric, dot grid and hexagonal paper at any spacing from 1 to 50 mm or in inches, on A4 or Letter, with an optional heavier line every few squares. Everything is measured in millimetres so it prints at true size.